274 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



illation, narrow strips of birch or other tough bark, some of them 

 having the dark, others the light side exposed. This gives a pretty 

 figured effect to the surface. 

 Mexico is the land of carriers. The early chroniclers mention over 



and over the employment of pro- 

 fessional bearers by the rulers 

 of the ancient city. Indeed, the 

 mountainous condition of the 

 country has kept alive the prac- 

 tice of using men for beasts of 

 burden up to the present time, 

 when the very best substitute 

 is the pack-mule. Travelers in 

 modern Mexico refer to regular 

 caravans of peons, who are to be 

 seen entering the city from every 

 direction, bringing to market 

 every kind of commodity. Even 

 the butchers send their meat 

 around on the backs of men. 

 The Mexican carrier is a student 

 of attitudes, to the extent that 

 there is not a position of his 

 body adapted to burden-bearing 

 with which he is not familiar. 



One specimen of basket in the 

 National Museum is made of split 

 cane, woven in diaper. (Figs. 28, 

 29.) It holds about a bushel, 

 but in some cases the top load is 

 greater than the contents of the basket. The strap passes beneath the 

 basket up to the two loops midway. It extends just around the 

 shoulders to the breast-bone in front. The head-band is also used in 

 Central America, but the breast-strap has not appeared since we left 

 Alaska. In the figure of the carrier here presented, quite an elaborate 

 back-pad is shown. In the Pima specimen a pad of this sort is attached 

 to the basket, but in the Mexican example the pad is attached to the 

 man. It consists of a large piece of soft leather, folded several times, 

 hung to the neck above, and held down at the bottom by a belt around 

 the waist. (Figs. 29, 30.) The Pima carrier, therefore, has but one 

 basket, while the Mexican is detachable from his basket, and padded 

 for any load whatever. 



The human yoke is probably a foreign invention to Mexico. It is a 

 common sight now to see a man with a stout strip of wood on his 

 shoulder, from either end of which depends ajar by means of a strap, 

 as shown in the figure. These jars hold about two gallons each of 



Fig. 26. 

 Carrying-basket. 



Cat. No. 8430. U. S. N. M. Ankara Indians, Dakota. Collected 

 by Drs. C. C. Gray and W. Matthews.) 



