THE ANCIENT BASKET MAKERS OF SOUTHEASTERN UTAH 



colors. The space below the bar and between the wings is a dull 

 red-brown, the remainder of the figure being black. These de- 

 signs are not equidistant as is generally the case in ancient decora- 

 tive work of this region, and the position of one of the figures 

 directly below the finished end of the outer coil may point to a 

 symbolic relation between the design and the closed or finished 

 coil. 



Another decoration, as interesting as it is odd, is shown in 

 the fourth basket from the same end of the case. This basket 

 Water- was found * n a cave and may be seen in position in 

 fowl the plate on page 5. In this instance the basket 



Design. covered the head and upper part of the body, the 

 remainder being wrapped in a feather-cloth robe. The figures 

 shown in this basket, forty-four in number, were evidently made 

 to represent ducks or other water-fowl, and they form two lines 

 or series (p. 13). All the figures pointing in one direction are 

 black; those facing them are dull red, and are raised slightly 

 above the others in a horizontal plane. A line of black near the 

 rim constitutes the remaining feature of the decoration of this 

 basket. In size and material it is practically the same as the 

 one just described and the design is similar, in some respects, 

 to the fifth basket, which is also decorated with the bird figure. 

 In the photograph of this basket shown on page 15 it will be 

 seen that the designs in the two baskets that have been described 

 last are combined in this one. The bird-forms are practically 

 Other the same, but the body of the butterfly, if it be one, 



Designs. i s represented by one instead of three parts. In the 

 former the figure may have been made to represent the butterfly 

 just after its emergence from the chrysalis, with the wings ex- 

 tended, which would have been a pretty symbolization of the 

 new life as applied to the infant, while in the latter the wings 

 are folded, and the butterflies, like the birds, are resting. The 

 designs, however, may have a cosmic significance, the figures 

 typifying the gods of the air and the water. An interesting 

 feature of these figures is the antenna-like projection that may 

 be noted on both baskets. There is a black coil near the rim 

 of the basket; where this ends there are two black stitches on 



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