The Basket, Or, The Journal of The Basket Fraternity

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THE BASKET
Lte THE ORGAN OF THE BASKET FRATERNITY +
Vol 1. JULY. 1903 No 3.
THREE EXQUISITELY WOVEN

BASKETS IN THE PLIMPTON
COLLECTION, SAN DIEGO.
Reprinted from "SUNSET."
Basketry is a primitive art. It is found among all primitive peoples

in .scrr e form or other, and in the remains of the most ancient people.
From the tombs of Egypt baskets have been taken, made at the time
w hen Moses and Aaron appeared at the court of Pharaoh, or even be-
fcre Abraham became a wanderer on the plains of Kadesh and Shur.
The earliest visitors to Asia found basketry, and when the Columbian
discoveries opened tip the new world of America, every , tribe was
found to have its expert basket-makers, from the farthest region in
the south to the highest point reached in the north. And it was not an
art found in a rude and primitive state. It was highly developed, and,
indeed, was then in its days of glory—a glory never since surpassed
and seldom equaled.
To the Californian it must ever be a fact of great interest that no-
where in the world was the art of-basket-making carried on with great-
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FIG. 1. MARIA ANTONIA, ONE OF THE CAHUILL.A, CALIFORNIA, BASKET-MA..CERS.

4 THE BASKET.
er skill and success than in his own state. From north to south the
native Californians were all more or less expert basket-makers. The
Pomas in the north were equally proficient with the Palatingwas in
the south, and, though it must be confessed that, generally speaking,
the art of basketry is on the decline, it is not less certain that the Cali-
FIG. 3. YOSEMITE INDIAN'S ACORN STOREHOUSE.
fornia Indian of to-day holds a very high position among the existing
basket-making peoples of the world.
In "Indian Basketry" the student will find enumerated the various
tribes in California who make baskets. The list is a long one, and
to write fully about them all would be impossible here. And, indeed,
we have not the information necessary. I merely propose to conduct
the reader, in an easy and chatty kind of way, to several basket-mak-
ing peoples of California, that he may see them at their work, learn a
few characteristics of special kinds of. weaving, and gain a little deeper
THE BASKET. 5
FIG. 4. MONO INDIAN'S ACORN CACHE, USUALLY ERECTED IN FRONT OF

THE CABIN DOOR.
FIG. 7. rULARE BASKET IN PLIMPTON COLLECTION, SAN DIEGO.

The zigzag line represents lighting, the meanderings of a stream, or the barbs of
a yucca palm.
6 THE BASKET.
insight into what basket-weaving used to mean, and still does, to some
of those who are engaged in it.
In the Yosemite valley, even under the very shadow of Sentinel
Rock and within reach of the music of the great Yosemite falls, two
or three camps of basket-making Indians may often be found. And
yet they are not Yosemite Indians. There is a small, scattered rem-
nant of the once great and powerful Yo-ham-i-ti tribe still in exis-
tence, but its members are generally to be found near Cold Springs
and at Wawona, rather than in the world-famed valley to which they
have given their name. The Yosemite Indians of to-day are gener-
ally either Paiutis or Monos, and both tribes are excellent basket-
makers.
A small but interesting collection of baskets may be found in the
valley,at the photographic studio of Mr. J. T. Boyesen, and I have no
doubt he will gladly show it to visitors who proffer a request to him.
Not far away from the foot of Yosemite falls is an Indian camp,
and there I found three acorn caches. They are perched upon stilts
and are of rude basket-work, an opening being left near the bottom
through which the store can easily be reached.
When I visited the Monos, I found there an acorn cache of differ-
ent construction. It was perched on stilts, as were the Yosemite ones,
but these supported a rude platform of crossed logs, on which the
cache proper rested. It is a pyramidal structure and was erected in
front of the cottage door, so that it could be constantly watched. Like
the Yosemite caches, it is of rudely twined twigs, but this, when full,
was covered over with canvas so as to protect it completely from the
weather.
Further south than the Monos is the Tule River reservation.
Here one may see many expert weavers and discover many interesting
facts. We speak of Tulare, Yokut, Paiuti, Fort Tejon and Mono
baskets as distinct species of weave. I am inclined to doubt whether
any person can distinguish between them, unless he has personally
purchased from the weaver and learned from her to which tribe she
belongs. For here on the reservation are people of all these names.
The original stock that once inhabited all this region, from the Fresno
river as far south as Fort Tejon, was the Yokut. They were divided
into a number of clans, many of which are named by Powers in his
"Tribes of California," and several of which he never knew. I found,
among others, the Yo-er-kal-is, Yo-el-man-is and Wi-chum-nas, to-
gether with Paiutis.
Now, the intrusion of the Paiutis (whose original habitat is Ne-
vada) into this region offers a most interesting and fascinating field
for meditation. Why came they hither ? They themselves give the
answer. Living, as they did, on the alkali plains of Nevada, subject
to drought and consequent starvation, the struggle for existence be-
came too great. Their hardships did not prevent their multiplying in
great numbers, and soon they were forced to "expand." Whither
should they go? Eastward, where tribes were similarly situated as
themselves, or westward, where the game-haunted summits and slopes
of the California mountains, the fish-stocked streams of the lower
slopes, the fertile grass and shrub-covered foothills and valleys, and
the herds of deer and antelope that roamed the plains assured them a
THE BASKET. 7
livelihood far superior to any they had ever before enjoyed? There
were not many passes, but with these they were more or less familiar
Bloody Canyon, Walker, El Cajon. These afforded the opportunity.
Stealthily they laid their plans, and when time was ripe they forced
their way over the summits and completely split the or cc plwerful
FIG. 5. MERCED N3LAC UEZ OF AGUA CALIENTE.
Yokut nation in two. They took possession of Kings river, Kern river,
Kern lake and Poso creek, and, though efforts were now and again
made to drive them out, they found the land too great a "land of prom-
ise," a "land flowing with milk and honey," to abdicate their joys. 1f
they left, it must be by force, and that the Yokuts could not apply with
8 THE BASKET.
sufficient convincement to be successful. Thus, in a few years the

singular spectacle was found of this once great nation split apart by
the alien Paiutis, who, from that day until they succumbed to the vices
taught them by the whites, held securely to the territory they had
gained. The baskets of each are almost alike in design and so abso-
lutely the same in weave, that no person, however expert, could pos-
sibly tell which was Paiuti and which Yokut.
Three exquisitely woven baskets in the Plimpton collection, San
Diego, (see illustrated title of this article) reveal the various modes
of presenting the human figure. The basket, oval in shape, shown in
an accompanying picture, was made by a Wichumna of the Yokut
tribe. She was living in one of the upper reaches of Kings river, in
Kern county. Here the figures are those of dancers, holding hands,
some wearing feather kilts. This undoubtedly represents a "big dance"
—something the weaver desired to celebrate and keep in memory, as
the killed figures are possibly those of shamans, many of whom
were present. The crosses were copied from the pictured rocks of
the locality, and, taken in conjunction with the great dance, the pres-
ence of so many kilted shamans or medicine men, and the explana-
tion given that these crosses represent battles, I assume that this is
the memorial basket made by a woman who witnessed the dances held
in honor of certain decisive victories won by her people.
Above the dancers is the diamond-back rattlesnake pattern, beauti-
fully woven. The basket to the left in the picture is by a Tulare weaver,
and shows the general method followed by this people to represent
the human figure. In the border above the figures is the rattlesnake
pattern divided in segments, thus making a kind of St. Andrew's
cross, which has led some people to interpret the sign as proof that
these Indians have been subject to Christian influences. This is an
error, at least so far as this design is concerned. It is a manifesta-
tion of the fact that makers do not always slavishly adhere to any set
design, and that by and by there results a loss of the distinctively imi-
tative pattern and the gain of a conventionalized form that, by suc-
cessive mutations, may lose all resemblance to the original.
One old weaver to whom I showed this design informed me that
the rattlesnake pattern was originally incorporated into baskets, by
ancestors, As a propitiatory offering to the snake. Prayers were said
asking immunity from danger for themselves and families from the rep-
tile's deadly bite. In the course of time the diamonds of the design were
cut in half and placed upon the baskets in the form of a St. Andrew's
cross. The identity of this cross with the rattlesnake design would be
apparent to no one, and if the inquirer were to ask of an Indian what
it meant, and he were to be told that it was a prayer to the rattlesnake,
asking him not to bite the weaver, the answer would seem to be far-
fetched and strange. Yet a study of the growth of the design and the
mutations through which it has passed, renders its symbolic meaning
clear.
The basket to the right in this picture is an old Inyo county basket,
purchased in Lone Pine from a Paiuti woman by Mr. A. W. de la
Cour Carroll, an enthusiastic basketry collector, who has secured some
choice specimens. It shows the oldest type of human figure known to
these Indians, and offers a singular contrast to both the other designs.
THE BASKET. 9
FIG. 6. STUDY OF A TYPICAL BASKET-MAKER OF CAHUILLA.

I0 THE BASKET.
Other pictures show several fine "Tulare" baskets in the Plimpton

collection. In color, weave and design they are equally delightful to
the expert. In one the origin of the St. Andrew's cross is clearly and
beautifully shown, as it is apparent to the most casual observer that the
single crosses of the second, fourth and sixth rows of design from the
top are but the diamonds of the first, third and fifth rows cut in half
at their points. The design on another represents watercourses, with
quail, and the W-like design in the upper part of one of the water-
courses is said to represent a spring. Another basket shown may
represent three different things, and, as no interpretation was obtained
from the original weaver, the reader may make his own choice. With
some weavers the zig-zag line represents lightning, with others a con-
ventionalized representation of the meandering of a stream, and with
still others the pointed barbs of the yucca or Spanish dagger.
At Cahuilla, made memorable by Helen Hunt Jackson in her fas-
cinating "Ramona," there are a number of skilled basket-makers :
Maria Los Angeles, Felipa Akwaka, Rosario Casero, Maria Antonia
and several others. Their ware is not as fine as that of the Yokuts,
though it is somewhat in the same style. Maria Antonia beginning
work on a basket is shown in one of the photographs. The inner grass
of the coil is called "su-lim," and is akin to our broom corn in appear-
ance. The coil is made by wrapping with the outer husk of the stalk
of the squawweed and skunkweed, and the root of the tule, the two
former being termed "se-e-let" and the latter "se-el."
The only colors used are black, brown, yellow and white. The
white, yellow and brown are colors natural to the growth and are
neither bleached nor dyed. The black is made by taking a potful of
mud from the sulphur springs that abound in the reservation and
boiling it, stirring the mud and water together. As the mud settles
the liquid is poured off, and, while hot, is used to color the splints.
Two or three "soakings" are necessary to give the fast and perfect
color. The brown is the natural color of the tule root. The outer
coating is peeled off into splints never longer than ten inches, but
generally nearer six or seven. It is a common sight to find a number
of these splints hung up in the humble "kishes," or tule or willow huts
of the Cahuillas.
A number of baskets of these people are here shown, and some from
other villages of the vicinity. They are mainly in the collection of Dr.
C. C. Wainwright, the physician of the Tule River and Mission Indian
Agency. A few of the baskets are mine. The one to the extreme right
of the bottom row in this picture was made by Juana Apapos, at Sab-
oba, near San Jacinto, and it represents mountains and valleys—con-
ventionalized, of course—of the region round about Cahuilla. The
mountain peaks are represented by the higher portion of the design
and the valleys by the depressions. It will be noticed that black splints
are worked into the valleys. These represent the soil, and the small
white spot underneath the soil shows the water sources—the springs.
Above the valleys are two large black triangles, united. When I
asked Juana what these represented she was a long time in answering.
She was afraid I would laugh at her, and, with an Indian's sensitive-
ness to ridicule, she positively refused to tell me. But when I finally
satisfied her that I would not laugh, she said they represented trees.
THE BASKET. II
FIG. 8. MONO BASKET-MAKER IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY.

12 THE BASKET.
FIG. 9. PAIUTI EXPERT AT TULE RIVER RESERVATION.

THE BASKET. 13
When she began the design she soon saw that they would come out
much too large, but she had started and was resolved to finish them as
she had begun.
Human figures are seen in the basket to the left, in the bottom row,
and in the oval basket in the third row from the bottom are conven-
tionalized arrow points. In the basket below the one which bears the
legend, "1895 Basket," are flying geese, and in the second basket from
the left, in the top row, is a representation of the tracks of a worm.
The second basket from the left, in the second row from the top,
shows the rainbow, while the second basket from the left, in the bottom
row, has the spider-web pattern afterward to be referred to.
The conical carrying basket to the right, in which Dr. Wainwright's
little boy insisted upon sitting while I made the photograph, contains a
design that perfectly represents the poetic conceptions of the Indian and
her methods of weaving them into her basketry. This story is told in
"Indian Basketry," page 222.
In another picture is reproduced an interesting Cahuilla photograph.
It shows the Ka-wa-wohl or acorn mortar, around the top of which a
circular piece of basketry is securely fastened with pinion gum. This
basketry acts as a guard to keep the acorns from flying out as the
"ta-kish," or pounding stone, is brought down upon them. It is labori-
ous work, this whole process of making bread from acorns, for every-
thing has to be done without any of the modern methods for saving
strength expenditure. Students of the human face and hands will also
be much interested in those here shown, especially the hands, for there
are characteristics in them that are generally associated only with cen-
turies of high breeding and culture.
Another Cahuilla weaver shown is a keenly alert and intelligent
woman, Maria Los Angeles by name. She lives in Durasno canyon—
the canyon of the peach—at Cahuilla, and makes quite a number of
fairly good baskets each year.
At Agua Caliente, on Warner's ranch, San Diego county, are a
number of good basket-makers. Their style of weave, materials and
colors used, and general run of designs are similar to those of Cahuilla,
and it would be impossible to determine at which place a basket was
made if one had not seen it in the process of manufacture. Merced
Nolasquez is the mother of the present Governor or Capitan of Agua
Caliente, and she is naturally an aristocrat and a leader. She and her
son both have a dignity which would impress any one who could see
below the Indian exterior.
A short time ago a high dignitary of one of the churches wrote a
letter to the press, stating that these people were suffering for want of
the necessaries of life. It might have done the reverend bishop good
had he seen the indignation of this woman and her son when they were
told what had been said of them and their people. They repudiated
the idea that they or any of the Indians of Southern California needed
help from the white man. All they asked was that they be left alone
and given a fair chance, and they were quite capable of caring for them-
selves. The same things were said at Cahuilla, where I went around
and visited every "kish" or house in the village. With the exception
of three sick and crippled persons, there was not one who did not
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FIG. 10. TULARE BASKET IN PLIMPTON COLLECTION, FIG. 11. TULARE BASKET IN PLIMPTON COLLECTION.
SAN DIEGO. The design represents water courses with quail.
Here the origin of the St. Andrew's cross is shown.
THE BASKET. Is
FIG. 12. YOKUT WEAVER AND A FUTURE CHIEFTAIN.

16 THE BASKET.
resent the imputation of incapacity to provide all that was necessary for
the proper sustentation of life.
The design of Merced's basket is the spider-web pattern, a pattern
FIG. 13. MARIA LUGO, POUNDING ACORNS AT CAHUILLA, SHOWING THE

KA-KA-WOHL OR ACORN MORTAR.
largely popular with the Hopi people of northern Arizona, and found
on many of the baskets used for holding the sacred meal in their snake
dance, which is now one of the best known of all Indian ceremonials.
When I asked Merced for the meaning of the design, she said that
THE BASKET. 17
in the long time ago her people lived where there was little or no water.
They prayed constantly for rain, but before their prayers were uttered
they sought to gain the favor of the Spider Mother, who made all the
clouds, and they wove the representation of the spider web in their
baskets for that purpose.
When I told her that, prior to the Hopi snake dance, the Antelope
priest goes, with sacred meal and bahos (prayer sticks), to the shrine
FIG. 14. CAHUILLA BASKETS MAINLY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DR. C.

C. WAINRIGHT AT THE TULE RIVER AND MISSION INDIAN AGENCY.
of the Spider Woman and there prays and sprinkles the sacred meat
from one of these baskets and deposits the bahos, she said :
"Perhaps they (the Hopi) all same as my people long ago."
Agua Caliente is the chief village of Warner's Ranch, from which
the Indians were evicted in May of this year. In the next Basket I
intend to give a full account of the causes which led to the eviction,
the eviction itself, given by an eye-witness, the honest endeavors of the
U. S. Indian Department to mitigate the sufferings of the poor un-
fortunates, the work of the Lummis Commission in selecting a new
home for them, and the present condition of these Indians at Pala,
where they are now in the process of settling.
THE BASKET. 19
INDIAN HANDICRAFTS.
(Reprinted, with additions, from "Handicraft," for March, 1903.)
The arts and crafts of the American Indian were, and are, neces-
sarily few and apparently insignificant. Looked upon from the stand-
point of our advanced mechanical civilization, they are exceedingly
limited. They seem to justify the pitying and scornful attitude most
white Americans feel called upon to assume when looking at, or speak-
ing of, the brown American. But both pity and scorn are often the
result of ignorance.
As a rule, what the American Indian did he did well ; that is, con-
sidering his circumstances and conditions. A piece of dress goods made
on a perfected loom is wonderful, but far less so, and often far less
beautiful, than a Navaho rug made without any other machinery than
that fashioned by the rude hands of the aborigine.
But it is when one comes to a study of their baskets that he sees
what the untrained aborigine has accomplished. Prior to the coming
of the Spaniard, three hundred and fifty years ago, the American had
perfected the art. Nowhere else in the world has it been surpassed ;
in few places equalled. Let the white woman who has scorned the
"rude, dirty, vulgar, brutal, savage woman" take the finest and highest
accomplishments of her race in needlework or any other "refined" art
and place it side by side with the art manifested in Indian basketry,
and she may then, perhaps, begin to see how impertinent was her scorn,
how ignorant her contempt.
We are living largely in an age of shoddy. We haven't time to be
real, to do things well. We can't afford to do so, because we have to
hurry to get rich in order that we may dazzle the world as the Browns
and the Joneses and the Robinsons are doing. So that when the women
of THIS civilization began to talk about making Indian baskets I openly
and loudly laughed at them.
What white woman is there in our hurried, feverish life who would
go out and gather the materials she needs and that are best for the
purpose ; study the times to do this ; wander miles over mountains and
valleys, by streams and through them, into bogs, marshes and sloughs
to procure material for splint and dye ; then laboriously prepare with
her own hands the splints for use ; study the chemical action of the dyes
and find only those that are good and permanent ; and then sit down
several hours a day and work at a basket the shape and design of which
she has thought and planned over almost as much as an expectant
mother does over her child?
But there are to be found in the ranks and on the outskirts of this
slap-dash civilization of ours many earnest, true, seeking souls, who
are willing to work, and to whom riches and show and position in
society are not the "chief" things ; who do want to listen to the higher
self and "be" something more than butterflies. To these the Arts and
Crafts movement has forcefully appealed. They have learned, or are
20 THE BASKET.
humbly learning, that truth and honesty and sincerity and personality
and individuality in work do mean something. They can see the joy
of soul of the carver of the old doors of Notre Dame, the sculptors of
the angels and demons, saints and sinners of many an old cathedral,
the sturdy twisters of wrought iron, or the dainty touches of the makers
of exquisite pottery. "Work as an expression of life," rather than
"Work as a means to get wealth," is their watchword, and the result
is a turning back to the simple ways of the old, a filling of the soul
with ideas gained from Mother Nature herself.
So I have changed my mind materially about the folly of white
women attempting the work of the Indian. It is a good thing,—a far
better thing than any of us conceived. It will teach us many things
besides the twisting of splints and the blistering of our fingers. It will
show us the worth of real work, and reveal the value of the efforts of
these simple aborigines. We shall learn that they "felt,"—were sen-
tient, poetic, religious. We shall learn that it does not necessarily
follow that because we thought the Indian ignorant, dull, stolid, brutal.
she was all these things.
So, then, to the work of the Indian basket-weaver, to see what she
thought and felt, dreamed and longed after, as her busy fingers twistea
the splints into the shapes and designs we are learning to think so
much of. Suffice it to say here that the basket to the uncontaminated
Indian meant a work of art, in which hope, aspiration, desire, love.
religion, poetry, national pride, mythology, were all more or less inter-
woven. Hence the work was approached in a spirit as far removed
from that of mere commercialism, passing whim or fancy, as it was
from that of levity, carelessness, or indifference. There was an ear-
nestness of purpose, a conscientiousness of endeavor in the gathering
of the materials, their preparation, their harmoniousness, and then in
the shape, the design, the weave, the tout ensemble, that made basket-
making to the old Indians almost an act of religion. It was a perfect
exemplification of the idea suggested by the good poet Herbert :-
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine ;
Who sweeps a room as for thy laws,
Makes that and the action fine.
It is a fact well known to our scientists—ethnologists and botanists
—that wherever Indians have been over any ground in a search for
basket-making material they have absolutely exhausted it as far as
practical experiment could do so. Everything that seemed available
has been tried and judged upon its merits.—strength, durability, flexi-
bility, while being woven, attractiveness when completed. Surely it is
no small matter for our scientists to declare such thoroughness of ex-
ploration.
Then, too, whence obtained she her designs, those attractive patterns
that even to the uninformed are marvellous indications of an art in-
stinct well developed? It was in Nature herself ; in the exercise of the
faculty of imitation that her best work originated. And to all artists
in Nature the true inspiration will be found. The Indian's forms are
natural ; her designs are natural ; her colors are natural ; her weaves are
natural, with all the perfection added of conscientious art. This at
once eliminates the hideous and grotesque in shape, design, color and
THE BASKET. 21
weave. There are no fanciful forms, impossible designs, glaring, in-

harmonious colors, inadequate weaves. Simplicity is the keynote.
Diversity without end, variety illimitable, effects incalculable, yet all
based upon natural simplicity.
In form there never was an Indian basket found that was not nat-
ural and artistic, until the aboriginal weavers began to copy something
of the white man's. Think of the great variety of shapes and the uses
to which they were put, and you will see how versatile were these
primitive workers. At birth placed in a cradle modeled after a bird's
nest ; nurtured in a home built of wattled basketry ; playing with toy
baskets ; carrying water in baskets ; eating from a basket plate or
FIG. 17. HAVASUPAI SERPENT AND FIG. 18. HAVASUPAI BASKET, MOUNTAIN,
WATER BASKET. CANYON AND TORNADO
bowl ; drinking from a round basket ; grinding cornmeal or acorn flour

in a mortar basket ; catching fish in a basket trap ; cooking meat, acorn,
corn, in a basket ; carrying water over the mountains and desert in a
tusjeh or water basket ; carrying foods and other necessaries in a kathak
or carrying basket ; beating the wild seeds into one of these kathaks
with a basket wand, and winnowing them with a basket fan ; sifting the
ground meal with a basket sifter ; fencing his little garden with a basket
fence; trapping birds with basket twigs, and bears and other game in
basket traps. The worth of a woman was largely determined by her
skill as a basket-maker, and the standing of a dead chief measured by
the number and quality of the baskets burned or used at his funeral.
No gift to bride, friend or honored visitor was so much valued as that
of a fine basket. Hence it is very hard for a white person, brought up
surrounded with all the variety our civilization affords, to conceive the
important place the basket held in the mind of the Indian. But now to a
survey of a few baskets, and a reading of their designs as given by-
their own weavers.
Figure 15 is of a beautiful Mono basket bowl, in the possession of
22 THE BASKET.
which I feel very fortunate. For several years I had been seeking the
explanation of the upright figures, the inverted pyramids piled one
above another, nine of which appear in this basket. Two years ago I
was in Bakersfield, California, and there I found an Indian woman
married to a German of superior intelligence. (See Fig. i6.) She
was his equal in mentality and character and had borne him a large
family, each member of which had grown up to do honor to both par-
ents. They were married in the early days of California, long before
the white man's higher code of morals was in vogue. Later, when
schools and churches were introduced, there came a time when many
white men forsook their Indian wives ; and when this woman knew of
it she went to her husband and said in effect : "Perhaps you feel as
other white men are feeling, now that many more of your people are
coming into the valley. Perhaps you want to get rid of me and marry
a white woman. I have long loved you faithfully and well, and, as far
as I knew, I have been a good wife to you; but, if you wish me to go,
I will leave you without a word."
To his honor let it be said, the man was equal to his wife. Clasping
her in his arms, he said : "You have been a good wife to me and a good
mother to my children, and you shall be my wife so long as we shall
live."
This woman was born at the Mission San Gabriel, and her father
was one of the principal Indians of the place. When I questioned her,
among other designs, as to the meaning of this one, she told me the
following : "I can well remember, when I was a little girl, going to the
funerals of some of my people. We always buried our dead. At the
entrance to the graveyard the medicine man would have two poles
erected, and just before the funeral the nearest friends of the dead
person would go, taking with them the finest baskets they had as an
offering to the dead. These they would place at the foot of the upright
poles. After the funeral the Shaman and the people would return to
the poles, and there one after another of the baskets would be thrust, or
strung, upon the poles, one above another. (The upright designs in
Figure 15 show these poles of baskets.) Here they were allowed to
remain until the time came for holding the feast of the dead. Then
these baskets were taken by the friends of the deceased and burned
with much ceremony, while wailings and loud lamentations rent the
air. In early times, long before I was born, these baskets were buried
in caves and clefts in the rocks with the corpse."
Several baskets have been found in Southern California which had
had their bottoms thus rudely spoiled, and until this explanation was
offered no one had been able to comprehend why new and valuable
baskets were thus mutilated ; for, although the discovered baskets were
ancient, the injury was evidently done when they were new and in
good condition.
Here, then, was an explanation of the design. It is the custom of
old people to weave for themselves and friends a burial basket, and to
put some symbol or design upon it that shall indicate some thought.
Here the old Mono woman wished to have a large and beautiful basket
for her husband's burial basket. He was a man of position and influ-
ence, and instead of being contented with two poles of baskets she
wished to signify his worth by suggesting that at his funeral there
THE BASKET. 23
should be enough fine baskets to fill three poles. The three poles, basket-
covered, are three times repeated, and the three pairs of rattlesnake
diamonds, under which three human figures are, indicate that three
great rattlesnake-charming Shamans, or medicine men, would be asked
to the funeral to sing the praises of the deceased. The three sets of
steps below the poles are conventionalized steps of a mountain side.
These indicate that the funeral was to take place high up the mountain.
Had it to be in the valley, flat bands of colored splints would have indi-
cated it instead of the steps.
This is a basket of great beauty. Of its kind it is perfect. In shape,
proportion, weave, harmony of color, finish and design, it is most pleas-
ing. Even a person ignorant of what constitutes a good basket cannot
fail to be charmed with this. The weaver made it so with purpose.
It is an "outward and visible sign" of the dear love she bore to her
husband. When he died, this beautiful basket, when burned or other-
wise destroyed, would give forth a beautiful spirit that would accom-
pany him to the "World of Shadows," for these Indians fully believe
in an idea somewhat similar to that of the ancient Greeks, which made
every tree have its own spirit. They believe that everything—animate
or inanimate—has a spirit, which is as real to the spirit of the human
being in the other world as the object itself was to the human being
while alive. Hence the burning of food, clothing, ornaments, baskets,
horses, and the like—a common custom with most Indians at a funeral.
They are all supposed to accompany the spirit to the "World of
Shadows," there to be useful to the dead as the things themselves were
upon the earth.
In this case the wife died before her husband. The basket was
found, carefully hidden away among her most cherished possessions.
He had worked for the white man down in the San Joaquin Valley.
He had met me a year or two previous and had seen the baskets I had
purchased, and the high prices I had paid to one of his neighbors.
Taking the basket to one of my friends, he offered it for sale at a price
so seemingly exorbitant that my friend wrote before daring to pur-
chase it. I felt inclined to run the risk, however, even without seeing
it, and wrote back, "Buy it." When it came into my possession my
faith was more than justified. I had secured a rare treasure, and when
I learned its full significance its value and charm were tenfold enhanced.
For, while I do not believe that its destruction would have been of any
benefit to its owner, I do feel that in it is enshrined the spiritual belief
and love of its maker. Hence it possesses a sentiment, a sanctity, to
me, just as a letter would have which was the last thing written by the
penman on earth.
In color the body of the basket is a "browny" cream. I have not
yet been able to learn specifically what plant the splints are taken from
so that this peculiarly beautiful color is obtained. The splints vary in
their "creaminess" : some are almost white, some approach nearly to
the brown, and the color scheme is made more beautiful by this un-
arranged and unpremeditated mixing of the shades. They blend to
make a very harmonious whole. The two outer "poles of baskets" are
almost black. The splint used is not the martynia, and I am at a loss
to determine exactly what it is and whether the color is produced by
dyeing or is natural. It is a brownish black. The outer part of the
',L3)1Sda 3 ILL
FIG. 19. HAVASUPAI WEAVER WITH SACRED HOPI WEAVER AT ORAIBI.
BASKET AND WATER BOTTLE.
THE BASKET. 25
rattlesnake design is also of this same color. The middle poles, the
diamonds and the three men are all -of the-rich;:darlr red of the redbud.
The little steps, near the center, are all of the black splints.
The engraving does not reveal the beauty of the shape of the basket.
It is bowl shaped, and stands twelve inches high. It is twenty inches
across the top and eight inches across the bottom.
Figure 17 is of a Havasupai basket, in which is woven a number
of radiating serpents or watercourses. It stands for both, and both
explanations have been given by the weaver who made it. At first these
explanations seemed contradictory, but when one understood the thought
of the Havasupai (and many other Indians of our Southwest) in re-
gard to water and the serpent, it is a perfectly natural thing that they
should be thus associated. They believe that the serpent is the guardian
of the springs and watercourses. This, I suppose, comes from one or
two things : first, the snake is generally found near the springs and
streams of the desert ; and, second, the movement of a snake is silent,
wavy and long, as is the movement of water. In this fact and this
resemblance the Indian sees a close connection between snake and
water. Furthermore, when the spring dries up the snake disappears.
To him this means that as the snake has withdrawn his care and
guardianship the spring has ceased to flow. We know the reverse to
be the case, but the Indian believes his own reasoning to be correct.
Now, while the Havasupai has all the water needed down in his
cataract canyon home, water is very, very scarce upon the plateaus
above, whither lie goes hunting. This basket was to be used for the
purpose of holding sacred meal before a certain shrine when its weaver
went there to pray for an abundance of water on the heights of the
plateaus at the next hunting.
Another prayer is embodied in the Havasupai design (Figure i8).
I met its weaver going out to a shrine some time after a fearful cloud-
burst had swept down the canyon of the Bluewater and had devastated
the fields and homes of the Havasupais. coalfields, patches of
melons, chili, beans and squash had been swept away, and for a time
they were in great distress. It required a good deal of coaxing to get
the explanation of the design, but at length the story came out :-
"I go ask Those Above be good to Havasupais. Little while
ago big Hackataia [this is the name given to a storm, a roaring noise,
as of a rapid in a river, a tornado, a cloudburst, and also to the spirit
which animates the storm] come down Havasu and sweep away all my
corn, and beans, and melonsin, and onionsin. My thapala [peach] trees
get 'em broke and some go heap dead pretty quick. My husband, me,
my little gels, my little boys, go heap hungry. I go tell 'em Those Above
no send 'em Hackataia any more. I tell 'em keep Hackataia way up on
hilltop, and no let 'em come Chich-i-mi-mi [canyon]."
In other words, the basket itself symbolized a prayer. The black
center with the small protruding figures represent the great central or
parent tornado from which all the smaller tornadoes come. To this the
prayer is offered, or rather to the spirit of it which controls and guides
it. The wavy design of the next circle represents the canyon and
plateau region in which this woman lived. It will be seen that it is
free from any mark or design except the plateaus and canyons. This
is her prayer : "May we be free from Hackataia in both plateau and
26 THE BASKET.
canyon." Then, lest her petition ask too much, she made a second circle
on which the inverted pyramid, representing the tornado, Hackataia, is
shown on the nether edge of each canyon. This completes the prayer,
somewhat as follows : "Yet if I have asked more than I should, I beg
that you keep Hackataia on top of the plateaus, make him jump over
the canyons [as shown in the design], so that he cannot destroy our
fields, that we may have corn and melons and peaches and beans."
Figure 19 is of another Havasupai basket, showing also its weavers
She is the daughter of my friend Wa-lu-tha-ma, and wife of La-no-man,
the most intelligent of the young men of the tribe. I was her father's
guest when this basket was being made. It was to be used at a dance
her father was arranging for, in order that the springs in a certain re-
gion would flow abundantly, so that his sheep, horses and cattle might
have water to drink.
The basket bottle to the left is an Esuwa. This is made of twined
willows, so closely woven that it will hold water. In order, however,
to make it more secure, it is afterwards covered with a coating of
pinion gum.
It may be interesting to my Fraters to tell them that I once ques-
tioned Waluthama (this maiden's father) as to his willingness to allow
me to marry his daughter. It came about in this way. I had long been
in the habit of visiting the Havasupais, and was regarded as one of
themselves. On one of my periodical visits Waluthama said to me :
"Why you no live here all 'a time ? Havasupai like 'em you ; you like
'em Havasupai. Why you no stay here ?"
I replied that my wife did not wish to live in Havasu Canyon.
"Why for she no come here ? She no come, you come."
"That would never do," I said. "She is my wife and I must live
where she lives."
In apparent disgust that a man should be so utterly controlled by a
woman, he exclaimed : "She no come, and you live here all 'a time, you
catch 'em Havasupai squaw !"
"But," I replied, "white squaws do not like that. White man have
only one squaw, and she no like her man have another."
Then, remembering the bitter opposition the Havasupais have al-
ways given to any marriage relationship with whites or outside Indian
tribes, I said : "Maybe so I come, Waluthama, and I want to marry
Havasupai girl, she no want me !"
"I dunno," he replied. "Maybe so I think you catch one heap
quick. Havasupai heap like you !"
Then, to tease him, and to see what he would say if the matter
were brought right home to his own family, I asked : "Would you sell
me one of your girls, Waluthama, to be my squaw ?"
This seemed as if it might be a poser, but almost immediately, with
a merry twinkle in his eyes, he replied : "Maybe so I sell 'em, maybe so
I no sell. My gel like 'em you, I sell 'em. She no like 'em you, I no
sell !"
A pretty good answer, and one that white fathers and mothers
would do well to heed. If marriages were never arranged except
where "she like 'em you," there would be less unhappiness than there
often is.
Figure 20 shows a Hopi weaver of Oraibi at work on a willow
THE BASKET. 27
splint basket. This species of work more nearly approximates to the
ordinary willow work of civilization than any other basketry. The
twigs are dyed in brilliant aniline colors and then worked out into a
bewildering diversity of designs. Some contain clouds and lightning
zigzags ; others birds, butterflies, bears, beasts of all kinds, and espe-
cially the dragon-fly ; still others the masks of their katchinas or lesser
divinities.
Of these katchinas much might be written. They are ancient an-
cestral representatives of certain Hopi clans who, as spirits of the dead,
are endowed with powers to aid the living members of the clan in ma-
terial ways. The clans, therefore, pray to them that these material
blessings may be given. "It is an almost universal idea of primitive
man," says Fewkes, "that prayers should be addressed to personations
of the beings worshipped. In the carrying out of this conception men
personate the katchinas, wearing masks and dressing in the costumes
characteristic of these beings. These personations represent to the
Hopi mind their idea of the appearance of these katchinas or clan an-
cients. The spirit beings represented in these personations appear at
certain times in the pueblo, dancing before spectators, receiving prayer
for needed blessings, as rain and good crops."
The katchinas are supposed to come to the earth from the under-
world in February and remain until July, when they say farewell.
Hence there are two specific times which dramatically celebrate the ar-
rival and departure of the katchinas. The former of these times is
called by the Hopi Powamu, and the latter Niman. At these festivals,
or merry dances, certain members of the participating clans wear masks
representing the katchinas, hence katchina masks are often to be found
in Hopi houses when one is privileged to see the treasures stored away.
In order to instruct the children in the many katchinas of the Hopi
pantheon, tihus, or dolls, are made in imitation of the ancestral supernal
beings, and these quaint and curious toys are eagerly sought after by
those interested in Indian life and thought. Dr. Fewkes has in his pri-
vate collection over two hundred and fifty different katchina tihus, and
in the Field Columbian Museum there is an even larger collection.
To use in the katchina dances these katchina baskets are made, and if
one were to start in to make a collection of all the katchina baskets of
the Hopi, he could look forward to possessing, in time, as large a num-
ber as Dr. Fewkes has of katchina dolls.
THE BASKET. 29
THE HAVASTJP A I INDIANS AND

THEIR HOMES.
In the article on "Indian Handicrafts" there are two pictures of Hav-

asupai baskets and one of Havasupai weaver. It will add much to the
interest of students of Indian basketry to know somewhat more of the
basket-weavers than the mere fact that their home is located in some
particular part of the country. It is my purpose, therefore, in subse-
quent numbers of THE BASKET to give in each issue a somewhat de-
tailed account of the homes, surroundings and life of the more promi-
nent of the basket-making tribes. These articles will not be printed in
the order of their relative importance, for the Havasupais are by no
means as good basket makers as several others. They, however, do
have a distinct place in the basket-making family. Their home is one
of the most ruggedly picturesque and wonderful in the known world.
On the south rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, which
cuts diagonally across the northwestern portion of Arizona, there are
two important tributary canyons. The most important of these is the
Havasu Chic-i-mi-mi (canyon of the blue water). This is where they
live.
The first man to visit the Havasu, as far as we know, was Padre
Francisco Garces. Garces was a Spanish Franciscan Friar, who was
the resident priest- at San Xavier del Bac, at that time in the Spanish
Mexican province of Sonora (now in Arizona), and located on the San-
ta Cruz River, nine miles from Tucson. Garces was born in Aragon in
1738, and on June 3o, 1768, was appointed to San Xavier. Although
his local work was very exacting, he was a true missionary, and deter-
mined to visit all the Indians he could possibly reach who yvere without
the privileges of Christian teaching. Four times he made long jour-
neys into the interior, visiting a large number of Indian tribes.
Amongst these were the Wallapais and the Havasupais. He was mak-
ing these journeys at the time that Jefferson and his coadjutors were
discussing that immortal document, the Declaration of Independence,
and exactly fourteen days before it was signed he reached the little
settlement of the Indians of the Blue Water. In conformity with the
habit of these early Spanish explorers, he named Havasu Creek San An-
tonio River. For five days he remained here, interested in watching the
life of the Indians.
Dr. Elliott Coues, who visited the Havasupais in 1881 with a gov-
ernmental party, has translated Garces' diary, and it was published a
short time ago by Francis P. Harper, of New York. In this translation
he describes the descent of his (Coues's) party into the Canyon, and his
description is so vivid that it is well worth reproduction here.
"On the loth a march of ten miles in the same direction brought
us abruptly to the brink of the precipice—a sharp-edged jump-off of
perhaps a thousand feet. There was no side canyon here for gradual
30 THE BASKET.
descent ; the firm level ground gave no hint of the break before us till
we were actually upon the verge, and when the soldiers lined up to
look down an involuntary murmur of astonishment ran through the
ranks. Dismounting and going in single file, each man leading his
horse, we took the dizzy trail—a narrow footpath, in many parts of
which a misstep would have been destruction to man or beast. The
way zigzagged at first for some distance, on the 'switchback' principle
by which railroads sometimes make grades otherwise impracticable ;
the face of the precipice was so steep that, as we filed along, those of us
at the head of the procession looked up to see the other sections of the
train almost overhead ; certainly a fall of any man there would have
been right on top of us. Then the trail took a long lurch to the left
with little descent, hugging the face of the cliff, and we looked like a
row of ants on a wall. This brought us at length to the head of a great
talus, down which the trail zigzagged—the incline was too steep for
straight descent, probably at an angle of 45 degrees. This fetched us
into the bed of Cataract Canyon, perfectly dry. The trail was nearly a
mile long, and it took us an hour to make our creepy way down. The
Havasupai chief, who had been advised of our coming, was there to
meet us with some of his men, all mounted ; and he took us up the can-
yon about five miles to a place where there was a scanty aguage, not
sufficing for the wants of the whole party. Next morning we retraced
our steps down the canyon and kept on in its bed till we reached the
wonderful blue spring above described and the wonderful rancheria of
the Indians, a distance from last night's camp of about 25 miles, as we
had struck the canyon some 20 miles above the living water."
I myself have visited the aguage, or spring, a few miles above the
place of descent here described by Dr. Coues. It is known to the Hava-
supai Indians as Pac-a-tha-trli-yi-ba. The Indians also tell me of the
loss of a horse of this party which fell from the trail and was killed.
Garces came into the canyon by another trail, entirely distinct from
this, commonly known as the Wallapai trail. He left Havasu Canyon
by still another trail, known as the Moki trail, a trail that leads directly
from this canyon to the home of the Hopis (as the Mokis call them-
selves), eighty or one hundred miles to the northeast.
Still another trail leading down into the Havasu canyon is known as
the Topocobya. A portion of this trail is pictured in the accompany-
ing engraving. It is the trail down which tourists who visit Havasu
Canyon from the Bright Angel Hotel, or, preferably, from Bass Camp,
on the rim of the Grand Canyon, are taken.
In 1857 Lieut. Joseph C. Ives, who was sent out by the United
States government to make a report on the Colorado River on the West,
made the descent into Havasu Canyon down the Wallapai trail. His
account of the journey reads like a novel, and people who are un-
familiar with the wonderful engineering feats of the Havasu Indians
can scarcely believe that Ives did not allow his imagination to run away
with him in his descriptions of the Havasupais' engineering feats.
Later Lieut. Cushing, guided by his Indian friends, rode across
country to the Hopis, and then secured a Hopi guide who took him to
see the Havasupais over the Moki trail. He confirms all that Ives and
Coues have written of the astonishing character of the trails. Having
been up and down these trails marly, times during the last dozen years
THE BASKET. 31
I can say without hesitation that there are no more startling trails to be
found in our Southwest. They are grand, stupendous and terrifying.
Except in the rainy season the upper portions of the main Havasu
Canyon and all its tributaries are dry and sandy. Just before one
reaches the village, however, the barrenness disappears. A thousand
springs appear and unite to form a stream which, in less than a hundred
yards, will measure from four to six feet deep and fully eight feet
across. It is this stream that renders life possible for the Indians. For
the distance of about two miles the bed of the canyon, which is here
filled with sandy earth, is irrigated from this rapidly flowing stream.
The result is that with comparatively little labor the Havasupais are
able to produce excellent crops of corn, beans, chilis, onions, melons,
squash and other vegetables. After the advent of the Spaniards they ob-
tained peach trees, and they now grow far more peaches than they can
eat, drying large quantities, some of which they sell to ranchers, miners
and others outside.
The house of a Havasupai is called a "hawa." It is a primitive
structure, generally built of cotton-wood poles, willows and earth. Oc-
casionally one of the leading men will put up a more pretentious home,
when the sides will be of wattled willows, plastered inside and out with
mud, with a mud-covered roof which will turn the rain. In fig. 21 is
shown one of the lesser chiefs of the tribe, known to the white man as
Capt. Burro. He and his wife are to be seen in the photograph, his wife
having upon her back a basket-kathak or burden-bearer, made by her-
self. The son of this couple is generally known to the whites as Supai
Bill, or Burro Bill, and has long been employed by the proprietor of
the Bright Angel Hotel at the canyon.
There are about thirty basket-makers among the Havasupais, the
wife of Lanoman, shown in fig. 22, being one of the best of the younger
weavers.
Havasu Creek, being lined with willows that are admirably adapted
for basket-making, and having an abundant supply of martynia, or
cat's-claw, found on the plateaus above, this canyon is a veritable bas-
ket-makers' paradise. Their best work is done in the coiled stitch and
is fully described in "Indian Basketry" and "How to Make Indian and
Other Baskets." The Esuwas, or water-bottles, are made out of the
twined weave, and a description is given in "Indian Basketry," page
165, of their method of manufacture.
Havasu Canyon is so interesting, not only on account of its Indians,
but because of its marvelous picturesqueness, its narrow walls reaching
up to the very 'heavens and shutting out the sun except for the midday
hours, and its beautiful blue water flowing in its willow-fringed bed
and finally dashing in successive leaps into the lower depths, making
several beautiful cataracts, one of which I regard as the most exquisite
waterfall in the world. As a consequence it is destined to be one of
the great attractions of travelers from all parts of the world. It will
ultimately be as great an allurement as the Yosemite, the Yellowstone
and the Natural Caves of Virginia and Luray. Already an electric rail-
road is being projected into its mysterious depths. At present travel-
ers leave the Grand Canyon railway (which'is a tranch of the Santa
Fe Transcontinental line), at Bass station, four miles south of the
Bright Angel Hotel. Mr. Bass provides conveyances which take one
'13)1SVII 3111
FIG. 22. ON THE TOPOCOBYA TRAIL, DESCENDING HAVASU CANYON.
THE BASKET. 33
to the head of the Topocobya trail, and from thence on saddle animals
the remaining part of the journey is made to the Havasupai village and
waterfalls.
There are five falls in all, occurring in the following order : Hava-
supai, Navaho, Bridal Veil, Mooney and Beaver. The last three are
the most important, Bridal Veil being regarded as one of the most beau-
tiful waterfalls in the world. It is about one hundred and seventy feet
high, and five hundred feet broad, but this space is not entirely covered
with water. The edge is so broken up that the water dashes over the
precipice in a large number of streams, and, falling upon several dif-
ferent ledges, is again broken into a dashing spray, which, light and
feathery, again leaps into the air. The general effect is indescribably
beautiful.
Mooney Falls, one mile farther down, is a much higher cataract, but
the water falls in an undivided stream. It gets its name from an un-
fortunate miner, who, in trying to descend a rope ladder to the bottom
of the falls, fell, and was dashed to pieces.
Beaver Falls are about four miles farther down the canyon, and re-
ceive their name from the large number of beavers that used to be at
work in the stream close by.
By recent survey of this region, it has been found that these falls are
not included in the Havasupai reservation. It is to be hoped, however,
that, before it is too late, this canyon, its waterfalls and surroundings,
will be made into a National Park, forever and inalienably to belong to
the people.
In my book "In and Around the Grand Canyon" I devote a chapter
to "An Adventure in Beaver Canyon," which was the result of an en-
deavor to visit the junction of Havasu Creek with the main Colorado
River. That endeavor was a failure. In September, 1901, I went by
a different route and succeeded, and the following is an account of that
trip, written in the open air at the camp of my Indian friend and
brother, Chic-a-pan-a-gi, on our return.
*.L3)ISVII 3HI
FIG. 23. THE 'TOME OF THE HAVASUPAIS. FIG. 24. HAVASUPAI WOMAN CARL- YING CORN IN
KATHAK. METATE AT HER FEET.
THE BASKET. 35
THE JUNCTION OF THE HAVASU CREEK

AND THE COLORADO RIVER.
Ever since I first saw the Grand Canyon and the beautiful waters
of the Havasu I have desired to stand at the point of junction and
watch the clear, pellucid waters of the one flow into the turgid, muddy
waters of the other. I was assured also that, whether seen from
above or below, the sight would be a majestic and grand one, for
wherever a side canyon enters the main gorge of the Grand Canyon,
there one is pretty certain to have revealed to him one of the stupendous
views of the world.
Accordingly I had tried, again and again, to reach this point. My
earlier efforts were as futile as my later ones,—those that I best re-
member. I questioned Havasupai Indians and "knowing" white men,
and, in my guilelessness, believed them when they told me to go this
way or that, but always had some excuse which prevented their going
with me. One white man was bold enough to have faith in his own
statements, and we started to go clown Havasu Canyon below Mooney
Falls. We lowered ourselves with ropes down by the old ladder
that was built to enable his friends to descend and perform the last office
of burial for poor Mooney after his fatal descent of the rope, and then
began to force our way through the dense mass of willows, vines and
undergrowth that lined the course of the stream. Half an hour of this
proved its futility. We should never reach "Hackataia"—as the
Grand Canyon is called by the Havasus—if we went at that slow rate
of speed, so we took to the water. Here, owing to the singular sedi-
ment which hardens on touching tree twigs, etc., when exposed to
the air, the whole course of the stream is made up of pools, some large,
some small, generally deep, the walls of which have been slowly built
up as are the terraced walls of the geysers in the Yellowstone Park.
We swam from pool to pool, half clothed as we were, wearing our shoes
to protect our feet from injury. Down we went. Every rod meant
weariness, for it was work of the hardest kind, in that enervating moist
heat, to swim across a pool, then pull one's self out, walk perhaps a few
steps on the precarious foothold of the yielding pool's edge and then
dive into the next pool. Sometimes our way out of a pool was barred
by dense vegetable growth, then we had to seek a fresh way and climb
up the steep talus of the main wall and thus get around the difficulty.
After three or four miles of this we were both so wearied out that my
companion positively refused to go further. We had no food, and I
was as exhausted as he, so discretion for us became the better part of
our valor, and we returned.
Two years ago I started down with a Havasupai Indian, Waluthama,
as my guide, and the result of that attempt forms a rather interesting
chapter in my book on the Grand Canyon, for it looked at one time, as
there stated, as if my explorings were about to end in a wretched and
miserable manner. We were caught like "rats in a trap," and only after
herculean labors did we make our escape.
Some time prior to this attempt an old Indian, Uta, had warned me
that no Havasupai knew the trail =to the junction of Havasu with
36 THE BASKET.
Hackataia. Some day he would take me! When Waluthama returned

after our unsuccessful endeavor, Uta repeated his caution in a quiet
and rather sub-rosa manner, and I then came to the conclusion that he
was studying up the trail so that he would "some clay" be enabled to
take me.
This "some day" came on my last visit, in September, 19o1. I had
no sooner declared my intention of remaining in the village for a
couple of weeks or so than Burro Bill (who had been one of the "smart"
Indians who could tell me how to go, but who could not be prevailed
upon, even by high pay, to guide me) came and assured me that Uta
could take me to the desired spot. A bargain was made with him, and
feeling assured that this time I was dealing with a man whose principal
could accomplish what he undertook, I made the arrangement that
if I did not see "Hackataia and Havasu together" I was not to pay.
As he expressed it, "No see, no pay !"
When Uta assured me he had found a trail and could take me there
and back in hawag smadjika—two sleeps—I went up to the Indian
school and suggested to the temporary superintendent and teacher,
Miss Flora Gregg, and the housekeeper, Mrs. Kelleher, that I should
be most happy to have them accompany me on what I felt would
become a memorable and historic trip. We were accompanied part of
the way by Supervisor Herman and Range Rider Alexander of the
Grand Canyon Forest Reserve, and, as at least fifteen of the young
men of the village came on their ponies to see us start and filed after us
for a mile or two, we presented quite an imposing processional. After
passing Uta's "hawa," which is the last house of the Havasupai Village,
we soon came to Navaho Falls. Then shortly after paid our tributes
of appreciation to Bridal Veil, one of the most exquisitely beautiful
waterfalls of the world. A little over a mile further on we parted with
Messrs. Herman and Alexander at Mooney Falls, and then went on
alone—we four—Uta, the two ladies and I—to the junction of Beaver
Canyon with Havasu Canyon. This is a side canyon, almost as deep,
and much more narrow than that of the Havasu. The walls are
literally precipitous, and in many places so deep that not a ray of
direct sunshine has ever penetrated the depths since the canyon was
formed. Almost at the junction are Beaver Falls, not so high, but
almost as beautiful as Bridal Veil. They are in two distinct parts,
indeed are entitled to be called by two separate names. f he first falls
are formed by the whole of the stream flowing to the south side of the
canyon and then falling northward in the same beautiful, picturesque
and broken manner that Bridal Veil does. Then in perhaps fifty feet
the stream turns again westward and another falls is made, twice
or thrice as high as the first one, which must be fully twenty feet
high. From the height above, however, of fully 1,000 to 1,50o feet,
it is not easy to give an accurate and detailed description. I doubt if
many of my readers can form an adequate and true idea of marble
walls as high as this, and so precipitous that in a dozen places one might
ride along on a trail so close to the edge that he could distinctly see
the stream flowing in the depths beneath. A hundred such places indeed
could be found. Except in the walls of the Marble and Little Colorado
Canyons I know of no walls so high and steep as are these.
The day was frightfully hot as we slowly r9de along. Our trail
THE BASKET. 37
was on the sloping talus that had fallen from the cliffs above, there
being cliffs on each side of us fully as high as the inner canyon walls
were below us. All these walls and masses of rock radiated the heat.
There was scarcely any wind, and what there was came as hot as
from an oven. A dog that had accompanied us lay down under a rock,
gasping, and next day when we returned we found him dead. Few
people can realize the intense heat generated in this shut-in rocky place.
Our horses panted and grew gaunter each mile we journeyed. The first
shade we came to we halted, and, although we were but ten miles from
the ever flowing, beautiful waters of the Havasu (that is, where they
were accessible), we were dependent for water on the supply we had
brought in our canteens and the possibility of a water hole in the
rocks known to Uta. The poor horses and burros had to wait until
later. We boiled the water and made cocoa, and, in the rocky bed
of the head of Beaver Canyon, spread a blanket as a table cloth and ate
our meal. Then, repacking our burro, we pushed on, rounded Beaver
Canyon, found an alkali spring nearby where our animals drank their
fill, and soon were retracing our steps within a quarter of a mile of
where we had journeyed all afternoon, but then going in the opposite
direction. The frightfully precipitous walls of Beaver Canyon were
between us and the afternoon's trail. Up to this point we had had a
well defined, indeed, a well built trail. Certain miners had constructed
it for packing out ore, and Uta had occasionally done a little work
on it, but now we were on a pure Indian trail—that is, a trail which
was mainly in the mind of the Indian. Uta took the lead, and with
almost unerring judgment led us around rocks, under them, over them,
by them. There were rocks of every kind, shape, size and appearance,
some of them boulders big enough to supply a contractor with stone
sufficient to build a six storied city house. We rode until it was too
dark to go further, then, in the best place we could find,—and few
could have been much worse for making camp—took off the pack from
our burro, unsaddled the horses, spread out our blankets and prepared
to spend the night. Our very simple repast was placed on a notched
side of a vast boulder and we stood and ate. Then Uta, begging al
match, lighted ten or a dozen large bunches of amole which flamed
up with a brilliancy that lit up the canyon walls for a long space around.
This he did, he said with much sign language, to keep off the mosquitoes
and black flies. Strange that the former should be found here, yet they
are found in the few water pockets that are undoubtedly harbored in
the depths of Beaver Canyon.
Before the stars had disappeared in the morning we were astir, had
breakfast, and resumed our journey. It was delicious traveling in the
cool of the morning, though we now had to add the dodging of cat's
claws to our other varied achievements. These great vegetable devil-
fishes which send up their gigantic arms ten, fifteen, twenty and more
feet in the air, bear a strong resemblance to their ocean prototypes. They
look like immense tentacles waving in the air, as the tentacles of the
octopus wave in the ocean. These are covered with beautiful green
leaves, which, however, are but the "velvet" that hides numberless
sharp thorns that penetrate clothing and even shoes if one carelessly
passes by. All at once a shriek from Mrs. Kelleher set my heart going
pit-a-pat. "A snake ! A rattlesnake ! He's there, near my burro's
38 THE BASKET.
head." Jack didn't seem to mind ; perhaps he didn't see the reptile, but
he was duly backed out of danger while Mrs. Kelleher dismounted.
In a few moments I was there, and could clearly hear the warning
rattle kept up incessantly, but could not see the snake. A few moments'
search revealed him under a rock. Then for a few minutes I teased and
played. with him, finally holding his mouth open and compelling him
to strike again and again with his curiously formed but deadly vicious
fangs. Folded up in his tipper jaw, they are so hinged that they drop
down when he strikes and thus penetrate from above, at the same time
injecting the poison from the gland which works simultaneously with
the unhinging of the fangs.
As we rode on the difficulties of our way increased. Uta's trail
instinct did not always lead him correctly, though he made comparatively
FIG. 25. A GLIMPSE OF BRIDAL VEIL FALLS, HAVASU CANYON.
few mistakes. It was wofully monotonous work ; in and out of small

"draws" or the heads of tiny ravines, down ridges, over them, all the
time on the talus of the red sandstone cliff to our left. I could write a
very vivid account of this part of our ride and make it exceedingly
thrilling, without stretching the truth much, either. To one unused to
such worx it would have seemed as if almost every step our horses took
we periled our lives. Indeed, to quote from the lecture I intend to give
on the subject, "Each step seemed to add to our dangers. Our lives
were in our hands and our hearts in our mouths, our feet in our boots
and our boots in our stirrups ; that is, when the up or down jerks of our
horses as they bobbed over the rocks, permitted us to keep them there."
During all this journeying the canyon to our right was becoming deeper.
The flow of water of the centuries had cut down the rocks and now
the depths were perfectly appalling. Wearily on we went. Pluckily
the ladies stood the heat and lack of water, for, by now, our canteens
were almost empty. Lips were cracked, mouths parched, tongues dry,
but our spirits were good, for Uta told us we should soon be there. At
last, after many more windings and twistings, we made a turn and I
THE BASKET. 39
could clearly see a red wall in shadow outlined against a bright wail
beyond. A trained eye needed no further assurance that there was
the entrance of some side canyon. "Hakataia !"—the Grand Canyon—
said Uta, and so in less than an hour we found it to be. We got one
good glimpse of the junction at the spot where we left our horses, and
then walking on over the talus, we arrived at the point exactly over
the spot where to our right were the muddy waters of the Colorado,
and the inflowing clear, beautiful, blue waters of the Havasu, and to the
left the red, dirty, turgid Colorado which had already absorbed and
made equally dirty with itself the pure, sweet current of the Havasu.
The great Colorado was in walls of precipitous depth far greater than
I had ever seen them before ; equally precipitous but far deeper than
in Marble Canyon, and in those portions of the canyon reached by the
ordinary trails there is nothing but the narrow side gorges in the
marble—red wall limestone—that would suggest this deep, gloomy,
marvelous aisle, at the bottom of which flows the wonderful stream.
It describes a regular, graceful curve at this point, flowing almost due
south from the right. The Havasu enters exactly at the arc of the
curve from east to west, and its walls are as steep and deep as those
of the Colorado. At the very waterway itself the walls seem to be
simply cut into to allow the water to flow—a narrow chute through
which the Havasu empties itself, a clear, pellucid stream, into the foul
Colorado,—a pure, sweet maiden giving herself into the arms of an
impure, wicked man. Far above us we could follow the strata of the
walls : the cherty limestone, the crowning stratum, then the cross-
bedded sandstone, the two layers of red sandstone, and the red wall
limestone, which latter formed the main wall of the canyon in which the
river flowed. Below this could be seen a few feet (ten or twenty) of
the pre-carboniferous, and in this actually flowed the river. To the
right, as far as the eye could see, there was a rapid, and another roared
just below the entrance of Havasu, otherwise the stream was as lazy
and dirtily placid as at the Needles or Yuma.
After gazing our fill of the grandeur and sublimity of the scene
we started back. It was a wearisome ride. Our water was all gone
before we reached a welcome water pocket, and then we climbed down
to it and drank and drank, and then drank again. When the others
had satisfied themselves and gone on I climbed down to the very edge
of the water, my foothold being very slight, and while pouring the water
in cupfuls over my head lost my balance and fell in. The water was
above my knees. It was a delicious fall, and how I enjoyed the involun-
tary bath. Even after I fell I drank more of the water and continued
to pour it over my head. Then I sat on a nearby rock and tilted my feet
higher than my head. The result was the water ran up my back.
There was one good effect to it, however, and that was that when I
mounted my horse, the cold water cooled my saddle which had become
very hot in the scorching sun. In half an hour or less I was perfectly
dry.
That night, after rounding the head of Beaver Canyon, we camped
at its junction with the Havasu and slept to the accompaniment of the
roar of Beaver Falls. An early ride in the cool of the next morning
brought us safely and happily back to the I-Iavasupai village, with the
assurance that as soon as our fatigue was forgotten we should renew
40 THE BASKET.
again and again the memories of the grandeur and sublimity of the
sight we had witnessed. For dwellers in cities who confine themselves
to artificial spectacles are unaware of the keen delight nature-lovers
FIG. 26. MOONEY FALLS, HAVASU CANYON.
experience out in the wilds. I have enjoyed great civic parades in many
of the world's capitals ; have stood and gazed in delight upon arches of
triumph and colonnades crowned with statues of victory : I have drunk
in the gorgeous spectacles of many world's expositions, and seen the
THE BASKET. 41
masterpieces of architecture of the old world, and yet I am free to
confess not any or all of these excite in me the deep emotions of soul
that I feel when I stand before these masterpieces of the Divine, these
FIG. 27. BRIDAL VEIL FALLS—"One of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world."
FIG. 28. HAVASU CANYON, NEAR BEAVER FALLS.
walls built by the Master Builder, colored by the Master Artist, sculp-
tured by the Master Fingers and set in such sublimity, majesty and
grandeur that they unconsciously bring one's soul nearer to the Great
Maker of it all.
42 THE BASKET.
APACHE.
-
He was twenty years old and a Havasupai Indian. He was dull-

faced, heavy-witted, dirty, and, being an Indian, of course had no senti-
ment in his make-up. How could he have? His father was Rock
Jones, the leading charlatan, commonly called medicine man, of his
tribe, and he himself knew little or nothing but what he saw in the cir-
cumscribed home of his tiny race of people. I remember him best as a
little lad, more than half naked, shy, yet full of boisterous fun when
he thought the white man with the black beard was not looking at him.
His great, black, liquid eyes were then full of sparkle and light, very
different from the same eyes that looked so solemnly at the stranger
when he came to have a pow-wow with his father.
Apache's people did not offer him much excitement. They were not
warlike. They had few dances ; only one regular dance when the peaches
and corn were ripe, and an occasional "katchinga" when a few Hopis
came to visit or trade with them from the mesa pueblos to the east.
Of late years there had been few hunting trips, for the white man had
made laws saying that only in a certain short season of the year could
any one—whether white man or Indian—go hunting, and how was an
Indian to understand such laws as that ? His only sports were an
occasional game of shinny ; a horse race ; a quiet game called Hui-ta-
kwi-chi-ka ; now and again, when he and his friends had money, an
exciting gamble with cards, and, best of all, an almost daily plunge
during the hot weather into the waters of the Havasu—the Blue Water
—from which his people gain their name. It was a rather quiet, un-
eventful life, yet he was used to it, and enjoyed it, and did not contem-
plate with calmness the few words he had heard that suggested he
might soon have to leave it.
For a new boarding school had been established at Truxton Canyon,
on the reservation of the Wallapais—the people of the tall pines—the
cousins of the Havasupais, and the teacher was urging Apache's father
to send him to the new school. In vain Rock Jones told the teacher
that this was contrary to the agreement made years ago by the big
Kohot, Navaho, with the chief sent from Washington, that if the
Havasupais agreed to the establishment of a school on their reservation
and promised regularly to send their children to it, they should not be
asked to spare them to go to any outside school. The teacher still urged.
He could not help it. He was being urged. The boarding school must
have its full quota. The Havasupais must send some children to help
fill up. The agent at Truxton knew nothing of the agreement made
years ago. Few did, except the Havasupais, and they were only
rude, brutal, ignorant savages. They couldn't be believed. Where was
the record of such an agreement ? Did they have a certified and signed
copy of it ? Then "Such agreement didn't exist, except in their own
ignorant, savage minds. Send the children along anyhow, agreement
or no agreement. Our time is too valuable to waste it in palavering
with a lot of half-naked Indians." So the teacher urged, then insisted,
THE BASKET. 43
and finally commanded, and Apache was told he must get ready to
leave Havasu Chickimimi—the Canyon of the Blue Water—and go to
school at Truxton.
Why should he object to go? What could he want, so earnestly, to
remain in Havasu for ? His sadness and tears were sullenness and
obstinacy.
He was merely throwing obstacles in the way of the school work,
and he was very forcefully told that "that kind of nonsense couldn't be
tolerated, and he would pretty soon get it all knocked out of him when
he reached Truxton." This only added to his dread. There was no
kindly hearted person to affectionately take him aside and tell him all
about it, and reason with him, and show him what advantages might
come to him if he went to school and learned all that would there be
taught to him, No ! Why should any one take that trouble ? He was
too ragged and dirty, and then, anyhow, he was an Indian, a savage,
and could never be "good" until he was "dead." Poor Apache !
In the meantime the agent at Truxton wanted to know what was
the occasion of the delay. He was told it was because of Apache's
reluctance—only the teacher called it savage obstinacy. So that when
Apache did reach Truxton, broken-hearted at leaving his father and
mother, his sisters and the young brother whose tiny fingers had wrap-
ped themselves completely around his heart that very first day after he
was born, his reputation had preceded him and he was received as an
obstructionist, a hostile, one who preferred savagery and barbarism to
all the advantages of our glorious civilization. Poor Apache !
But, after all, he was a thoughtful lad, and reasonably fond of
learning things he didn't know. He tried hard, in school, to please his
teachers, and slowly began to retrieve his good name
Then the news came from home that his beloved younger brother
was sick.
Apache was distressed. Strings pulled hard at his heart, and he
lay awake at nights longing tc go to Havasu and see that sick brother.
When the roar of the trains passing the school at night awoke him he
cried bitterly, but in quietness, at the difference between that and the
babbling noise of the Havasu as it dashed along between the rows of
willows, telling what it would say to the desert lands in California of
the place of its birth in the majestic rocks of Havasu Canyon.
Another letter came. His brother was worse, and the teacher in
Havasu, at the earnest request of his father, had asked permission for
Apache to have thirty days' leave of absence to come home.
"Thirty days' leave of absence to go home !" Apache's heart bound-
ed with joy at the thought.
But the agent sternly told him that he must return to his studies,
without fail, at the end of the thirty days.
It was a long way to Havasu, and part of the journey was across
the desert. He took train to Seligman, and cared nothing whether he
had food or water for the rest of that arduous journey. He was going
home ! True, his brother was sick and that made him feel sad, but they
would soon see each other, and that would be good for them both ;
good for Apache as well as the sick boy.
In due time he reached home, wearied out but happy. It was a
hard trip, but he was home ! Who can describe the meeting ? Who
44 THE BASKET.
would have understood it, of the white race, had they seen it ? There
was no wild clasping of each other ; no vehement kisses ; no voluble
words. No, it was just a few glances, and a few quiet and almost
unseen clasps of the hands. Yet they knew, they felt, they understood.
Did the sick brother speedily get well? Alas, no ! Even Apache's
love could not keep back the stealthy march of the dreaded foe of
Indian and white man alike. Death in visible form came and there was
loud wailing, in voices deep and low, and voices shrill and high, from
the hawa of Apache's father. Apache himself felt a grief too deep for
loud wailing. In silence and solitude he wept. He visited the places
made sacred to him, where, in the happy gone-by days, he had played
with his brother. Then the day came when the cold body of this
brother was buried. That was a sad day. Soon the body would dis-
appear. The soul of his brother had already started on its journey to
the under-world of rest. Day after day, poor, broken-hearted Apache
went to the places that had formerly seen his happiness, and he quietly
wept and proclaimed his loneliness and sorrow.
His thirty-day leave of absence rapidly stole away. If Apache
thought at all of it, no one knows. If he did it was, perhaps, merely
to feel : "Surely they cannot send me back to school when I am so
broken-hearted. They will certainly let me weep my fill, then I will go
back, even though I dread to do so." Perhaps he thought—for he was
only an ignorant Indian: "They will not send me back to school when
they remember that my loved brother grew sick while I was there
before. I have another brother. If I go back, he may get sick."
His thirty days expired. The teacher learned he was still in Havasu.
He sent for him and with reproaches bade him return to Truxton.
And now I tell the story as it was repeated to me in half English by
"Burro Bill" and Captain Jim, two Havasupais who knew my interest
in all pertaining to "mine own people." Apache's Indian name was
Ja-a-drum-ya. When I asked Bill to tell me this name he replied with
that singular reversal of pronouns that none but an Indian can grasp :
"You can't tell me !" of course meaning: "I can't tell you !" "Havasu-
pai no like 'em dead name. You tell 'em, make 'em heap mad, and
Havasupai hear 'em, he heap cry."
The teacher's name at Havasu is Shelton, but it is changed, in Bill's
speech, into Selzon.
Mr. Selzon he say to Ja-a-drum-ya, "You stay one month ; you go
back Truxton."
He say : "I no want go back again. I like to stay here. I got another
little brother. He like go Truxton. He go. I live Supai."
But Mr. Selzon, he say, "I no change 'em. You, Apache, go back
Truxton, your brother stay and go to school here."
Apache he go home, and he stay there. He go to work. He plow.
Bye 'em bye Havasupai policeman he come : "What you do there ? You
go back Truxton heap quick."
Apache, he says : "I go work."
Policeman, he say, "You go Mr. Selzon ; you go school house pretty
quick, to-day. You come with me, go now."
So the policeman and Apache go to school house and Mr. Selzon
he heap mad. He say to Apache, "You go to Truxton pretty quick.
You no stay here any longer. You go to-day."
THE BASKET. 45
Apache he say: "I no got 'em horse yet," he says.
Mr. Selzon he say : "When you come you get leave thirty days.
Thirty days all gone. I tell you yesterday. I get mad you no go pretty
quick."
Apache say : "I go find 'em horses to-day. I go to-morrow morn-
ing."
"No!" Mr. Selzon say : "You heap slow. You no catch 'em horses
at all. You go to-day. You walk. I like 'em no more talk."
Apache he go back Rock Jones camp. He tell Rock Jones what Mr.
Selzon say and he tell Rock Jones : "I no walk Seligman. If I walk, I
no drink, no eat, I get die."
Rock Jones he say : "You no walk. You ride. I give 'em you my
work horses and I send Ma-tu-i with you. He go Seligman and bring
back horses. You catch 'em train cars and go Truxton."
Bye and bye they go. Ma-tu-i he go first. Apache he come after.
He cry all 'a time. They go up Wallapai trail. Ma-tu-i he go a little
fast. Apache he go slow. He no like Ma-tu-i see him cry. Ma-tu-i
he catch 'em hill top. Apache he no come. Ma-tu-i he go as far as
surveyor's camp. He look back, and may be so one mile, may be so half
a mile he see Apache. He come slow ! Ma-tu-i he go on and he go
down little canyon and up other side. When he get hill top he look
back and Apache no come. He sit down and wait, may be so twenty
minutes. Apache no come. Ma-tu-i look 'em all 'a time and Apache he
no come all 'a time. He wait may be so an hour, and bye and bye he
say 'may be so Apache lost 'em horse. He go walk. He go after him.
So Ma-tu-i he ride back. When he come back not far from hill top he
see 'em Apache's horse. He go dead. He lie down shot. Ma-tu-i
heap scared, and he go little further, may be so a hundred yards, and
behind a chim-i-woi-a bush he see 'em Apache's hat. He get off him
horse, and then he see Apache's hand all bloody. Then he see Apache's
face and head all blown to pieces and his gun by his side with his foot
against the trigger. Apache he sit 'em down and take 'em gun in his
hands and hold him to him face, and pull trigger with his foot, and
he go dead heap quick. As soon as Ma-tu-i see him he cry. He come
to Havasupai heap pretty quick. He tell 'em people. He tell 'em Mr.
Selzon. Mr. Selzon he say : "You go tell people at Grand Canyon
hotel and they telegraph United States marshal and agent at Truxton."
Bye 'em by Pu-chil-o-wa (the Wallapai interpreter from the Truxton
school) he come and he have big council with Havasupais. Mr. Clapp
he down there. (Mr. Clapp and Dr. Harper were two gentlemen in-
terested in some mining operations on or near the Havasupai reserva-
tion.) Mr. Clapp he come down Wallapai trail and he see Apache, and
Mr. Selzon he go meet him there. And Dr. Harper he come and four
white men see Apache. Mr. Selzon he say : "What you think ? Did
Apache kill himself, or did Injian kill him?" Mr. Clapp and Dr. Harper
they say : "We look and we no see 'em tracks, no see 'em horse tracks,
no see 'em nothing, Injian he no kill. Apache he kill himself. Mr.
Selzon he say : "Too had," he says ; -heap good boy. Him brother die
two weeks ago. He cry all 'a time. Now he get dead. Poor boy."
With deep grief the Havasupais brought dry wood, heaped it under
and over the corpse, and soon the smoke carried away the spirit of poor
Apache from this "vale of woe and tears" to begin its journey to the
46 THE BASKET.
Havasupai heaven. Suicide with Indians is rare, far rarer than would
appear to the reader of this story. I know of no other motives ever
prompting an Indian to self-destruction than horror at crime committed,
and great and overwhelming grief. Had Apache been permitted to
remain near the scenes hallowed to him by his brother until his grief was
assuaged, he would undoubtedly have gone back to school of his own
accord, but to force him back before that period of wailing was over,
was a great cruelty to him, no less severe that it was perpetrated un-
knowingly by those guilty of it.
And now the Havasupais are bitter against the Truxton school. The
curse of suicide rests upon it—in their minds, and parents say : "We no
want 'em, our boy, our gel, go school at Truxton any more. May be
so he no want to go. He kill himself. He go dead pretty quick. We
like 'em stay at Havasu."
44AVk
Plo:ragglito
THE BASKET
THE ORGAN OF THE BASKET FRATERNITY.
A Society of Lovers of Indian Baskets and Other Good Things.
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY AT PASADENA, CAL.
Advertising Rates on application,
GEORGE WHARTON JAMES, Editor.
TO ALL LOVERS OF INDIAN BASKETRY

AND OTHER GOOD THINGS.
Beloved ! A mutual tie binds us together. We are as diverse in

thought, perhaps, on some things as we are in birth, education, and
work, yet a common enthusiasm unites us. We are enthusiasts and
sentimentalists and not only do not deny it, but glory in it. For what
is an enthusiast ? En theos—in God, or God in—one in whom
God dwells, or who dwells in God. One who feels the stirrings of the
restless, irresistible, ever-working, almighty God. Is this a thing to be
ashamed of ? To shrink from believing that God is moving within us ?
As well may the sea shrink from the hand which stirs and moves it
to its highest majesty ; the rose from the painter who colors it ; the
perfumer who scents it; the sky at sunset from the artist who glorifies
it ; and the spheres from the heavenly mechanist who moves and con-
trols them. Nay ! let us glory in our enthusiasm, revel in the sentiment
that helps make more real the facts of man's brotherhood and solidarity
and God's fatherhood and helpfulness.
It will be contended by some that we are enthusiastic over small
things—mere Indian baskets, the perishable work of a fast passing
away race. To the superficial all things seem small. The thoughtless
little imagine what great things are enthroned in little things. It takes
a wise man to determine which of two seeds is that of the parsnip
and that of the Sequoia Gigantea, the largest tree known to man, yet
from the one grows the vegetable of the moment and the other the
tree of ten thousand years. The "practically wise" sees only folly
in the work of the kite-flying enthusiast. The reverent and faithful
sees a possibility which Marconi is but beginning to reveal to us. Is
it a small thing that a love for Indian Basketry will teach us to be more
respectful to a people whom we have robbed of their ancestral homes;
48 THE BASKET.
that it will teach us to reverse our former rude and brutal judgments
as to their usefulness in life ; that it will teach us gratitude for what
they did on our behalf, and sympathy for the darkness out of which
they groped their way and the light they made to shine on our lives ?
Is it a little thing to have our conceit and overwhelming vanity brought
to the dust ? For conceit and vanity are national cancers and canker-
worms that will eat away the healthful life of a nation quicker than
intemperance and sensuality. Is it a little thing for us to be brought
back to a study of Nature ; taught to love Nature ; brought back to an
intimacy with the only source of full, true, pure inspiration that will
never fail, can never be exhausted, and will never become worn, effete
and old ? Is it a little thing to be sent back to first causes, and learn to
remodel our ideas on correct and infallible models and thus educate our-
selves into the highest, the best, the truest, the everlasting? Is it a little
thing to have the "jim-crackery" of mere conventionalism ruthlessly ex-
posed and held up to ridicule and final rejection ? If these things be
little things, then I know of nothing large, and all these are an inevitable
result of a real and thorough study of the handicraft of the Americans.
Hence as the Originator and First Brother of this Basket Fraternity I
feel a deep sense of responsibility. I foresaw it when I determined to
ask for co-workers and co-sympathisers. I gladly and thankfully
placed my back ready to receive the burden if a sufficient number wished
me to assume it. There has been no royal birth for our Fraternity ;
no fanfare of trumpets or loud declarations have advertised it. Faith-
ful work of a few has made it possible, and it will not grow beyond a
small and modest membership.
In this very limitation is one of the greatest charms of the Basket
Fraternity. I was once asked to address a Browning Club of a "few
friends." When I reached the place of meeting, the rain was pouring
down upon a wooden roof where an assemblage of say a thousand
people was gathered together. Imagine reading and talking Browning
under such conditions. You cannot yell Rabbi Ben Ezra in the face
of a thunder storm to a large crowd. I had a very trying hour and was
glad when it was over. When I read Browning I like to have just a
handful of receptive men and women,—people whose souls are ready to
listen and absorb, and to whom a whisper, an inflection, is all that is
necessary to convey a potent change of thought. And in Indian
Basketry I feel the same. I want a small audience, whose hearts are
all ready to listen. A sympathising Brotherhood who will not need
to be aroused to attention, but who are all ready to listen to one of their
own number whose guidance for a short time and in this limited field
they have requested.
There are baskets and baskets, and the leader has a basket in which
useless ideas and trash of all sorts are thrown. That is his waste
basket. But he also has a creative basket ; a place in which ideas are
made, and from which he draws them now and again. It is his in-
tention in this printed quarterly Basket to place some of these ideas.
The columns in which they will be placed will be entitled The Primus
Frater's Basket.
According to the value of these ideas to you they will be trans-
ferred to your Think-Basket or your waste paper or Trash Basket. Each
THE BASKET. 49
mind will select its own. To the political economist of the Adam Smith
School, John Ruskin wrote mostly for the trash basket. The later and
truer school of economists are now finding stores of highest value in
the cast-out itterial of the earlier school. So I offer with sincere
humility, yet with a firm conviction and belief in its essentially funda-
mental character, the outpourings of my think-basket.
We are in the inception stage of what will ere long be known as the
Indian renaissance period. Basketry, pottery, blanketry, bead work,
carving, simple handicraft in every department are taking us back to
primitive inspirations, primitive methods. We, with our complex
mentality and civilization, are now groping to comprehend what enabled
the Amerind, with his simple mentality and civilization, to produce such
marvellous examples of shape, design, weave, harmony of color, use-
fulness and artistic excellence. There seems to be a prophetic insight
sometimes in the foolish catch lines of our popular songs. Recently one
of these catch lines, which has not yet lost its vogue, is "Go way back
and sit down." And it is in perfect seriousness that I commend this
word to all students of latter-day handicraft. Go way back—to primi-
tive days. Watch the ignorant aborigine, groping from darkness into
the misty light of early morning. For him it was a long, long night ;
a night of weary struggle for mere animal existence. It will do you
good to "sit down" and study what he accomplished in those days of
primeval darkness. Sit down to your study. Don't hurry ; don't let
your investigations be cursory ; merely perfunctory and listless ; seek
to know, to absorb, to feel what he had to struggle through to attain
for himself, and thus for you. It seems to me we at least owe this as a
debt of gratitude to the Amerind to study what he gained for us in his
struggles against primitive limitations.
* * * * * * *
Wherein lies the charm of this old basketry, blanketry and pottery ?
To me the chief answer is found in the word "individualism." In the
very nature of aboriginal art the artist was an individualist—she had no
books, no training, little intercourse with artists, slight artistic environ-
ments. Perforce she was thrown upon her own resources of thought
for shape and design, and her own activities for the material for active
creation. She was designer—artist and maker—artisan, of very neces-
sity. And not only of the immediate object of her skill, but also of the
very materials which she employed. She found her own wood, was her
own "hewer," was her own experimenter, discovered and made and
used her own dyes, and in every item, the first as well as the last, did
all the preparatory work necessary ere the basket or blanket could be
begun.
It is my intention in each number of The Basket to present an

Indian character story, written with a view to revealing the Indian as
I know him to be. The stories are all true. They are of facts that
have either come under my own cognizance or have been related to
me by trustworthy persons. As this number contains a great deal of
reference to the Havasupais the story is of a Havasupai boy whom I
have called Apache, and whom I have known ever since he was a child.
50 THE BASKET. '
In starting a new magazine like "The Basket" it was almost una-

voidable that plans could mature only as they were set in motion. It
was never expected that "How to Make Indian and Other Basket?'
would occupy so many pages. The fact is I did not intend to write so
elaborate a treatise upon the subject, but as I wrote, and as teachers
begged me to treat on this part of the subject, and on the other, the
pages grew and grew until the booklet came out as it did, and had to be
made a double number.
In regard to the third bulletin, the original intention was to confine
it almost entirely to pictures and descriptions of Living Indian Wea-
vers. This is now deemed inadvisable. The contents will be of a much
more varied character, but all, it is hoped, will be of general interest to
the Fraters. For once in the history of magazine literature the readers
can have as much to say about it as its conductor. I am but the Primus
Frater in a body of Fraters. All have a voice, and no one will be to
blame but yourselves if your desires (if deemed expedient) are not
carried out in the next BASKET. So send them along. Send your sug-
gestions, your questions, your difficulties, your achievements, and, above
all, do not forget that if the Fraternity is to live and grow, and THE
BASKET to continue, you must each one do a part in making both better
known to the end of enlarging the list of Fraters. Get all you can to join.
We must increase the Fraternity list before the issue of the next BASKET.
What are you doing, dear friend, toward that end? Cannot you interest
your friends and acquaintances and send us a long list of new Fraters ?
As an inducement we offer the following premiums :
For two new subscriptions we will send postpaid any one of George
Wharton James's photographs named on the list published elsewhere.
These are 672x8Y2 in size and are very acceptable to all who are inter-
ested in the Indians of the Southwest.
For ten new subscriptions, a copy in cloth of "How to Make Indian
and Other Baskets."
For twenty new subscriptions, a copy of either of the following :
"Indian Basketry," Second Edition (which does not contain "How to
Make Indian and Other Baskets"), or, "The Indians of the Painted
Desert Region," which it is expected will be published in September.
For twenty-five new subscriptions, a copy of either "Indian Bas-
ketry," Third Edition, or "In and Around the Grand Canyon of the Col-
orado River in Arizona."
For fifty new subscriptions we will send, express paid, a beautiful
Pima, Havasupai or Mission Indian basket.
Any number of circulars and application blanks will be sent on re-
quest.
Address all communications,
THE BASKET FRATERNITY,
Station A, Pasadena, Calif.
THE BASKET.
BASKET PICTURES.
Has it ever occurred to the readers of THE BASKET how many and
various are the uses to which the Basket is put? In "Indian Basketry"
I have shown how much the basket meant to the Indian, and while
we have substituted many utensils in our civilized life for the Indian's
wicker-work counterpart we still use baskets in far more ways than, at
first, one would imagine.
If one reads with this thought in view he will be surprised to find
many references to the uses of the basket. For instance, to-day I find
the two following references. The first is from Bayard Taylor's
"Travels in California" and the other from the current number of the
"Youth's Companion."
"After a ride of twenty-five miles without grass, water or sign of
habitation, we stopped to rest at a ranche, in the garden of which I
found a fine patch of grape vines, laden with flourishing bunches. We
watered our mules with a basket of Indian manufacture, so closely
plaited that scarcely a drop found its way through."
Imagine the scene. The courtly and poetic Taylor, whose writings
have delighted many thousands of readers all over the world in his own
and succeeding generations, carrying water to the mules (some of
which he very graphically describes) in an Indian basket. Picture the
Indian and his squaw looking on, and the keen-eyed, shy children
peeping on from some safe retreat.
The next article from the "Companion" is
THE STOCKING BASKET.
"Mending stockings might well be thought a prosaic occupation, if
not a dull one. The woman who sits down every week before twenty
pairs, worn by active feet, big and little, often finds the pile discourag-
ing, although she would not have it smaller by a single pair.
"But there is a curious, half-mysterious charm in the work. It is
as if it typified all wifely and motherly duty. Even the maiden aunt,
with a darning needle in her hand, has the air of a matron. The
coziest corner in the house is most fit for the stocking-basket and its
presiding genius. An incontestable verdict against a gorgeous palace
recently built by a rich man was pronounced by a woman, herself both
refined and rich : 'There isn't a spot in the whole house where I could
darn a stocking!'
"It is amusing or pathetic, but true, that the modern stocking should
have taken the place held by the medieval shield. To bide at home
and polish the shield was then the sign of wifely devotion. The worn
stocking may not lend itself so easily to the demands of poetry, but it
is none the less a beautiful and appropriate symbol.
"There was a time within twenty years when it seemed as if stock-
ing-mending were doomed. The needle was temporarily discarded. A
clever writer, speaking of the fact, said it was the natural reaction from
an age which worked wool parrots with beaded eyes to an age which
hires outsiders to darn its stockings. But to-day the pendulum has
swung back, and my lady presides over the stocking basket—whether
it is filled with dainty Persian hose of silk, or with stout woolen socks,
fit for tussle with thorn and wind and weather."
52 THE BASKET.
I have long thought it would be interesting to have a collection

of pictures made by first class modern artists representing the various
uses of the basket. I shall be glad, therefore, if all the readers of THE
BASKET will assist in making this interesting collection and send what-
ever quotations they may find in which the writer gives a picture of the
uses of a basket. We may then be able, perhaps, some day, to have
these verbal pictures transformed upon canvas and placed in the
National Home of the Basket Fraternity.
SHUT YOUR MOUTH.
Many of the ills that human flesh and soul are heir to come from
an open mouth. Of many can it be said that "they never open their
mouth save to put their foot in it." Books of Proverbs are full of
sententious sayings handed down in all languages from all ages as to
the wisdom of a shut mouth. Even Omega Oil Philosophy declares that
"The Creator gave you two ears and only one tongue so that you could
hear twice as much as you could talk." Holy Writ calls the tongue "an
unruly member," and the Italians have a proverb : "A fool's voice is
known by a multitude of words." The Spanish say : "If a man says
little, he thinks the more."
But it is not to the shut mouth as the retainer of words that are
best retained that I wish to refer. It is to the benefit the body derives
from a shut mouth. This is a peculiarly Indian virtue. All Indians are
taught from birth : "keep your mouth shut." If a baby is inclined to
sleep with open mouth the mother ties it up. They know the benefit of
a closed mouth. Sleeping out of doors, air should never enter the lungs
that has not been warmed and filtered through the nostrils. The nose,
not the mouth, is the organ of breathing. The breath "of life" is that
which passes through the nostrils. Health, vigor, physical joy come
with pure air, taken into the lungs in large quantities through the nos-
trils.
Until they were "civilized" and taught to live in our kind of houses,
Indians knew nothing of lung or bronchial diseases. Their habits of
keeping the mouth shut and living out of doors overcame their physical
delinquencies in other directions, so they preserved their health and vig-
or. I have stood by the side of Hopi racers, darting with incredible
speed for miles over the hot and yielding desert sand, and leaping up
the steep trails to their seven hundred feet high mesa homes. How
do they do it ? Lung power, caused by continual exercise and keeping
the lips closed. I've sent a Hopi on an errand of eighty-five miles over
the desert, and he has made the round trip in a little over forty-six
hours, running the whole distance on foot and carrying his provisions
with him. Look at the lobes of the nostrils of a healthy Indian, and
then at the width of the nostrils themselves. That wide nostril denotes
great lung power, tremendous reserve. The lungs are the blood puri-
fiers, and pure blood makes strong muscle, gives vim, strength, energy,
and power. Pure blood means good digestion, clear brain, sweet bieath,
clean skin, wakeful eyes. With great lung capacity you can turn poor
food into good blood, for the extra supply of oxygen burns up the bad
THE BASKET. 53
and sends the good coursing through the veins to give life, health, vigor
and joy to every part of the body.
No man can have perfect lung power who breathes through the
mouth. The nose is for breathing. Hence the Indian watchword, "shut
your mouth." Show me a white man or woman with pinched nostrils,
and I will show you an individual who lacks force, power, vim, health.
On the contrary, show me the wide open flexible-nostriled individual,
and I will show you a person capable of the highest physical develop-
ment, all things else being equal.
A vast amount of misery, physical and avoidable, comes from an
cpen mouth. Diseased lungs, bronchial tubes, tonsils and teeth. Moth-
er, compel your baby, from the hour it is born, to breathe through its
nostrils. If there is no physical obstruction it will be your fault if it
breathes in any other way. If an obstruction is there have your physi-
cian remove it, then pinch the little darling's lips together until the habit
of correct breathing is formed. Boy, girl, young man, young woman,
breathe through your nostrils. Press your teeth firmly together and
resolve, with determination, that you will breathe in no other way. Walk
fast, run, run up hill with mouth tightly closed to compel nostril breath-
ing. Then you will fairly feel the healthful life flowing into you and
coursing through your veins. For he who takes in much air through
his nostrils breathes in health, vigor, life, while he who breathes through
his mouth takes in disease, languor, death.
USE YOUR BODY RATIONALLY.
While in the South recently I picked up The Life and Letters of

Thomas H. Huxley, and passed many delightful hours in living with
this eminent scientist the years of his pilgrimage as therein portrayed.
But every now and then, and especially as I approached the end of the
book, I could not help but feel a deep sadness for the physical suffering
this giant-intellected being had to endure. Such suffering for such a
man ! What did it mean ? That suffering is the common lot of man
I am well aware, but that a man of highly endowed intellect, like Hux-
ley, should thus have suffered, was to me irrational, unreasonable, un-
necessary. Why then did it occur? Again and again did I ask the
question, and again and again since then I have asked it, and ever with
the same answer—There was no need for it. With all his intellectual
power and keen penetration he failed to see and grasp one very small,
yet highly important principle, and that is : the body is the basis of life.
It is well to cultivate and develop mind and soul, but the body must
first be well and strong, or mental and spiritual culture are largely
lost. His nerve centers, his brain was most highly specialized and cap-
able of performing work few men could equal. His intellect was a gift
of the gods for the benefit of the world at large for ages yet to come,
yet his physical condition was such that his power was weakened, his
usefulness impaired, his years shortened, and, therefore, the good in-
fluence he could and would have continued to exert lost long ere it need
to have been.
54 THE BASKET.
For, pre-eminently, the world needs the wisdom of its old men.
"Grow old along with me,
The best is yet to be."
The wisdom of youth sees but the rosy half of life ; alone to the old
is it given to say :
"I shall know, being old."
Well might Browning write :
"Youth ended, I shall try
My gain or loss thereby ;
Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold :
And I shall weigh the same,
Give life its praise or blame:
Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old."
So it came upon me with the force of a personal loss, and then with
the greater force that it was pre-eminently a national and a world loss
that Huxley died as soon as he did. There was no need for it. A slight
change in his method of life could and doubtless would have prevented
it.
The eccentric, but very wise, Abernethy once said to a dyspeptic
patient for whom he had prescribed again and again in vain : "Live on
sixpence a day and earn it." Yes, earn it by physical labor. Go out
and chop wood, (or trees, with Gladstone), haul logs, carry a hod, mix
mortar, follow a plough, pitch hay, dig potatoes, or do any good, health-
ful, out-door physical exercise, and thus keep the body,—the machine
of the mind,—in good trim. A steam-heated gymnasium is better than
nothing, but it is a mere subterfuge, a shuffle, an excuse, a substitution
of a "gentlemanly and refined" institution for the honest, manly recog-
nition of the dignity of labor itself. There is more health in the work of
a navvy, digging on a railroad track in the open air and bright sun-
light, earning forty-five cents or ninety-eight cents a day and a good
healthy appetite, with a digestion that can successfully cope with beans
and beef than in all the "refined, gentlemanly" gymnasiums in the world.
If it's labor you want and need go and get it in something useful and
beneficial to the world. Make a blade of grass grow where there was
none before,—or an onion, or a peach, or a pine, or a potato. Don't waste
your energies in a "gentlemanly" gymnasium, where you are kept warm
by steam heat, and shut out from pure air and vivifying sunlight. Go
out of doors and do something. Be able at night to look upon the field
you have ploughed, the ditch you have dug, the lawn you have mowed,
the wood you have chopped, the carpenter work you have done, and feel
the joy of achievement in physical labor that means something, that
adds to the good of the world, rather than the mere personal, selfish
pleasure of lifting dumb bells forty times or raising yourself by the tra-
peze twenty-five times in fifty seconds. The physical development will
be greater in the former case than in the latter, and you will have done
something beside. Every thrust of the spade you make, every forkful
of hay you lift into the loft means so much of stored up energy for the
discharge of your mental work. You will go back to your intellectual
work with a vim, an energy, a naturalness, an out-of-doors "breeziness"
that will delight you and astonish your friends as well as yourself. And,
better than all, you will do it with a clarity of vision, a fullness of appre-
hension, a boldness of conception, and forcefulness of execution that you
THE BASKET. 55
never dreamed that you possessed. All of the power and energy of
God's out-of-doors is behind you, and you both know and feel it, and,
conscious of it you yield to the divine passion of fullness, of complete-
ness of utterance that before you deemed yourself incapable of.
PRACTICAL UNSELFISHNESS.
To the Whisperer.
There is a great deal of selfishness in the world that is mainly based

on thoughtlessness. All thoughtlessness is selfish. We think, but think
only for ourselves, and this is selfishness. Pure Christianity consists
in unselfishness. The Master "went about doing good." He gave
Himself for others. To profess Christianity is no more to be a Christian
than to write a poem on spring is to make spring exist. There is too
much profession of an abstract character to-day, and not enough prac-
tical life to back it up. For instance, the loudest professor of the grace
of holiness in an uptown church in New York, which I have often
attended, has been in the habit, for years, of annoying every person
within three or four pews of her by whispering during the services.
When I heard her and she distracted my attention from song, prayer.
Scripture reading and sermon, I wished, again and again, that she was
less "holy" and more unselfish. She put more "devil" into me than
the hymns and prayers and preaching could take out, and many a
time I have refused to go to the church because of the intense distress
this "holy" woman's whispering caused me. Now I propose to write
a few words about the various manifestations of the "crime" of selfish-
ness. And this one is to be devoted to the whisperer.
How many times has one gone to the church, opera, theatre, con-
cert or lecture to be pestered by these tongue-waggling nuisances. They
may be pretty, rich, well-dressed, well-connected, well-born and every
other desirable thing, but they are certainly neither well-bred nor
Christians. No well-bred person will give to another avoidable pain
and distress, and that is what every whisperer does, every time his
tongue suffers from the waggles in the wrong place and at the wrong
time. A concert is given for the enjoyment by the audience of the
music ; a theatre for the rendition of a play ; an opera for the singing
of dramatic songs and choruses ; a lecture for the communication of
ideas ; a service for the worship of the Divine. In each and all of
these cases perfect silence, on the part of the auditors, except at certain
well understood places (as for applause, responses, etc.) is an absolute
condition to the proper enjoyment of the function. Everybody knows
this ; no one can plead ignorance of it. Everyone feels it when he, she,
is disturbed by another, therefore every one should feel it for his
neighbor when he is tempted for the time being to forget it.
A few Sundays ago I went to the South Church in New York,
where, under the skillful, learned and soulful leadership of Gerritt
Smith, a quartet and choir renders each week one of the great ora-
torios. I longed to hear the warbling melodies, the crashing, yet
tuneful harmonies of Handel, and I sat down in a state of delightful
expectancy to listen. The organ pealed forth its deep diapasons, full
56 THE BASKET.
trumpets and clear flute-like notes ; the soloists lifted their voices like
human nightingales and the chorus joined in with soul-stirring power,
and I was lifted up as upon the invisible wings of the morning into
the illimitable, when every sense of soul, mind and body was outraged
by hearing loud whispering behind me. I looked to see who could
be thus guilty of such a crime, in such a place, under such conditions,
and what did I see ? A pair of rude, uncouth, ill-dressed, dirty, brutal-
faced gutter-snipes ? No! not by any means. A pair of well-dressed,
good-looking, evidently well-educated young men who ought to have
known as well as any one the gross, brutal selfishness of their act.
My look did not deter them. I tried to shut out their whispering and
with an agony of effort sought to concentrate all my attention upon the
music. But no! I had fallen to earth with such a dull thud, that every
nerve of my body felt the shock, and do what I could, I was unable
to rise again.
Sh—sh—pish—shs—buzz—buzz—buzz, went the lips behind me.
My joy was lost, my cup of bliss dashed from my lips, the attempt to
listen a torture instead of a pleasure, and all caused by that pair of
well-dressed, well-educated young savages behind me. What could I
do? What could I say ? To make any move, or utter any protest was
to make a boor of myself ; to put me, instead of them in the position
of the aggressor. At last I could bear it no longer. Taking out one
of my personal cards, I wrote on it, "I am here to enjoy this music.
Your whispering prevents. Remember I have a right to listen undis-
turbed : I hope you will recognize my right," and handed it to the
nearest whisperer. He read it and gave it to his friend. Both smiled
(for I watched them out of the half-turned corner of my eye) and
then the further one took out his pencil, wrote a word across the card
and handed it back. The word revealed him what his whispering
had distinctly denied him to be, "a gentleman." It said "Certainly."
But the subtile essence of joy was gone. The calmness of soul essen-
tial to a proper listening and enjoyment of the divine music was lost,
and as I sat I was so powerfully conscious that I had been defrauded
that, in spite of the gentlemanly response to my request, I felt that I
had far rather have had my pocket picked than have been deprived of
my right to the undisturbed enjoyment of the music. I lost somewhat
of this irritated feeling when the young men, a few minutes later, arose
and went out. Now I leaned back again and exerted my mind and
body to complete absorption in the music, when to my inexpressible
loathing and disgust new sh-sh-s-s-buzz-buzz-whiz-fiz-sh-sh-s-s-s began
to come from another source. Goaded almost to an outcry I turned
around to find a young woman with a male companion by her side
discussing the score of the oratorio. If I could have rn,ide her faint
with a look I certainly should have done so, but though shc: saw me turn
and look an indignant protest, several times, she calmly went on
talking. I then gave myself up to see what others felt about it, and
by actual observation and count found forty-eight persons in a radius
of six or seven seats in every direction were more or less disturbed
by the selfish, godless whispering of that prettily-dressed, nice-faced,
evidently educated savage and her beau.
I here express it as my definite, solemn conviction that I have less
anger and resentment against a thief who deliberately puts his hand into
THE BASKET. 57
my pocket and steals my hard-earned cash than I have against that
couple who would fiercely resent that they were anything less than a
lady and a gentleman.
A lady and a gentleman ! By the gods, then let me be a savage, a
brute, a beast, so long as I can have a little regard for the rights of
my fellow savages, brutes, beasts. If this be civilization, this wilful,
deliberate, selfish riding over the rights of others, I prefer to be a
Viking, an Apache, a Boer.
PRIMITIVE ARTS SOCIETY.
A meeting of those interested in the formation of a Primitive Arts

Society took place May 23, 1903, at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn.
A temporary President and Secretary were elected, and it was de-
cided to await more formal organization, October 3, 1903.
The suggested constitution which had been prepared by a committee
aims to realize in the future an annual exhibition which may hope to
further the use of native materials and raise the standard of art among
home workers.
Recognizing that each locality has the first claim to the best use of
its own material, the society hopes in the future to see not only students
from our city schools but representatives from different sections of the
country proving originality and freedom in handling our rich, native
materials, as yet so little valued.
Miss Dopp, from Chicago, gave an interesting account of her work
at the University, and encouraged us to realize how very important in
all matters of art were the first steps in the care of raw materials.
All present agreed to keep a notebook through the summer and
prepare some specimens, and if possible bring some finished articles to
the meeting October 3, 1903.
Those most interested in basketry agreed to label the specimens of
grass, etc., gathered, so that locality, state, county and town should be
clear, conditions of soil and climate, date of gathering, method of
treating, scientific name and the local name.
Most of those present were members of the Basket Fraternity.
In October we hope to report definite plans which will make it pos-
sible for the larger aims of a Primitive Arts Club to be realized.
THE FRATERNITY TRAVELING LIBRARY

OF INDIAN BASKETRY.
• •
The conditions on which this traveling library may be obtained are

as follows :
1. At least twenty members of the Fraternity living in the same
city or immediate neighborhood must send in a signed petition for it.
2. A guarantee from some banker or representative business man,
whose standing is guaranteed by Dun or Bradstreet, must be enclosed,
guaranteeing the payment of express charges and the safety of the
baskets to be sent.
58 THE BASKET.
3. One basket will be sent for each member of the Fraternity pe-
titioning. For instance, if twenty members desire the Library, twenty
baskets will be sent ; if twenty-five, twenty-five baskets, and so on.
4. Applications will be filed as received and filled as nearly as
possible within a month after receipt.
5. The Library can be kept at each place desired for one week only,
unless special provision be made for greater length of time.
THE FRATERNITY LIBRARY OF

INDIAN PHOTOGRAPHS.
A number of these Libraries are all ready to send on application to
any frater. Enclose fifty cents fee, and your guarantee to pay return
postage and send back all photographs in good condition, or to pay
thirty cents each for each photograph damaged or lost. Each Library
contains fifty photographs of Indian weavers, baskets, designs, etc.,
and, where desired, general photographs showing the homes, industries,
ceremonies, etc., of the Indians will be sent.
For a parlor talk to interest your friends in the Indians, these photo-
graphs are most useful and entertaining. Here are some of the subjects
that may be asked for, in addition to those specifically relating to Indian
Basketry :
Havasupai Indians Ceremonies
Navaho Indians The Hopi Flute Dance
Wallapai Indians The Hopi Snake Dance
Chemehnevi Indians Fiesta at Acoma
Yuma Indians Indian Dolls
Mohave Indians Indian Drums
Acoma Indians Indian Headdresses
Hopi Indians Cliff City of Acoma
Mission Indians Cliff Dwellings
Warner's Ranch Indians Grand Canyon
Laguna Indians Havasu Canyon
Tulare Indians Blanket Weaving
Yokut Indians Pottery Making
Pima Indians Indian Games
Apache Indians Indian Children
THE FRATERNITY LIBBARY OF STERE-

OPTICON SLIDES WITH LECTURE.
This is all ready to be sent out on application to any frater. Send
in your request, enclosing $i.00 for the hire, and guarantee to pay ex-
pressage both ways and to safely return the slides. If any are broken
the frater will be charged fifty cents for each one so broken, whether
during transit or not, the responsibility of the Fraternity ceasing when
the slides are delivered to the express company. Each frater may keep
the slides three days. If not promptly returned an extra charge of
fifty cents per day will be required.
Any frater who has a lantern or can borrow one can, with these
slides, give an interesting and instructive talk upon the subjects. There
are 6o slides and a full hour's lecture accompanies them.
THE BASKET. 59
THE QUESTION BASKET.
We shall be glad to have Fraters ask all the questions they desire
that come naturally into our province, and if we can answer them, will
do so in this page of the succeeding BASKET.
Where may Sweet Grass be obtained?
Try Sol Benedict (an Indian), Ottawa Beach, Mich.
Where may the long Georgia Pine . Needles be obtained ?

Send 25 cents in stamps to Hon. Carleton B. Gibson, superintendent
Public Schools, Columbus, Ga. He will see that the children gather and
mail them.
Where can I get a model loom made by the Navaho Indians ?

Hyde Exploring Expedition, East 23rd St., New York, or send
$1.5o or $2.00 in 2 cent stamps to The Basket Fraternity and we will
mail you one post free, making choice according to instructions as near
as possible.
Where can I obtain lessons in making baskets in New York city ?

There is a regular department in Teachers College, Columbia Uni-
versity. Write to Prof. C. R. Richards, Dean of the Manual Training
Department, for information. Miss Mary White, author of "How to
Make Baskets," also gives lessons at Mr. F. M. Covert's, 329 Fifth ave.
On page 34, Indian Basketry, is pictured a sacred Navaho basket.

Dr. Matthews states that the design of this symbolizes the rain clouds.
Miss Mary E. Slason, of Rutland, Vt., wishes to copy it, and also ques-
tions as follows :
"What are the colors ?"
The outlines of the four divisions as well as the outlines of the rain-
cloud designs are in black. The interior of the cloud designs are all in
the peculiar reddish brown of these Paiuti made baskets, while the body
of the basket is in the ordinary white splint.
"What is the diameter of the bottom ?"
In my own basket, which, however, is figured with three instead of
four designs, and is smaller than the general size, the bottom is five
inches in diameter.
"What is the stitch used?"
The stitch is the coiled stitch described in "Indian Basketry," page
162, and of the variety figured in "How to Make Indian and Other
Baskets," page 62, Fig. 76B.
"What is the design in the center ?" and "Does the inner circle rep-
resent the upper or under world ?"
I do not know.
6o THE BASKET.
"Is the Basket Fraternity prepared to supply real Indian materials ?"
Not yet. It is growing more difficult to obtain material from the
Indians, and, if possible, the Fraternity will seek to direct those who
desire to purchase these materials directly to some one on the ground ;
some Indian trader or friend.
A number of letters have been received from Fraters asking where

they can purchase Indian baskets. Here is a directory, and they are as-
sured of good treatment from each dealer :
Hyde Exploring Expedition,
26 East 23d street, New York.
F. M. Covert,
329 Fifth avenue, New York.
E. Mehesy, Jr.,
Fourth and Main streets, Los Angeles, Cal.
Field & Cole,
349 Spring street, Los Angeles, Cal. ; 19 S. First
street, San Jose, Cal.; 706 K street, Sacramento,
Cal. ; 28 Pacific avenue, Santa Cruz, Cal. ; Santa
Barbara, Cal. ; Capitola, Cal., Summer Only ;
327 Kearny street. San Francisco, Cal., also Pot-
ter Hotel, Santa Barbara, Cal.
Barker Burnell,
San Diego, Cal.
Frohman Trading Co.,
Portland, Ore.
The Curio,
Phoenix, Arizona.
A. Cohn,
The Emporium, Carson City, Nevada.
For Raffia, natural and vegetable dyed, and all supplies needed in
Basket making and weaving, send to The Home & School Art Co., 940
Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Ill.
How is the maiden-hair fern-stem prepared for use in basketry ?

The exact details I cannot give. As I understand it the stem is
gathered at the proper time and merely dried. If any one can tell
accurately I shall be glad to publish a full answer in the next "Basket."
THE BASKET. 61
THE FRATER PRUNUS AND FRA

ELBERTIIS.
There is no denying that we like other people to think well of us

and our work. There is honest joy in their approbation when we are
honestly striving to do the work which pleases them. Hence I confess
to gratification and pleasure when I read what Elbert Hubbard wrote
in the April number of The Philistine. Here it is :
ONCE THERE WAS A MAN.
When Napoleon met Wolfgang Goethe he said : "At last I have
seen a man."
When George Wharton James made a little journey to Sun-up and
spoke one Sunday afternoon in Roycroft Chapel, I mopped for joy, and
said the same.
I never saw but one man to compare with James, and that was Dr.
Lorenz, of Vienna. They look alike, act alike, are about the same age—
each has the same splendid health, the good cheer, the perfect poise, and
the great sympathetic heart of a Man.
These men know their business, and each in his own line has done
his work better than any other living person.
James is the one authority on the Art of the North American Indian.
What's that !—there is none ?
Lookee, my friend—no white woman can think out with her head
and make with her hands a work of beauty to compare in completeness,
in proportion, in perfection of color and design with the work of an
Arizona Indian woman. This Indian may work two years on a .single
basket, and into its design she will weave the history of her race, and
her own history as well—her aspirations, hopes, disappointments, and
her love.
To do good work you must be a good person.
A beautiful piece of work is a beautiful thought made manifest.
An Indian basket is a prayer.
Man, like Deity, creates in his own image. If there is no beauty
in your soul there will be no beauty in your work. If you have an
inward illumination, it will come out at your finger-tips in your work
if you are free.
And so these Indians who do this perfect work—this work of most
exquisite proportion and design—must have in them much good. Are
they not God's children ? and has he not breathed into their spirits some-
what of the goodness and glory that reveals itself in leaf and flower,
in bird and song, in mountain peak and sunset glow !
All is one.
And when you see George Wharton James and hear and listen to
him as he relates the story of Ramona and her baskets, your heart will
go out to all humanity in a universal sympathy, and love will possess
your soul.
I started to write an advertisement and forgot and ran off about my
Brother James, who is a Royal Roycrofter, with name in colors on the
Great Roster of Philistia.
62 THE BASKET,
James has lived alone in the mountains and on the plains, and for
six months has never seen a white person. The man who can live alone
must be in good company in order to enjoy. Isn't that so?
It costs ten dollars to join the American Academy of Immortals.
There are no liabilities and no further dues for ninety-nine years. You
get the Vibrations, which mean health, courage, good cheer, success !
All good things are yours.
James is a specimen. He can run, ride, swim, work and play. He
eats like a hired man and sleeps like a baby. He has the child-heart,
the body of a strong man, the mind of a prophet, and the soul of a god.
That is a combination we would all like to be, and may if we get
ourselves in harmony with the Infinite.
Let's be men!
You are not supposed to like everything you read in The Philistine.
I don't, and I write it all, too. We do not want servility and discipline-
ship—let us be just ourselves. And the more we think for ourselves,
the better we can think. Thinking is mental exercise, and we grow
strong only through exercise. If The Philistine makes you think, it
benefits you. Let us be ourselves !
To this last paragraph I can give most hearty approval. The Phil-
istine will make you think, possibly make you mad, perhaps make you
think its writer is a fool. There is where you will make your mistake.
A man who, monthly, for years, can set the thinking men and women
of America thinking, and thinking "good," is no fool. A subscription
to The Philistine is a good investment, and this is pure and sincere
advice.
Some day I hope to write for "The Basket" an account of my "Little
Journey to Sun-up," so that my readers will know what I think of
Elbert Hubbard and the work he is doing.
SPECIAL PREMIUM FOR ONE NEW

SUBSCRIBER.
We have just fifty copies left of "Nature Sermons," beautifully

printed on one side of the paper only, tied with silk cord, handsome
board cover especially designed by Harley D. Nichols. The whole
edition is sold but these fifty copies. The price was fifty cents each.
We wish to place them where they will be fully appreciated, namely,
in the hands of fifty active members of the Basket Fraternity. We
want these fifty "Nature Sermons" to bring us fifty new fraters. To
those members, therefore, who send us a new name, with the dollar
fee, we will send one of these beautiful little books, so long as they
last, provided 6 cents extra is enclosed for postage. These sermons
were written by our Frater Primus, George Wharton James, and afford
a healthfully stimulating series of glimpses of Nature seen through his
eyes.
There are but fifty copies left, so do not miss getting one. Send in
your new name and thus help on the good work.
FIG. 29. AN APACHE MAIDEN, WITH BASKET WATER OLLA.

THE BASKET
44 THE ORGAN OF THE BASKET FRATERNITY 4.
Vol 1. OCTOBER, 1903. No 4.
PALONAS
APACHES
A N D
THEIR BASKETS
BY
6EORCTEVH A RION JA 11 E5
With copyright illustrations by the author.
Reprinted from "SUNSET."
It is a difficult matter to know exactly where to place some of the
detached bands of Indians found here and there in Arizona. Prior to
the "rounding up" of the Apaches and concentrating them on the San
Carlos and White Mountain reservations they were scattered over a
large territory. One of the most noted bands of fighters and raiders
was located in what is now called the Short Horn Range of mountains,
near the Gila river and some twenty to thirty miles from the station
of Aztec on the line of the Southern Pacific Railway, Sunset route.
Owing to their near proximity to the Yuma river and Indians of that
name, they were often termed Yuma Apaches, and this name has led
to a good deal of general confusion as to the proper designation of the
Yumas themselves, many contending that they are Apaches.
For this reason I have, for the purpose of clearly distinguishing
them, termed this band the Palomas Apaches, using the name of the
little settlement close by.
This band was not only composed of fearless and daring warriors,
but had as leaders men who were competent to direct raids—to take the
44 THE BASKET.
initiative in the wholesale punishment and slaughter of the white men

who had dared to invade their long-possessed territory. It is a com-
mon charge that the Indian always skulked in a cowardly manner and
sneaked upon his unsuspecting foe, never daring to meet him in the
open. That may be true, and yet such conduct does not necessarily im-
ply either cowardice or meanness. It is well occasionally to look at
the subject from the Indian side. He was in possession of land over
which he had roamed undisturbed (except for the occasional quarrels
with his neighbor), for many centuries. He was unarmed, save for the
primitive weapons, the bows and arrows, stone axes and hammers,
flint-headed lances, of his forefathers. An invader appears who is
armed with weapons that kill at long distances, where bow and arrow,
stone battle-axe and flint lance or spear are useless as weapons of of-
fense or defense. One or two experiences with such a foe, armed in
such a manner, would suffice to teach far less brainy men than Apaches
that stealth must be a prime element in their warfare under such con-
ditions. Hence, when, in later years, they became possessed of the
white man's weapons, they still retained the stealthy methods of ap-
proach and warfare which had been forced upon them.
As the stage crossed the desert, guarded by soldiers, from Yuma to
Gila Bend, there were times when the wild fury of the Indians at the
persistent presence of the white man drove them to desperation, and
again and again they attacked the hated foreigners and sought to in-
timidate others by slaying those who came within their reach. Many
graves can be found on the Gila, near the stage road, of soldiers iand
others who were thus slain and buried where they fell.
When General Miles undertook the pacification of the Apaches this
band was "corralled" with the rest and taken to San Carlos. As the
bands have loosened, little by little, first one family and then another,
has returned to its former haunts, so that now at Palomas and Agua
Caliente there are, perhaps, twenty to thirty families of these former
renegades.
From the storekeeper and farmers of Palomas I learn that they are
good workers, most of the men being engaged as helpers on the
ranches. They are intelligent, honest, capable and reliable. Their word
once given, they can be depended upon to perform what they have said.
Indeed, Mr. J. Fred Nottbusch, the Palomas storekeeper, assures me
that he has learned to respect and esteem them highly for their good
qualities, their manliness and character.
At the time of my visit a tragic event had just taken place which
serves to illustrate some of the operations of the Apaches' minds. A
young man and old one had a quarrel about a horse. In thoughtlessness
the young man twitted the old one in such a way that the latter became
angered beyond control. Rushing to his camp he secured a gun and
shot and killed the young man. Immediately there was the direst con-
fusion in the settlement. The dead body of the young man was the
center of wild weeping and wailing. Mother, two sisters and other
friends stood and wailed in anguish at the suddenness and horrible
cruelty of the death of their loved one.
While they thus mourned another shot was heard This was at the
camp of the old man. Who could be the second victim of his anger ?
Was he demented and determined to slay others now that one man had
THE BASKET. 45
fallen at his hands ? One or two of the bravest of the men hastened
to the camp and there saw a sight that, in one sense, was worse to them
than had the old man slain another victim. Undoubtedly acting under
a fit of remorse he had taken the gun with which he had fired the fatal
shot into the heart of the young man and had placed it between his legs,
the muzzle at his heart, the butt end on the ground, and had then pulled
the trigger with his toes. As he fell back his head and the upper part of
his body fell into the embers of his camp fire, and when he was first
seen the flames were slowly consuming him. Filled with horror at the
dreadful act of suicide the onlookers hastened back to camp and a
FIG. 30. AN AGED APACHE WEAVER.
powwow was immediately held as to what should be done. The news

of the first tragedy had already been sent to the white men, and now
additional messengers were sent to inform them of the suicide. When
Mr. Nottbusch determined to visit the scene, those who did not know
of the second event begged him to approach the old man cautiously, as
they were afraid he might shoot further if not left alone. The others
knew that he could shoot no more, but they were afraid of the in-
fluences—the intangible spiritual influences of evil—that would un-
doubtedly hover around the body of a man slain by his own hand.
When the white men saw that victim and perpetrator were both dead,
46 THE BASKET.
they decided that nothing further could be done. Why go to the ex-
pense of a formal Coroner's inquest when nothing more could be
gleaned from the Apaches than that which had already been given ?
They returned to Palomas. That was on Saturday. Before half an
hour was passed the body of the young man was cremated. A pit two
feet in depth was dug, filled with greasewood and then covered with
dry poles. Upon this the body was placed and more dry poles piled over
it and the whole pyre covered with great bundles of greasewood. The
friends set fire to the wood, and as the flames arose all the personal
property of the deceased was thrown into the fire, as well as flour, corn,
bread, meat, tobacco, dried fruit and other foods, which, being burned
at the same time, would accompany him to the world of spirits. Nor
was this all ! In the depth of their grief the female friends, of the de-
parted stripped themselves of their garments until they stood nearly
nude and threw these upon the burning mass.
But with the suicide it was far different. He must, of course, be
cremated, but none wished to do the work of preparing the funeral'
pyre or placing the body upon it, and it was only after considerable self-
communing that two or three of the leaders undertook the disagreeable
task. As soon as both bodies were consumed and the ashes fell through
into the pit, dirt was heaped up over the graves.
To the superstitious Apache, however, there was great danger in
remaining any longer in the region of the place made evil by the suicide.
According to their belief spirits await the good and the bad to convey
them to the abode of the dead, but those that wait upon a suicide are
the worst and most malevolent of all evil spirits. It is in the power
of these evil agencies to work the direst harm upon the living, hence
they are to be dreaded, shunned and avoided. Accordingly, no sooner
were the bodies cremated than preparations were made for a general
exodus from Palomas. Early on Sunday morning it began and before
night there were but four families left. The homes were all fired, and
as the sun set the horizon was illumined by the flames as they arose
from the rapidly burning brush shelters of this people thus made home-
less by their own act. And who shall condemn them ? There is some-
thing essentially philosophical in fleeing from a place of evil influence.
The memory of the suicide and his crime were best blotted out, and this
was certainly far more speedily accomplished by leaving the spot than
by remaining there.
To me, however, this exodus was a misfortune Two weeks before
I might have seen the whole of this band. Now but four families re-
mained. Still, these were typical families, for they were composed of
some of the old "fire-eaters--fierce, warlike men in their young days.
One of them had two daughters, one of whom had been to school at
Santa Fe. Her father was a hostile. She was taken perforce and sent
to school. She speaks English well, but has no love for the white man's
school or his ways. While she and her people are all willing enough to
take advantage of many of the white man's utensils, materials for cloth-
ing, blankets, etc., they still have the old desire for seclusion and they
wish to be left alone. To photograph her was impossible. She was de-
termined not to allow any one to make a picture of her returned to her
wild condition. It was an interesting fight between her and myself,
and she never once ceased to smile and laugh while the battle lasted.
THE BASKET. 47
FIG. 31. ONE OF THE OLD APACHE FIRE EATERS.

48 THE BASKET.
She listened most engagingly, and just as I was sure she would consent,
with a few exasperating words charmingly spoken, laughing and jok-
ing, she would positively refuse and turn away. And to gain the pic-
ture surreptitiously was equally impossible. She knew every wile of
the photographer. There was no opportunity given to place the camera
accidentally in position and get a snap when she was not expecting it.
A hawk never eyed its prey, a cat a mouse, a fox an unsuspecting rab-
bit, more completely and successfully than Mattie kept her eye on me.
So I have no other photograph of her and her sister than those in my
memory, as I see her, squatted over the fire cooking her father's dinner,
kneading bread, baking tortillas or standing against a tree, provoking
to the last degree in her good nature, but firm in her determination
not to grant my request. Laughing, limpid, dark eyes, high forehead,
large though sensitive nostrils, a heavy head of hair, banged over the
eyes, firm chin, a mouth that could be soft and yielding and the next
moment surprise you by its lines of strength and firmness, and a chin
that denoted self-will even to obstinacy ; these were the dominating fea-
tures. She wore the ordinary common calico dress of the half-civilized
aborigine, with the "honda" tied across her breast and hanging grace-
fully over her shoulders.
It was a pleasure to watch her dexterous movements as she made
tortillas from the dough she had just kneaded. I had a Mexican with
me, helping carry my outfit, and he begged for a tortilla. From her
stores she brought out a tin sheet made from a coal oil can. This was
curved over the live coals, and as it heated Mattie took enough dough
to make an ordinary sized biscuit, and by patting and coaxing, tossing
the enlarging, flexible and thin sheet from one arm to the other,
stretched it until it seemed that it could not possibly bear another pull.
At last it was thrown upon the now heated tin sheet to be baked. In
a few seconds with a dexterous movement it was turned over. Then
the tin was partially withdrawn from the fire, and the now nearly baked
tortilla was given its browning directly on the live coals, the whole
operation being performed so easily, smoothly, certainly, by this dark-
skinned, dark-haired, dark-eyed, red-lipped, white-teethed maiden in
the red calico dress, while she laughed and joked with the white stranger
who wanted to make her photograph.
When her father came home at noon he broiled a steak on the live
coals, but angrily commanded that the camera be removed when I
asked to be allowed to photograph him. He was sick, Al attie said. In
five minutes I was with him in his brush house, we were good friends,
and he was telling me as well as my imperfect knowledge of Apache
would allow me to understand all the symptoms of asthmatical and
bronchial troubles that afflicted him.
Close by were two other families, the women of which were basket
weavers. As is well known, the Apaches make fine baskets, their
plaque-bowls and water ollas being remarkable for their size, striking
design and utility. I call them plaque-bowls to differentiate them from
the deep bowls of other weavers, as the Cahuillas, Pomas, Tulares and
Paiutis. These are saucer-shaped, but so large that the term saucer
might be misleading. I purchased several of them, as large as twenty-
four to thirty inches in diameter. The material of the inner coil is the
peeled willow and is called sa-us. The white wrapping splints are of
THE BASKET. 49
FIG. 32. AN APACHE GRANDMOTHER.

50 THE BASKET.
FIG. 33. APACHE WEAVER AT WORK.

THE BASKET. 51
willow, but split and scraped to the required fineness. These splints are
called al-a-mo, while the black is invariably the outer skin of the cat's
claw or martynia and is called lar-ga.
The ollas are woven in the same way and vary in size, some of them
being fully two to three feet high. The elegance of their shape, the
striking character of the designs, and the fact that they are so closely
woven that they will hold water in their unpitched condition, render
them highly desirable acquisitions to any collection. Fine baskets of
this character contain an almost incredible number of stitches and re-
quire long months for their completion.
FIG. 34. A BASKET WEAVER'S DWELLING.
The San Carlos, White Mountain, Jicarilla and Mescalero bands of

Apaches are all basket makers, but the so-called Yuma Apaches—this
Palomas band—surpass all the others. Their work is characterized by
finer stitches, more beautiful shape, better colored splints and greater
beauty and quality of design. Though they use only black and white
splints, there can be a great difference in the selection of the materials.
The martynia and squaw brush or willow, unless gathered at the proper
season, are dingy, instead of pure black, white or cream. These wea-
vers invariably watch carefully and gather just at the precise time.
52 THE BASKET.
From the accompanying photographs the commonest shapes of their

ware may be seen. The large plaques, when placed upon a collector's
walls, immediately attract attention by their size and interesting de-
signs, and the ollas grace many a studio, used for the practical and
essential waste-paper basket.
A distinguishing feature of the Apache coiled weave over that of the
Pima is that the former is ribbed, as it were. That is, if one rubs his
fingers up and down an Apache basket he can feel a tiny ridge on each
coil, while the Pima ware has no such ridge. This is caused by the
difference of the material of the inner coil. The Pima uses the fine,
soft splint of the cat-tail, quite a number (fifty or more, perhaps) be-
ing required to fill up the coil, as it is so fine, so soft and so yielding.
The Apaches invariably use three small willow shoots, generally peeled,
and the placing of these three rounded shoots together forms a ridge
that is readily discerned when one's attention is called to it. Differ-
ences of this kind may appear slight and insignificant to the general
reader, but it is from just such insignificances that facts are discov-
ered or hinted at, of the greatest importance to the archaeologist, an-
tiquarian and ethnologist. To Mr. J. W. Benham, of Phoenix, Arizona,
and the managing head of the Benham Trading Companies, of New
York, New Mexico, and Arizona, we are indebted for having our atten-
tion called to this difference in weave.
The Apaches are very averse to being pictured, and all who knew
them prophesied that my visit photographically would be without re-
sults. The accompanying engravings are but a small quota of those I
succeeded in obtaining. When the young girl came to me bearing the
large olla gracefully upon her head I thought of the critics of the In-
dians who never see anything beautiful or picturesque in them. Her
face was wreathed in smiles (unfortunately the sight of the camera
made her very afraid and serious) and her grace and charm were most
attractive. Her grandmother, who wove the baskets by her side, though
an ill-clad, wrinkled and haggard dame, had a face that lit up with in-
telligent pleasure when I praised her work and questioned her about it.
* 0 *
My thoughts are far more with the stream that flows from the heart
than with the grandest river that ever sought the sea. The checkered
board of human life is the map whose geography I love to study.
He liveth long who liveth well :

All other life is short and vain.
He liveth longest who can tell
Of living most for heavenly gain.
He liveth long who liveth well :

All else is being flung away ;
He liveth longest who can tell
Of true things truly done each day.
THE BASKET. 53
P44149 14:44ArtgAelda,
4
(With copyright photographs by the author.)
FIG. 35. TWO HOPI BURROS.
Interesting among Indians because of their picturesquely constructed

houses on the summits of high mesas, reached only by precipitous
trails, the Hopi of northern Arizona have always possessed extra and
peculiar fascination on account of their strange and thrilling religious
rite, known as the Snake Dance, an account of which follows. Here I
wish to call attention to a few interesting facts not so generally known
about this semi-civilized family of native sons and daughters of the
Painted Desert. For the region they live in, named by the Spanish
conquistadores, three hundred and fifty years ago, the Province of
Tusayan, is a region of color. The rocks of which the mesas are built,
the sands of the desert, the peculiarly carved buttes which abound on
every hand, are all strikingly colored, with such a variety of hues and
tints that one does not wonder at the name—the Painted Desert—
which is also applied to the country through which we must travel
to reach the home of the Hopi.
Leaving Canyon Diablo, on the transcontinental line of the Santa Fe,
eighty miles' drive over this sandy, tawny desert brings one to the
cornfields of the Hopi, as properly they should be called. For years
they have been known as the Moki, a term of reproach applied to them
in derision by the Navahoes, on account of their unsanitary habits.
These cornfields are a wonderful monument to the perception, indus-
try and thrift of the Hopi. White men would have starved to death
in the place before they would dream of planting corn in such an inhos-
pitable-looking soil. No springs or streams sufficient to irrigate with,
unversed in digging wells and pumping water to the surface, one would
have thought an ignorant Indian would have looked elsewhere before
planting his corn in such a place. But he who deems an Indian "ig-
norant" in matters which naturally come under his observation is apt
to be much deceived. The life of the Indian, from the cradle to the
grave, is one of close observation. His very existence depends upon
its exercise. He soon discovered, therefore, that there was a natural
subsoil irrigation in certain parts of this desert where his corn would
grow. And grow it does, most wonderfully. Sometimes water is
scarce ; then the crop decreases, but generally a good crop may be relied
54 THE BASKET.
upon. To hoe his cornfield a Hopi will often run over the desert forty,
fifty, sixty, and even eighty miles in a day. And this statement can be
authenticated by unimpeachable authority. Sometimes, when the field
is near by, the Hopi will ride on his burro. Two of these cunning
creatures are shown in the heading. They are almost a necessity of
Indian life. The streets would seem lonely without them, and they af-
ford a great deal of pleasure to the children, who make them the chief
contributors to some pretty lively fun. It will be noticed that the ani-
mal to the left has lost part of his left ear. This is proof that he is
FIG. 36. STREET IN SHUNGOPAVI.
possessed of kleptomaniac proclivities. It is the custom, if a burro is

found stealing corn, to call him into a family conclave, and then, if
he is deemed guilty, he is sentenced to have part of his ear cut off to
remind him of his wrongdoing and prevent future moral lapses.
On one of these burros we ride up the steep trail that brings us to
the westernmost village of the Hopi, Oraibi. It is perched high on the
mesa top, several hundred feet above the valley, and the various trails
are steep and rugged. Some of them are sheer climbs, up which no
animal other than man can go. There are six other villages, three of
them ten miles, and the other three about twenty miles, to the east of
THE BASKET. 55
INI
FIG. 37. HOPI MAIDENS.

56 THE BASKET.
Oraihi. They, also, are perched upon high mesas which thrust them-
selves, like long noses or fingers, into the sandy desert. On the middle
mesa are Shungopavi, Mashonganavi and Shipauluvi, while on the
eastern mesa are Walpi, Sichomavi and Hano. While there are dis-
tinguishing features in the architecture of each village, the first picture
gives a clear, general idea as to the prevailing style. All the houses
are built of rude pieces of sandstone, cemented with mud. Steps are
made of larger slabs of stone, and often the only means of access is
by long ladders, the long poles of which tower high above the build-
ings and give a singularly picturesque aspect to the village, whether
seen near or afar. In the olden days there were neither doors nor win-
dows in the first story of the houses. They were built purposely so.
FIG. 38. MAKING PIKI.
as they must serve as fortresses as well as homes. When threatened

with attack by foes, the ladders were drawn up to the platform above,
from which defense was comparatively easy. The advent of the white
man with his death-dealing gun and rifle has shown the futility of
such means of defense, and he has also interfered with the long-estab-
lished feuds of the centuries and practically prohibited any other quar-
reling except that which he approves ; so that now doors and windows
are becoming more common as the years go by.
The visitor who enters a Hopi pueblo for the first time is struck by the
peculiar method of hairdressing used by the young maidens. The pic-
ture below shows a group of these girls at Shungopavi, and the "whorl"
over each ear is plainly to be seen. This style or fashion is one of long
standing, for Castenada, the historian of the Coronado expedition,
THE BASKET. 57
describes it as existing in the days of the Spanish conquest. In it is
seen the poetic symbolism of a simple-hearted people. The Hopi em-
blem of maidenhood and purity is the squash blossom ; of maturity
and fruitfulness, the long squash itself. Hence, the whorls of the
maiden are in imitation of the squash blossom, and are a constant re-
minder of her duty and privilege to be maidenly and pure ; and, when
she marries, she must change the style of her hairdressing to long
FIG. 39. HOPI WOMEN BUILDING HOUSE.
pendant rolls, in imitation of the fruit of the squash, which suggests

to her the joys of maternity ofttimes repeated.
This roll may be seen in the fashion of hairdressing shown in the
picture of an Oraibi woman engaged in the interesting occupation of
making piki. Piki is a wafer bread peculiar to the Hopis. It is finer
than the finest tortilla of the Mexican or oatcake of the Scotch. No
biscuit maker in America or England can make a cracker one-half so
thin. Wafer bread is thick compared with it, and yet these rude sav-
ages ( ?) make it with a dexterity that is as marvelous as it is hard to
imitate. Cornmeal batter, in a crude earthenware bowl, is the material ;
58 THE BASKET.
FIG. 40. A HOD CARRIER.

THE BASKET. 59
a smooth, flat stone, under which a quick fire is kept burning is the in-
strument, and the woman's quick fingers, spreading a thin layer of the
batter over the stone, perform the operation. It looks so easy. Try it,
young lady who would scorn to be regarded as inferior in anything to
an Indian. I will have vaseline or other emolient ready for your blis-
tered fingers when you have shown how quickly you can learn—how
not to do it. A lady of one of my parties tried it once and failed. My
cook, a stalwart Kansas City man, knew he would not fail. And he
didn't. He had four of the best-blistered fingers I had seen in a long
time, and he has no interest now in the manufacture of piki. But the
FIG. 41. HOPI WEAVING.
Hopi woman just greases the stone, dips her fingers into the batter,
carries them lightly and carelessly over the heated surfaces, and, in a
moment, strips the already baked sheet from the stone. When several
are baked, she folds them over and over until they are about the size
of an elongated shredded wheat biscuit.
It is readily apparent that this kind of work is essentially within
the province of woman, but it is a reversal of our conception of things
to see the "gentler sex" engaged in the building of a house, as is shown
in the picture above. Here a most picturesque group can be discerned,
but engaged in this strangely chosen and unwomanly labor. Yet to
6o THE BASKET.
the Hopi woman (and man, too) there is nothing strange in this scene,
for the woman, and not the man, is the owner, as well as the director
of the house. Hence, the Hopi reasons, why should she not build it ?
It is hers, so let her make it, and so she does. She uses no spirit level,
no plumb line, no square, no saw, and yet she makes a creditable house,
fairly square and plumb, warm and cosy in winter and cool and com-
fortable in summer. The mud of the winter's watercourses is used as
mortar, and the pieces of disintegrated sandstone that abound on the
mesa tops form the building material.
This is woman's rights with a vengeance, for not only does she actu-
ally lay the stones in place, but one picture shows us that she is her
own hodcarriez, this woman being stopped in the doorway, or, rather,
caught there with the camera, as she was about to ascend the ladder to
supply her tinful of rocks to the "bricklayers" above. I wonder if
the builders of the Tower of Babel were women ? It would help ac-
count for the confusion of tongues that ensued, especially if they chat-
tered and gabbled as much as these Hopi women do during the progress
of their work. When we leveled the cameras on them there was a uni-
versal strike. This was not a conflict, in ordinary sense of the term,
between capital and labor, though capital (represented by the impecuni-
ous photographers) eventually had to capitulate and pledge itself to
provide a new dress for each and every woman engaged on the build-
ing. As soon as this agreement was duly sworn to—in Hopi, by the
writer—the strike was declared off and work was resumed, though one
of the blithe females demanded two dresses for the double shots that
were taken at her. I have been short on dresses ever since, but I am
of opinion that some of the dresses I sent up to my building friends
will not be found inconveniently long.
In direct antithesis to these pictures, and yet purely in accordance
with Hopi logic, is the last picture, which shows a man weaving a
woman's garment. Men, also, knit the stockings and engage in other
so-called feminine occupations. There is nothing incongruous in these
things to them. They are part of "the way of the old" handed down to
them by their forefathers, and they are essentially conservative and
opposed to change. Indeed, this is the key to their whole character,
as I have shown elsewhere.
To watch a weaver at work is to learn a new respect for Indians.
As one sees the rude loom—a few poles and sticks—and the home
cleaned, spun and dyed yarn, no shuttle, no complicated sheds and bat-
tens, nothing but the crude, home-made appliances, and then watches
the yarn climb up, thread by thread, battened down by hand so that
the garment will hold water, and finally receives it, a finished product,
strong, shapely, artistically designed and perfectly fitted for its re-
quired purpose, he comes to the conclusion that the Hopi weaver, at
least, has a right to be classed among the skilled artisans of the world.
These are but few of the interesting things that the photographer,
amateur or professional, can find to engage his attention among the
Hopi. No field is so full of delightful surprises and makes so many
demands upon one's resources. The Indian is rapidly being changed,
if not passing away, and if he is to be shown in his primitive simplicity,
the work must be done within the next few years or it will never be
done at all.
THE BASKET. 6x
FIG. 42. THE LINE OF SNAKE PRIESTS AT ORA1BI.
THE SNAKE DANCE OF THE HOPIS.

BY GEORGE WHARTON JAMES.
(With copyright photographs by the author.)
"Oh, pshaw ! We've read so much about the Snake Dance that we're
tired of the whole business. Give us something new, something fresh,
something people know nothing about."
This article is my answer. On the authority of Dr. Jesse Walter
Fewkes, I venture to assert that with but two or three exceptions all
the popular articles on the Snake Dance are not worth the paper they
are written on, much les the paper they are printed on. They are full
of the most glaring errors ; errors even in matters of simplest observa-
tion, where no child need to have made the egregious blunders self-
styled "experts" have complacently committed. Most people call it a
wild, exciting, tumultuous, yelling, screaming, horrible carnival, when
the fact is the whole ceremony is conducted with a dignity, a calmness,
a solemnity that is not surpassed by any Christian observance, no mat-
ter how serious or solemn the occasion.
Then, too, it is not a dance in our sense of the word. It is a prayer
for rain and of thanksgiving for the blessings of harvest. Neither is
it an act of snake worship as so many state. The fact is that according
to Hopi mythology the snake and antelope clans or families are de-
scended from the union of Tiyo and his brother with two sisters, daugh-
ters of the snake mother, Tiyo being the paternal ancestor of the snake
clan and his brother that of the antelope clan. The story of Tiyo's
visit, using a sealed-up hollow pinion log as a boat and sailing down
the Colorado river through "shipapu" to the underworld is one of the
most interesting pieces of aboriginal folk-lore. It forms the burden
62 THE BASKET.
of the sixteen dramatic songs sung in the secrecy of the underground

ceremonial kivas of the snake and antelope clans in the nine days of
preliminary ceremonial which culminate in the open-air dance, all that
whites and Hopis not of the participating clans are permitted to see.
This statement, however, is scarcely true. There are two other
ceremonies connected with the Snake Dance that all who like may wit-
ness. These are the antelope race and the corn scrabble or scuffle. The
former of these takes place on the morning of the eighth day before
sunrise. Though apparently a mere test of athletic ability it is in real-
ity a religious ceremonial. For centuries the Hopi lived surrounded
by warlike and hostile people who preyed upon them, robbing and mur-
FIG. 43. MARCH OF THE ANTELOPE PRIESTS.
dering them at all too frequent intervals. Being few in number, living
in a desert land, beset by murderous marauders, fleetness of foot and
great "staying" powers while running over the long trails of the sandy
deserts became an essential condition of national preservation. Hence,
with the wisdom of statesmanship, the priests made the cultivation of
the powers of the body a matter of religion. Every youth was com-
pelled, willy nilly, to exercise legs, arms, lung and heart powers to the
utmost. The result is a fine athletic development unsurpassed in the
world. Each year many great races are run, and two of the chief of
these are at the Snake Dance, there being a race on both the eighth and
ninth mornings.
THE BASKET. 63
I think I see them now ! I used to watch them from the mesa heights,
but lately I have found a vantage point from which I could, at a dis-
tance, see the race in profile almost from start to finish. On the mesa
top, near the head of the trail, there are large crowds of whites and In-
dians assembled. It is the dull gray of the early morning, yet the bril-
liant colors of the Indians' costumes make a fine display. Here and
there bands of naked Indians await the coming of the racers, and here
are young boys ceremonially decorated to greet them. At the imme-
diate head of the trail the chief priests of the antelope clan stand with
FIG. 44. FIG. 47.

CHIEF ANTELOPE PRIEST WITH TIPONI. A DANCER WITH SNAKE IN HAND.
sacred meal and water ready to sprinkle the winners with these symbols
of fertility and life.
See them as they run. Ten, fifteen, twenty of them ; medium-sized,
stalwart youths from eighteen to twenty-five years of age; none of them
more than five feet four to six or eight inches in height, but muscular
and athletic to a degree. All are nude, except for the breech clout, and
perhaps a sunflower fastened over the forehead. The long, jet-black hair
is loose and flows to the wind as the racers hurry along. With head
thrown back, chests expanded and thrown out, arms and shoulders
swinging to the movement, they follow each other on the narrow, sandy
trail. Each man seems to be doing his best. For one to pass another
seems an impossibility, and yet that is just what they are waiting to do.
It means a desperate rush, for the sand outside the trail is more soft
and yielding, and there are treacherous weeds and roots scattered along
64 THE BASKET.
the track. Here is the chance, however, and the man who is fifth makes
a sudden spring to the left, and as if stimulated by electricity, darts
forward past the fourth, third and second man. For a time it seems
as if he would pass the leader, but that runner has some power in re-
serve, and he uses it to such good advantage that he succeeds for the
present in keeping his place. But number five has become number
two, and he is still evidently holding power in reserve, though keeping
close to the leader and running at a pace absolutely killing on that fear-
ful sand. Struggling and panting, on they go. The spectators above
FIG. 45. TWO CHIEF ANTELOPE PRIESTS IN LINE, ONE WITH TIPONI,
THE OTHER WITH SACRED WATER BOWL.
cheer them, and though our voices cannot possibly reach them, we are
so excited at that last great spurt that we instinctively cheer the one
who has gained second place. All at once he darts ahead again, and
before we can tell how it happened he is in the lead. What superb run-
ning it is. Ah ! the defeated leader has made a jump forward and re-
gained his place. But what is this ? A runner who must have been far
THE BASKET. 65
in the rear is outlined against the sky on the ridge there, bounding
ahead as a "limited" train passes a slow freight. It is a marvel of
athletic power. He bounds with the ease and speed of a pursued
chamois. What a shout rends the air. Though we are over two miles
away from the mesa top, it reaches us even here. The leaders struggle
along desperately as they hear the panting breath of this new and for-
midable competitor, but their efforts are in vain, for, just as they reach
the foot of the rocky part of the trail where white men generally stop
and begin to breathe heavily in anticipation, the newcomer made an ex-
tra leap, darted into the lead, and before the two others could recover
FIG. 46. THE DANCE IN FULL SWING. DANCER WITH SNAKE IN MOUTH.
from their astonishment was literally his own height or more above
them in the upward climb.
It was the finest exhibition of holding power in reserve until the last
moment I ever saw in my life, and it captured every one, whites and
Indians alike, so that a perfect furore of applause greeted him when
he stood, the winner, with bowed head, fiercely heaving chest, quiver-
ing limbs, body glistening with sweat, before the chief priests. The
lightning bearer threw the zigzag symbols over him and rain clouds
were pictured at his feet. Then he hurried on to the antelope kiva,
where another priest gave to him the sacred gourd full of water and a
sack full of sacred meal, with certain ceremonial prayer sticks, which,
placed and used in his cornfield, would ensure to him an extra fine crop
at the next harvest.
In the meantime a number of young men and boys had followed the
66 THE BASKET.
rest of the racers, bearing in their hands cornstalks, melon vines and
fruit. Immediately they reached the level mesa top the women and
girls darted upon them, and a most good-natured but exciting scuffle
took place. It was not a mere rough and tumble, catch as catch can,
anybody get anything scuffle, but on watching one could see fine plays
going on. Here were three women all bent on catching one fellow and
he equally determined to bestow his cornstalk upon a less demonstra-
tive maiden who kept her eyes on him as he sought to escape the pur-
suit of the others and come to her. Success crowned his efforts at
last, and amid much laughter, he gave his gifts to the maiden of his
FIG. 49. SNAKE PRIESTS DRINKING THE EMETIC.
choice. For five to ten minutes this good-natured scuffling took place,
and when every corn or vine carrier was rid of his gifts the play was
at an end, and all retired to await the great event of the whole ceremony,
the open-air dance, when the deadly reptiles would be carried in the
mouths of the priest.
At noon, however, a secret ceremony took place in the dark recesses
of the kiva, viz. : the washing of the elder brothers (as the snakes are
called), which I have fully described in my new book, "The Indians of
the Painted Desert Region."
When the afternoon shadows began to lengthen every available place
in the dance plaza was speedily occupied with as heterogeneous a crowd
THE BASKET. 67
as ever assembled anywhere. It was a mixture in blood, color and

clothing. Red, black, copper colored and white were all present, and
caste was unknown. The Chinese jostled the African, the Indian and
the white with equal serenity, and the white hobnobbed with red, black
and copper colored. In clothes the contrasts were remarkable and
striking; colors being used with an abandon and freedom that would
have shamed a darky camp meeting or a Persian festival. For an hour
or more we waited the march of the antelope priests. Then, suddenly,
at the last moment, it was decided that the photographers present—and
FIG. 50. THE RESULT OF THE EMETIC.
they were legion—must keep within a certain line, and that no one
without a camera should be permitted in their preserves. This was an
innovation. Hitherto every man had chosen his own field, and moved
to and fro wherever he liked—in front of his neighbor or some one else ;
kicking down another fellow's tripod and sticking his elbow in the next
fellow's lens. Half a dozen or more Indian policemen led by the acting
agent kept us in line, so we had to go ahead and make the best of it.
In studying out the new situation we nearly lost the march of the
antelope priests, for they came out before we were ready. We assumed
68 THE BASKET.
position, however, and stayed there until the exciting part of the cere-
mony was over.
This placing of restrictions on photographers will undoubtedly con-
tinue as the dance becomes better known and attracts more people.
Each year the number who flock there is greater, and it is imperative
that some regulations be laid down or the poor Indians would be run
over in the eager desire of the visitors to see them handle the deadly
reptiles.
After circling in front of the kisi (a cottonwood bower in which the
snakes are kept) the antelope priests lined up with their faces fronting
from the kisi. Here they sang and danced a while, waiting for the
snake priests. These came from their kiva to the south of the dance
plaza, and as they arrived all sounds were hushed and all attention
concentrated upon them. They circled before the kisi and then lined
up facing the antelope priests.
Some people say they are hideous ; others have said with me that the
sight is sublime. If one looks merely at the half-nude bodies, made
repulsive by a coating of reddish black paint, with dabs of whitewash
in several places, their faces painted with the reddish black stuff,
strings of white beads around their necks, and snake whips in their
hands, then indeed it is easy to say that they are hideous. But if one
looks at their faces with the determination to read there exactly what
the soul behind shows, he will see intense earnestness, deep solemnity,
profound dignity and unflinching belief in the necessity for and power
of the prayers about to be offered. And no one can see such evidences
of inner belief and character without feeling the sublimity of the human
soul when exercising its higher faculties.
Then, too, the simple, trustful bravery with which they handle the
snakes when that part of the ceremony comes. They know the danger ;
no one more so. Indeed, if a priest is afraid he is not allowed to par-
ticipate. Not only would his fear prevent his own proper worship, but
it would interfere with that of his comrades.
There were few snakes at Oraibi this year, but those they had were
active and vicious. There were several rattlers, some red racers and a
few bull snakes. The light was good and several first-class photographs
were made which actually show the snakes in the mouths of the priests.
An interesting picture also is that where the priest holds the snake in
his hand about to place it on the ground. At the Snake Dance in the
other villages the priest swings the snake out of his mouth and allows
it to fall. Here I noticed that every snake was gently placed upon the
ground by the priest who had been carrying it in his mouth.
It should be noticed that the antelope men never leave their line
during the handling of the snakes. They continue to sing during the
whole performance. It has often been wrongfully stated that the
antelope priests pair with the snake priests in the dance, but it is time
intelligent observers and writers gave the error its quietus.
While waiting for the priests to return after taking the snakes into
the valley, I learned of several slight changes owing to changed cir-
cumstances. The rain had made numerous small pools at the top of
the mesa. The priests, in returning, divested themselves of all their
ceremonial paraphernalia and washed the paint from their bodies before
returning to the kiva and drinking the emetic. Generally they have
THE BASKET. 69
gone to their homes at Oraibi or at Walpi, have had the women bring
water on the west side of the mesa and there washed them.
Another change the camera has produced. At Oraibi hitherto, after
drinking the emetic, the priests would kneel on the edge of the wall
just below the kiva and there vomit together, and in 1896 I made a good
photograph of the scene. The line of cameras this year frightened
them away and the emetic was drunk as shown in the photograph, the
priests all grouped around the bowls containing the mixture, and then
each priest got as far away from the camera as he could and, in the
words of one irreverent visitor, "went it alone."
It cannot be said that the changes are to the advantage of .the pho-
tographer. They render his work less certain and effective, and it will
not be long before one can write a learned and accurate paper from the
standpoint of scientific ethnology on "the change in religious ceremo-
nies owing to the camera."
* * *
IMPROVEMENTS FOR 1904 IN "THE BASKET."

THE BASKET is a special magazine written for a special purpose. It
contains more lore on Indian baskets and their weavers than any other
journal. It gives more information about how to make baskets than
can be gained from any other source.
If THE BASKET is continued for 1904 it will be made more useful
than ever.
Each issue will have a supplement showing a
REAL INDIAN BASKET.
The shape and design will be full size from representative baskets
in the collection of the Frater Primus.
In the text full particulars with illustrations will be given showing
how to start, weave, and finish the basket thus illustrated.
At least ten other baskets will be pictured and described in each
issue so that any basket maker can at once proceed to make them.
The series of Indian stories will be continued ; also the illustrated
articles on Indian Home Life.
A new department will be opened entitled "The Dye Pot," in which
members of the Fraternity may exchange their experiences and tell of
their experiments in dyeing.
With such improvements in store the Fraternity list should be ma-
terially increased.
* * * * * * *
In the report of the meeting of the Primitive Arts Club, which ap-
peared in the July BASKET, it was incorrectly stated that the meeting
was held at Pratt Institute. It should have read at the studio of Miss
Griswold, 221 Washington Ave., Brooklyn. We hope to hear more of
the work of this Club.
The human mind in its best estate is creative.

70 THE BASKET.
SOME MODERN MARTYRS IN THE

UNITED STATES.
If it be true that a martyr is "one who dies or suffers for a principle,

or sacrifices all for a cause," then my title is a correct one, for this is
the story of the inflexible determination of a fast-dwindling people to
adhere to what they conceive to be right, in spite of powerful opposi-
tion, great suffering and many sacrifices.
It was at a council, called by the principales of the quaint old town
of Oraibi, the outermost post of heathendom in Northern Arizona.
There were two factions, and the discussion that was taking place was
heated.
Lo-ma-hung-yo-ma was speaking. He was a tali, athletic figure,
with a solemn and stately air, his face inexpressibly sad, and yet show-
ing a set firmness that was impressive. His lips were not large and
thick, like so many of the aborigines, but thin and tightly drawn across
his mouth. His chin was square and prominent, his nose aquiline and
his eye as keen, clear and penetrating as that of Napoleon. A deter-
mined, conservative, powerful, dominating character—it was evident.
With slight gesticulation, but with a sonorousness of voice that com-
pelled attention, he was saying: "My people, why will you forsake the
way of your forefathers to follow the new way of Wasintonia ? Long,
long before the white man had cursed our land by his presence, we were
a united people, a happy and a prosperous people, a people basking in
the sunlight of the favoring smiles of 'Those Above.' We had good
crops, our herds grew and our wives gave us happy and healthy chil-
dren. The 'Shadow People' did not injure us, they were good to us.
The 'Spider Woman' gladly wove the clouds of heaven, from which
our prayers with our Elder Brothers"—the rattlesnakes—"brought
forth rain. Surely the Oraibi way is best—surely you do not wish to
bring misfortune upon us, and the frown instead of the smile of 'Those
Above.' "
As he sat down, the new chief, Lo-lo-la-mai, appointed by the Gov-
ernment, arose and said : "It is the folly of follies to listen to Lo-ma-
hung-yo-ma. Wasintonia* is strong. Wasintonia is powerful. Wasin-
tonia has many soldiers, many guns and many great iron-tree-guns
with which he can destroy our whole town at one shot. It is useless
for us to protest against him. He says we must send our children to
the school. He built a school at Keam's Canyon, and we told him it
was too far away. He was angry, but said he would remove that ob-
jection, and, last year, he built a school for us at the foot of our own
mesa, so that our children can go there in the morning and return to
their homes at night ! Now, we say we don't want to send our children
*These Indians always refer to the government at Washington as "Wasintonia."

THE BASKET. 71
there. We say we cannot forsake the Oraibi way taught us by our
forefathers, but must follow it all our lives. What is the use in being
so obstinate ? The white men have much more land than we. They
are wiser and more powerful than we. We are few, they are as the
grains of sand in the desert for multitude. We run our weary way
over the sandy desert. They feed water and black rocks to the fire-
monster and he snorts and tries to escape, but they fasten many wagons
to him and he is compelled to drag hundreds of them across deserts,
and over mountains, easier than our strongest burros carry one Hopi
and his squaw. Is not this proof of his power ? We think we are
many. We are but as a few grains of sand to the white man. He is
vast in number. Let us follow his way, and grow like him, a great,
powerful and strong people."
He sat down, but his words had whipped to a frenzy one of the
"hostiles." Though smaller in stature than Lo-ma-hung-yo-ma, he had
the keen face, quick eye, active and nervous manner that signified a
leader. Inquiry showed him to be the chief medicine man of the vil-
lage, He-be-ma. With rapid utterance and gesticulations that were
not without appropriateness and grace he declared that "Lo-lo-la-mai's
words are the words of a traitor, the deceiving words of a coyote, the
crafty words of a fox. Will you forget that you are the chosen children
of 'Those Above ?' Will you forget the blesings showered upon us in
the past ? Will you forsake the Oraibi path and walk in the path of
Wasintonia, simply to get the food of the white man ? Shame, bound-
less, ever-burning shame upon an Oraibi who could ask his brethren to
forsake the gods of his fathers simply for the bread of the spoiler.
Do you forget what our fathers have told us of the coming of the
Spaniards ? They were going to be of so much good to us even as
these men from Wasintonia! What did they do ? Why did our fathers
hate them with such a fierce and bitter hatred ? Why did they urge
upon us to keep our hate hot that it might never die ? Listen ! These
white men, the same as those who came long ago, will by and by want
to teach us their religion. They will want to establish 'missions' among
us. They will force us to build their churches. Have you forgotten
how our forefathers were herded like goats by the Spanish soldiers,
yonder to the San Francisco Mountains, and there compelled to cut
down trees ? Then, how they were harnessed to these trees like dogs,
and whipped like beasts as they dragged those heavy logs across the
fiery sand of the desert ? Do you remember how they violated the
maidens and corrupted the mothers, and whipped and slew the fathers
and husbands who protested ?
"Have you forgotten how they compelled our forefathers to slave
upon the buildings, and how they took most of the products of our
fields ? You may forget, but the true Hopi never forgets.
"Can you sit there and forget how the Spaniards were finally set upon
and slain or driven out of our country, how their churches were torn
down, and their beams removed to help rebuild our deserted Kivas,
where their altar bells are now in use ? 'Those Above' have spoken.
We are not to forsake the 'way of the old,' the Oraibi way. We are
not to walk in the path of Wasintonia. If we do no rain will fall to
make our crops grow. All the misfortunes of the past will again be
heaped upon us. We shall walk hand in hand with sickness, disease
72 THE BASKET.
and famine. Our children will die for want of food and water. We,
who are wise, will not bring these evils upon ourselves and our children.
We will still follow the Oraibi way. And those who have been our
brothers in the past who declare that now they will follow Wasintonia
are no longer to be of us. They shall be driven from our country into
the land of the hated Spaniard in Mexico. They shall have their corn
fields and orchards at Moenkopie" ( an offshoot village, forty miles
away ) "taken from them, and their names shall be blotted from our
memories. So have 'They' spoken, and so will we, their chosen chil-
dren, act towards you."
This was the last speech. Lo-ma-hung-yo-ma said the "hostiles"
wished to hear nothing further. The decision of "Those Above" had
been given by He-he-ma and all must accept or reject it. Those who
did the latter would know what to expect.
Well did He-be-ma know how to work upon the superstitious fears
of his people, and their hereditary hatred to the Spanish white man.
Where would his occupation be if the Oraibis became as enlightened
as the white man ? Like Othello, "his occupation would be gone." So
with stealthy craft he had gone about from house to house urging
resistance to the white man, assuring the people that nothing could
harm those who stood firm for the old ways.
As soon as the council was ended and its decision declared, fifty of
the "hostiles" set off for Moenkopie, and planted winter wheat in the
fields of the "friendlies." As the latter numbered only about three
hundred and fifty men, women and children, including, perhaps, sev-
enty to seventy-five men, and the "hostiles" counted double that num-
ber, there was nothing the "friendlies" could do but submit. At the
same time they sent a deputation to Fort Defiance, to United States
Indian Agent Williams, asking for his immediate interference. Their
request was not in vain. He started immediately for Oraibi. This was
in November, 1894.
The night before his arrival at the village, he sent a messenger ahead
to say that "he had heard of the dispute among the two factions in
regard to their fields. He wished to hear all about it. Early in the
morning he would arrive, and a council must be held at which both
sides must be fully represented and debate the case. He wished to be
fair and just, and would give both sides equal opportunity to present
their cause. They must decide among themselves that night who should
speak for them and who should begin the argument. As he did not
want a jangling dispute, they must choose one speaker on each side,
and he, and he only, would be permitted to state the case for his fac-
tion." This latter proviso was a wise and important one, as under any
other arrangement the council would have developed into a howling
squabble.
In the morning, soon after sunrise, the agent drove to the foot of the
trail, and, with the whole village out on the house-tops watching his
footsteps, he slowly ascended the steep trail to the village. In but a
few moments after his arrival in the plaza, the people of both factions
were assembled. It was a striking sight. A chair had been brought
for the agent. On three sides of the square, surrounding him, seated
on the ground. were ranved the heads of families—the voters—while
on the house-tops were all the young men, women, maidens and children.
THE BASKET. 73
Lo-lo-la-mai, the chief of the "friendlies," opened the case. With
deep earnestness he said : "Sad days have come to the Oraibis. We
used to be a happy and united people, but now the blackness of anger
is in our hearts, and the scowl of hatred on our faces. We are no
longer brothers. Because some of us obey the orders of Wasintonia
and send our children to school we are hated and cursed, our fields at
Moenkopie taken from us, and we are told we cannot live here any
longer. He-be-ma says if we stay here we cannot live, as, in Spring-
time, when the new leaves come to the trees, our fields and orchards
here at the foot of the mesa will be taken from us. He says we are
Oraibis no longer. We have forsaken the ways of our forefathers and
'Those Above' have instructed him to curse us and send us away to the
far land of the South, there to live away from the home of our child-
hood, where our father's fathers for many generations have lived.
Is this right ? Will Wasintonia let us be driven from our homes be-
cause we have obeyed him ? We do not think so !"
A murmur of approval—"Lo-la-mai"*—came from the "friendlies"
as Lo-lo-la-mai sat down. He had stated his case well.
Lo-ma-hung-yo-ma—the "hostiles' " chief—now arose, and, stepping
forward, said : "I have not the gift of speech. I know not how to make
my lips frame the words I feel within me, so I have chosen He-be-ma
to speak for me."
As he withdrew, He-be-ma, with quick, nervous, active movement,
stepped briskly forward. As the priests have been in all ages, so was he,
a natural leader, a born controller of men. Without any formalities or
preliminaries he began to recount the traditional history of the race,
and to work upon their superstitious fears, as he had clone at the first
council : "Would ye forsake the Oraibi path for the way of the white
man ? What has the white man clone for you ? Was he here when
`Those Above' sent forth Tiyo to become the father of our people?
Long have the 'Shadow People' directed us. Long have we been a
great people. Long have we withstood the onslaughts of our foes.
Long have we been blessed. Beware, then, Oraibis, how ye forsake the
path of your fathers. The white man's ways are not good. The white
man will lead you away from the blessings that are assured to you so
long as ye obey the 'People of the Above.'
At this moment the agent interrupted with the remark that he was
not there to listen to any further abuse of the white people and their
ways. If their ways were wrong he might show how they were wrong,
but he would permit no more general statements without specific proof.
Nowise daunted, He-be-ma began again. The fire of the orator was
now burning within him. He was aflame with patriotism, superstitious
fear and determination to show the misguided "friendlies" how unwise
they were, and at the same time he knew he must defend the actions of
the "hostiles," as he had been largely instrumental in directing them.
Hence, pride in his own position impelled him to his best.
"Need I tell you, Oraibis, how we came to this land ? Did we not
come up through Shi-pa-pu from the Under World where all the people
*Lo-la-mai is an expression signifying approval—"Good."

Lo-lo-la-mai is the name of the friendly chief.
74 THE BASKET.
came ? Have we not alone, of all the people, got the best houses and
corn fields and cotton fields ? And who owns all these houses and fields ?
Is it you,"—turning to the friendlies—"who have forsaken the Oraibi
way for the Wasintonia way ? Were not these fields given to those who
forever have followed the Oraibi way ? You have not followed that
way, so it is clear these fields and homes are not yours. These"—
pointing to the hostiles—"have followed the way of the forefathers,
without any twisting or crooking, and so to them have 'Those Above'
given the homes, the fields and the orchards."
Here again he was interrupted by the agent.
"Who are these people ?" (the friendlies). "Are they Oraibis ?" he
asked.
"Yes," responded He-be-ma, "but they are not good Oraibis."
"Have you hostiles any relations among the friendlies ?"
"Yes," reluctantly avowed the medicine man, "some are our cousins
and brothers-in-law."
"And yet you say they have no rights in the fields and orchards ?"
asked the agent.
"None !" vehemently exclaimed He-be-ma. "The fields belong only
to those who follow the Oraibi way."
"Bosh and nonsense !" exploded Major Williams. "Some of these
men (the friendlies) have married your sisters and your daughters,
your cousins and your aunts, therefore, they are all related to you in
some way or another. They own the land as well as you do. If one
of you has six sons, can he say that three of them shall have his fields
and the other three have none, because they have gone to school ? Not
a bit of it ! The land belongs to all six."
"No ! No !" shouted the hostiles, as with one voice, but Major
Williams silenced them with an expressive wave of the hand.
"Let He-be-ma do the speaking. I want no words from any one else."
Once again He-be-ma declared : "They have left the Oraibi path:
They are no longer Oraibis, therefore they have nothing that belongs
to Oraibis. They are a strange people. They should stay here no
longer. Tuba, our old and great chief, long ago, said that all who
forsook the Oraibi path must be driven away."
"But," burst in Major Williams, "I want it distinctly understood
that no chief, or medicine man, or any one else can tell these friendlies
that they are not Oraibis. They are born of Oraibi fathers and Oraibi
mothers ; their fathers were Oraibi boys and their mothers Oraibi girls,
born here of Oraibi parents, so they are as much Oraibis as you are.
Is that not so?"
"Yes," reluctantly admitted He-be-ma, "but—"
"I want no 'buts,' " replied the Major. "They are Oraibis and they
are going to have all the rights of Oraibis. That is what the Great
Father at Washington says, and what he says, he means. I want you
to understand that now and always."
A little abashed by this firm declaration, He-be-ma now spoke with a
greater attempt at persuasion. There was still a ring of defiance in his
tone, however, giving spirit to his utterances, which, otherwise, would
have been pathetic in the extreme.
"We do not want the Great Father at Wasintonia to be angry with
us," said he. "We do not seek to injure him or the white people. We
THE BASKET. 75
would be glad to be friends and brothers again with those of our own
people who have forsaken the way of our fathers, but we cannot, we
dare not, so long as they persist in their wrong course. We would be
glad if we might keep them here, but we dare not. They must go
away or awful misfortunes will come upon the whole of us. We must
protect ourselves. Several times in our past history some of our chiefs
and men have left the Oraibi way, and every time they have done so,
misfortunes have befallen us. The 'Shadow People' shut their ears to
our cries ; the 'Spider-Woman' refused to weave clouds for us ; the
`Ancient of the Six' (the six deities of the cardinal points) sent fierce
winds and storms upon us ; 'Mu-i-yin-wuh' closed in her hand all the
germs of life so that nothing could grow or be born ; `Ta-wa' (the sun)
scorched us and our fields and dried up our springs in his fierce anger ;
none of 'Those Above' but were angry with us. Sickness and Death
pursued our people until they repented of their wrong-doing and came
back into the Oraibi path. Do you, oh ! you who were once our bro-
thers, who prayed and danced and sang with us in the same kivas, do
you want more suffering, sadness, distress and misfortune to come upon
?1,
US
As He-be-ma sat down it seemed to the "hostiles" that no reply
could possibly be made to what he had said. But Lo-lo-la-mai arose
and quietly declared : "We have listened attentively to what He-be-ma
has said. We believe he thinks he has spoken the truth. But we do
not think evil will come upon any of us for following the way of
Wasintonia. If 'Those Above' do neglect us, the white man's God will
care for us, as He has cared for them. We will worship Him. We
will pray and sing and dance to Him. Has He made them a poor,
weak, sickly people ? Are they diseased and dying ? They came to
our country later than we, yet they have multiplied faster than the
sands of the desert. Their cities are many where ours are few. Their
houses are larger and better than ours. Their herds and flocks ten
times ten where ours are one. Their food is better and more than
ours. We are willing to forsake the Oraibi path and walk in the way
of Wasintonia. If evil is to come let it come. It need not strike you.
It will strike only us. If 'Those Above' are angry, how can they be
angry with you who obey them ? It is with us they will be angry. Let
them ; we are not afraid !"
With these words of frightful defiance Lo-lo-la-mai sat down. But
his terrible blasphemy had aroused all Lo-ma-hung-yo-ma's supersti-
tious fears, and he demanded of He-be-ma a fiery speech that should
forever sever any possibility of reconciliation between those who would
obey 'Those Above' and those who so openly blasphemed him. He-be-
ma was nothing loth. With fanatic vehemence, and superstitious fury,
he burst forth : "You are no longer our brethren. You are no longer
Oraibis. No matter what Wasintonia says, you must leave us and go
away. Unless you do we will fall upon you and thrust you from your
houses and bar the trails against your return."
"What's that ?" exclaimed the agent. "This kind of speech will
never do. You'll do nothing of the kind. What if I bring the soldiers
from Fort Wingate to keep you from such conduct ?"
"We care not," defiantly shouted He-be-ma, now thoroughly carried
away by his fanatical convictions : "You may bring the soldiers and cut
76 THE BASKET.
off our heads if you like, but these renegades shall not stay. 'Those
Above' say they must go and go they shall !"
The agent now concluded that the whole matter had been as thor-
oughly presented as it could be, so, demanding the most careful silence
and attention, he proceeded to declare his ultimatum.
"He-be-ma's words are very foolish and wicked. If the soldiers
were to come it would likely be a very serious matter for you. And
they will come if all this wrong treatment of the friendlies does not
cease. Can't you chief men get together and talk it over to a peaceful
conclusion ?"
"No! No !" exclaimed Lo-ma-hung-yo-ma and He-be-ma. "There
is no way at all. We have tried and it is impossible."
"Then," said Major Williams, "I shall have to decide for you. There
must be no more interference with the fields of the friendlies. They
must have one-half the crops you have planted. I shall send my own
men to watch the crops, and the first man that interferes with them
shall be sent to Fort Wingate. To prevent further mischief I shall
take Lo-ha-hung-yo-ma, He-be-ma and Kuch-i-wen-ti-wa with me. If
they behave themselves and promise not to mislead you any more I will
soon send them home. If not, I shall keep them as prisoners for a
long time. That is all !"
Placing these three men under arrest, he arose and the council was
closed. But it is not as easy to close the thinking powers of angry
hearts and minds as it is to close a council. Few Oraibis slept that night.
It was all talked over, and while the "friendlies" congratulated each
other on their victory, the "hostiles" eagerly talked together to see how
they might wrest victory from seeming defeat.
A day or two later the agent left. The three prisoners went with
him. All was seemingly quiet. The "hostiles" were angry and sullen,
but said nothing, and all hoped the trouble was ended.
Things drifted quietly along, and soon the three prisoners were
released, with the hope that they had learned the folly of resistance
and would counsel no more opposition. Vain expectation ! It was but
the calm before the storm. For, when the crops were nearly ripe, and
a few days before the "friendlies" were about to move to Aloenkopie
to harvest them, the "hostiles" secretly left in the night, and a day or
two later most of the fields of the "friendlies" were denuded of corn,
melons, squash, peppers, etc.
When the news of this outrageous disobedience reached the ears of
Major Williams, he wired for instructions to Washington, asking that
troops be placed at his disposal for the arrest of the ringleaders of the
"hostile" party. His suggestions were accepted and two troops of
cavalry from Fort Wingate were sent and placed under his command.
Fort Defiance, the agency, is situated on the extreme eastern border of
Arizona, and some 175 to 200 miles away from Oraibi, but the Major
was ready to leave the next morning after the arrival of the troops, and
early he started in his buckboard, with the Hotchkiss gun and an ad-
vance guard of cavalry. His plans were all laid as he neared the vil-
lage. Arriving at the foot of the mesa he saw all the women and chil-
dren on the house-tops, waiting with alarmed and fiercely beating
hearts the events that were to transpire. Soon the soldiers arrived,
and they began the steep climb by the road to the rear of the village.
THE BASKET. 77
Few white men have ever been over this road, and those never want
to go again. A long string of horses was harnessed to the gun ; ropes
were tied to it in half a dozen places and held taut by horsemen on
each side and in the rear and front, and slowly it was hauled up the
rough, rocky and precipitous road. Here and there rocky strata of
which the mesa is composed made steep steps up which the horses had
to climb. It was a ticklish and dangerous task, but, finally, soldiers
and gun were on the mesa top. The Major placed the gun so that it
commanded the town, lined up his forces, and then proceeded with his
interpreter, a Moki boy fifteen years old, to the plaza. The boy called
out both the chiefs.
"Now," said the Major, "I want you to gather together here in the
plaza every man, woman and child in the village. I don't want one to
be away."
Each chief, without a word, sent his respective crier or herald, and
soon from different house-tops could be heard the loud and explosive
cries to the effect that "the agent of Was-in-to-nia had come with the
soldiers to settle the trouble that, for so long, had been agitating them.
He ordered that all Oraibis, no matter what their age, sex or condition,
should be present in the plaza immediately."
Even before the criers had done the people began to assemble. Each
house sent its quota to swell up the grand total. The "friendlies" came
first ; all of them, men, women and children surrounding the Major
and wishing to shake hands with him that he might know they felt all
right. While this was going on, the "hostiles" began to appear. Slow-
ly, sullenly and with evident fear they came. As soon as they entered
the plaza and saw the soldiers and the host of "friendlies," they ran
back, but the Major, getting impatient, called out angrily to the chief :
"Bring those people back. It's getting late, and I do not propose to wait
any longer." A few words from Lo-ma-hung-yo-ma quieted the fears of
his followers, for they slowly filed in and took up the left side of the
plaza, the friendlies having arranged themselves on the right. There was
no pleasant greeting from them ; none came up to the agent to shake
hands. With sullen faces, bowed heads, which lifted now and then to
shoot angry glances from their eyes, they leaned against the walls or
sat upon the ground.
Without further delay the Major then began to speak. In a loud
voice, made stern and forceful by long years of military command, he
declared that the hostiles "were foolish and wicked to interfere with
their neighbors who were trying to better their condition and have
their children taught the ways of civilization. How can their wearing
decent garments, the garments of white men, hurt them ? How can it
hurt them to learn to read and write and talk the language of the
white man? You say it will harm them ! How ? Whether you like it
or not, you must learn to obey the Great Father at Washington. When
he says you must send your children to school, they must go. He is
used to being obeyed, and he will stand no nonsense. I told you to pay
no attention to vour old chief Lo-ma-hung-yo-ma. I told you he would
tell you to do things to your hurt. I appointed a new chief, Lo-lo-la-
mai, and told you to obey him and you have refused. You have slighted
him. The last time I had trouble with you three of your men were
taken as prisoners and kept for only a short time. I hoped this would
78 THE BASKET.
teach you wisdom, but I find it hasn't. So now I shall take a larger
number and keep them for a much longer time. The 'Great Father' at
Washington is determined to be obeyed, and he has sent me word that
I must take about twenty of your men, and I must send them to prison
a long way off, to the Great Water where the sun goes down, and they
will be gone a long time, nay, perhaps they will never come back. And
I am now going to call out the names of the men I want, and as I do
so they must come right up here, at once."
He then called out "Lo-ma-ya-o-ma."
There was no response.
Turning to his interpreter the Major sternly asked : "Which is the
man ?"
He was pointed out.
Turning to the hostile chief, Major Williams exclaimed : "I want
you to tell that man to come up here, right quick, and then all the rest
that they must come as I call out their names. It's growing late, and
I'm not going to wait. If they don't come promptly, I'll take more
than I intended to take."
One by one the names were called, and all but two slowly marched
up to the Major. As each fresh name was heard, there would begin a
soft, subdued wailing among the women and children, as if their
hearts would break, and yet they were afraid to openly express their
sorrow. But this did not interfere with the stern roll call.
It was now so late that it was impossible to keep the cavalry on the
mesa top longer. So, turning to the remaining "hostiles," the Major
said : "These two missing men must be found and brought down to my
camp to-night. To-morrow won't do. Unless they are there to-night I
shall come up again in the morning ; and two men won't satisfy me
then."
Turning away, he gave the prisoners the order to march. Soldiers
were put to guard them, yet they were permitted to allow the women
and children to come and take the prisoners by the hand And what a
sad sight it was ! How vividly it recalls that other :
"There disorder prevailed, and the tumult and stir of embarking.
Busily plied the freighted boats ; and in the confusion
Wives were torn from their husbands, and mothers, too late, saw their children
Left on the land, extending their arms, with wildest entreaties."
But with the Acadians a few days' notice had been given ; here, there
was none. There, opportunity was afforded the prisoners to arrange
their affairs and give personal attention to the homes they were going
to leave ; here, in a moment, on the mere calling out of his name, the
free man became a prisoner, and, five minutes later, without a moment
to give to his weeping wife and sobbing children, he was marched away.
Oh ! Sadness of it, sorrow of it, despair of it !
That night they were encamped near the soldiers, in the valley. A
guard was placed around them, but the Major gave permission to the
women and children to spend a little time with their loved ones.
After supper, when the Major went to see his prisoners, he was in-
formed that there were twenty. This was the full number required, so
he felt gratified that all those called for had responded. But when the
roll was called, it was found that there were two men among the
prisoners whose presence was not required ; one had come with his
THE BASKET. 79
uncle, another with his brother. Both begged to be allowed to remain.
It was too great a grief to have their loved ones sent away without
them. They would gladly be prisoners if they might also go. But
they were turned out into the darkness and their sad loneliness.
On examination it was found that the missing men were two of the
most troublesome, and, therefore, especially needed. One of them had
been arrested some months before, but, waiting for a good opportunity,
he had dashed away from his captors, and regardless of the shots fired
after him, had run to the edge of the mesa, jumped down a hundred
feet or more upon the sand pile below and had escaped to the Acoma
country. It was most important, therefore, that he did not escape a
second time.
To prevent this the boy interpreter, with some of his reliable boy
friends, was sent up to the village, with orders to watch the houses of
these two escapes. Later on, two detachments of soldiers followed.
The boys had been watching by turns and knew that both the wished
for men were in the houses. But, as the soldiers entered the house of
one of them, Kuch-i-wen-ti-wa, he was not to be seen. Knowing the
outside of his house was watched, he had secretly slipped through the
hole in the floor leading to the lower story. His house is three stories
high, and the bottom story has several chambers, all of them dark and
secret. One of the boys was sent down into these secret recesses to
find him. Half scared out of his wits, the lad obeyed, and soon returned
to lead the soldiers to where their captive was hidden. As soon as
Kuch-i-wen-ti-wa saw the soldiers he yelled with fear and alarm and
begged them not to kill him. With rude laughter and taunts the sol-
diers seized him—not roughly and harshly, but as if it were good fun
to see a Hopi so scared—and this so angered Kuch-i-wen-ti-wa's old
mother that she picked up a bundle of arrows and fiercely struck one
of the soldiers with them. Fortunately no harm was done, though the
soldiers bitterly complained and were angry because their commanding
officer refused to place the poor old woman under arrest.
There was sadness at the Indian's camp that night. Fires were
built and
`Round them shapes of gloom and sorrowful faces were gathered,
Voices of women were heard, and of men, and the crying of children."
But there was no faithful pastor to go around and speak words of
cheer and comfort to the downhearted prisoners.
In the little village on the heights above, the two separate factions
kept their vigil in different moods. Among the "friendlies" there was
rejoicing that their persecutions had ceased and their persecutors were
imprisoned. Yet their triumph was somewhat marred by the weeping
and wailing they could not shut their ears to, that came from the be-
reaved homes. Aged mothers wept their sons, wives their husbands,
maidens their lovers, children their parents. Sadness and despair
reigned supreme in many Oraibi homes that night.
Early in the morning camp was broken, the prisoners marched in a
row and the journey to Fort Wingate begun. There orders were
found to convey the Hopis by train to Alcatraz fortress in San Francisco
harbor, there to be imprisoned at the pleasure of the Secretary of the
Interior.
8o THE BASKET.
Not knowing what was to become of them, their natural fears

heightened by the wild stories told them by the thoughtless soldiers,
who found cruel fun in exciting their deepest alarm, the poor creatures
were put into the railway coach, under guard, and started for San
Francisco.
As the train rolled on, their alarm deepened. Some were too dejected
and depressed to pay much attention to anything. Sadness at leaving
their loved ones—perhaps forever—was enough to drive all thoughts
of self from their minds. How were the forsaken ones to live ? Where
was the necessary food to come from ? Would the "friendlies" care
for the families of the imprisoned "hostiles ?" It was scarcely possible.
A bitter feeling had grown up between the two factions, and the seeds
of deepest enmity and hatred were already sown. Would they bring
forth fruits of kindly helpfulness towards the families of those who had
sown the seeds of discord ?
Such reflections caused some of them to groan aloud in the anguish
of their hearts. Why had "Those Above" thus forsaken them, and let
them be taken by the power of the spoiler ? Had not all their misfor-
tunes come upon them because of their firm adherence to the teachings
of the Shadow People who live in the cloud-land, and who had always
told them, through their native priests, that they would always prosper
and be blessed so long as they obeyed their precepts ? Why were they
thus prisoners ? Was the way of Wasintonia better than the way of
their forefathers—the Oraibi way ? Could it be possible "Those Above"
had no power to protect them from the ruthless cruelty of the white
man ? Was all their devotion a mistake ? Their conservative adherence
to the teachings of "the old" a crime ?
Tossed and tormented with such fears, doubts and questionings, these
simple souls were hurried along in the fearful vehicles of their enemies.
Were they bewitched ? They had often seen the cars drawn by the
fierce and resistless monster that ate the black rocks and drank water
by the well-full, and they had deemed the train an awful proof of the
wickedness of the white men who could have such a horrible monster
under their control. But now they were shut up within the rapidly
moving body of the evil one, and they were being taken away from
their mesa homes. They were leaving their corn fields, peach orchards
and melon patches. They were going away from the shrines of their
Katchinas, where ever since they were children they had planted their
bahos and had offered their prayers with the sacred meal ! No more
could they take part in the Le-len-tu and the Chu-ah and the other
sacred dances and festivals which brought rain to the thirsty soil,
fertility to their crops and blessings upon their people ! They were
going away from home, from wives, children, lovers.
It was too much for them to bear, and one of them, in the frenzy
and agony of his distress and grief, dashed from his seat, bodily threw
himself through the window of the speeding train and fell, stunned and
helpless, by the side of the track.
The train was stopped and backed up, and .there they found him,
dazed, helpless and bleeding. He was carried aboard, handcuffed and
chained, to prevent any further attempt at escape, and the sad journey
renewed.
Flagstaff was passed, and Hue-han-a-patch-a—the San Francisco
THE BASKET. 81
Mountains—whose snow-clad peaks were sacred to them as the home

of their Katchinas. But no help came to them, though they solemnly
and earnestly lifted their eyes, voices and hearts towards their serene
heights.
More forsaken and saddened than ever, they rolled down through
Williams and Ashfork to the land of the hated Wallapais. Some of
these wretched people were at the station at Peach Springs, and they
came to the windows and called out cruel and taunting words to their
hereditary foes within.
Surely "Those Above" were dead, or they would not have allowed
such insults to be heaped upon the sons of their choice, their Oraibi
children, who, even now, were suffering persecution and imprisonment
from the white men for their firm adherence to their faith.
Lower and lower sunk their hearts. Sadder and sadder their spirits.
Prayer brought no relief—they were too sad to sing.
At length, after two days and nights of wearisome journeying, con-
fined in those fearful cars, they arrived at San Francisco. When they
left the train at Oakland and were marched upon the great ferry-boat
and saw it leave the pier their grief for a time yielded to the terror of
this new sensation. And what a desert of water surrounded them.
They had never seen so much water in all their lives. Sand was what
composed their desert, but here were miles and miles of water, and over
it smoothly glided this great wooden and iron monster upon which they
stood.
As they neared the metropolis, and observed the smoke ascending
from the smoke-stacks—chimneys so high that they towered higher
than the highest trees they had ever seen ; and the houses stretched
north as far as the water's edge and before them up, up, up, to the
very tops of the far-away hills, and south as far as they could see, and
then they turned round and saw the acres and acres covered with
houses at Berkeley and Oakland and Alameda, they felt as not all
their travel had made them feel, the great and wonderful power of these
white men whose Great Father at Wasintonia was so angry with them
for their disobedience.
When they landed, the noise, bustle, clangor, bell-ringing and racket
on the stone pavements bewildered and dazed them still further, and
they pinched themselves and asked each other if it was all real ; "were
they positively here ? Was this all not a hideous enchantment ?"
But when, a few hours later, they found themselves shut tip in the
dungeons of the military fortress on the Island of Alcatraz, then they
knew their sorrows were real, their desperation genuine and their
desolation complete.
The days, weeks and months rolled by and they were still prisoners.
They could not complain, generally, of the treatment they received.
They had good food, good rooms and beds to sleep in—better than they
had at home, but they were prisoners. Now and again they heard from
home—a kind missionary, the Rev. H. R. Voth, who had been sent to
Oraibi, wrote letters which were read to them and told them how their
families, their loved wives and children, were. A few learned of new
boys and girls born to them, and their hearts yearned to see their new
children..
One of them grieved so that he grew sick. Nostalgia, the attending
82 THE BASKET.
physician said it was—homesickness. But before any one realized that

it was possible for an Indian to die of such a ridiculous disease, the
poor fellow's soul had winged its flight to the spirit world, there to
learn from "Those Above" the why and wherefore of all the sorrows
of himself and companions.
Then another died, and, oh, the deep-toned and the deeper-felt grief
the news caused when it reached the sad homes in Oraibi.
Nor were these women and children without their own personal and
immediate woes. Daily carrying the burden of their loss ; longing with
intensest feeling for the return of their loved ones ; how to feed and
clothe the growing children and the helpless aged ones became more
and more of a problem as the little store of corn and dried squash and
fruit dwindled away. They had no growing crops, for, as soon as the
"friendlies" gained the ascendancy by the removal of the prominent
"hostiles," they treated the latter as they themselves had been treated,
viz., seized all the corn fields and refused to allow any of the land to
be tilled by the weaker party.
Starvation stared them in the face! The missionary and his gentle-
hearted wife sympathized with them and gave them some food, but it
was not enough for their needs, and, when the agent finally heard of the
action of the "friendlies" and sternly rebuking them for their harsh
retaliation, commanded them to allow the families of the "hostiles" the
use of their own fields, it was too late to plant crops, So there was
deep distress in the homes of many families for all those weary months.
At length, deeming their punishment severe enough, and hoping that
the lesson of obedience was learned through pain and suffering, the
Government officials at Washington gave the order for the return to
their homes of the seventeen remaining prisoners.
And if the going journey was sad beyond description, whose pen can
write the joy depicted on the faces of each one of the home colliers.
There was somewhat of sadness and dejection in the hearts of the
leaders, however, for they felt they were returning to the reassumption
of the burdens of responsibility. Again they would be called upon to
advise their people as to their future actions. Had they changed their
minds during their imprisonment ? Do true-hearted men generally
change their religious beliefs under punishment or persecution ? Did
the Waldenses and Albigenses change the current of their religious
thought when hunted down in their mountain homes ? Did the Dutch
give up their faith though harried by the fierce war dogs of Spain?
Did persecution change the beliefs of the Pilgrim Fathers ? or convince
the martyrs of Queen Mary's reign that they were in the wrong and
must yield ? And equally serious may we ask the same questions in
reference to the Roman Catholics who suffered persecution in Eliza-
beth's reign, and the Jews, who, through all ages, somewhere, have
been tortured and slain for their adherence to the religion of their
forefathers.
Wise United States Government, founded in the stern patriotism of
a people who fled
"Away from childhood's land,"
to
"A stern and rock-bound coast"
there to gain
"Freedom to worship God."
THE BASKET. 83
Could it not learn a lesson from the history of this people in times
gone by, when force after force of Spanish soldiers, accompanied by
stern and determined priests, sought out these Oraibi Hopis and
cajoled, persuaded, threatened, punished and almost slew them, in
their vain endeavors to gain their acceptance of the Catholic faith.
And while this was a persecution apparently on different grounds,
for it did not ask them to worship in a new way, or to forsake their
ancient ceremonies, it was to the Hopis as much a matter of religion as
are the forms of worship and beliefs to Protestants, Catholics, and Mo-
hammedans.
What are the facts now ? Are the "hostiles" any the less determined
in their Oraibi way, because of the sufferings they have endured? Not
one jot ! Indeed, they are confirmed in their beliefs. Pain and suffer-
ing for conscience's sake deepens the love of the persecuted for that
for which they suffer.
When these men returned from Alcatraz they still refused to send
their children to school. "We can die, but we will not yield," was
their spirit. And yet, in it all, the major portion of these conservatives
were not unkind, fierce or really hostile. In talking with them, tears
would come into their large, black, liquid eyes, as sadly they declared :
"We are not 'hostile' to the white man. It is wrong to say we are
`hostile.' We are but following with pure hearts the teachings of our
fathers. We cannot, dare not, forsake them. We are your friends.
We are glad to see you come to our village. We have never enter-
tained a wrong thought against you, or ever dreamed of injuring you,
but we must do what our hearts tell us. Please do not force us to send
our children to your schools. Please tell the Great Father at Wasin-
tonia to leave us to follow the Oraibi way."
It is sad, pathetic, touching to hear the earnest pleading.
Finally, the agent, seeing how firm they were, decided that so long
as the schools were kept full, no matter whether with the children of
friendlies or hostiles, he would press them no further. And, as the
schools are barely large enough to accommodate all the children of
the former, it has been found no difficult matter to keep up the atten-
dance to the required number.
And so the struggle is in static quo. The "hostiles" mainly control
the fraternities which have charge of the most important of the cere-
monies and dances. They, therefore, still conduct the old ceremonies
in the old way and the "friendlies" are kept out entirely.
The younger members, however, are growing up to see the folly
of their old methods. Little by little the spirit of the white man enters
their hearts, and they have less faith and veneration for the old ways.
By and bye this spirit will work the disintegration of the old and usher
in the days of the new. May they be productive of more good to these
simple-hearted aborigines than have those that have gone by.
TO NEW SUBSCRIBERS.
Those who would like to receive THE BASKET for 1903 as well as
1904, may do so by sending P. 0. 0. for $1.75 for the two years.
This will include all the Bulletins for 1904, "How to Make Indian and
Other Baskets," and the July and October (1903) BASKETS.
84 THE BASKET.
TO THE BASKET MAKER.

It is a large sounding cry, "Art for art's sake," but many people do
not know what it means. It is an equally loud cry, "Art as an expres-
sion of life," and many do not know what that means. So there you
are, each advocate clanging his cymbals in your ears and no meaning
reaching your soul.
I never read Van Dyke's "Art for Art's Sake," so may not represent
him in what I am going to write. All I wish to do is to set my ideas
before the readers of THE BASKET that they may have glimpses of the
high ideals that constantly dance before my own eyes.
"Art for art's sake"—a picture for its own sake and not for any les-
son that may he drawn from it ; a thing of beauty because it is beauti-
ful, not because it teaches, preaches, or "improves the occasion." Art
as the highest expression of the beauty within you striving for objective
existence. There is really not so much difference as there seems to be.
Words often confuse ideas. Let us get hold of ideas and not quibble
over words.
Why does the artist paint, the sculptor "sculp," the musician com-
pose, the architect build, the bookbinder bind, the basket-creator make?
What is the motive behind all good work ? What is the object of its
creation ? Who is to be served, the maker or some one else ? These
are important questions. Answer them wisely and well and you have
solved the mystery of life. If these artistic workers work merely for
the sake of "the money there is in it," their work is venal, debased,
unworthy. "An article made with an eye on the purchaser is already
ruined." To make the purchase price the chief end of one's work is
not to know how to work. The true artist works because he must,
and he works the best he is capable of. He strives. Work is a struggle,
a fight, a battle. He must do his best. He cannot he content with that
which is inferior. He reaches after, clutches for, the ideal, the beyond,
the unattainable, the far, and thus by effort, by struggle, by strenuous
exercise of the faculties of the soul strengthens them, develops new
powers, grows, approaches godhead.
If this be "art for art's sake" then it is good. No one can deny its
goodness. It uplifts, ennobles, glorifies. Work so done, though never
seen by the world, has helped make a human soul. We are all gods
in the germ, but we must be planted and grow, grow, grow. The
soulful work of the artist in any field is the effort at growth, the nat-
ural struggling of the planted seed to spring forth and germinate in
flower, fruit and new seed. This is one side of the question.
The other side is the effect of this work upon others. No man
liveth to himself. That only is good which serves others. A monastic
life—a life shut in to itself—is a lost life, a useless life, a ruined life.
THE BASKET. 85
The Christ—pattern for all men—went about doing good. "He saved
others," was the cry of even his enemies. The soul cry of every true
man is : "What am I doing for humanity ?" Each man should so
live that the world is better for his presence and his work. Every
soul in dying should be able to exclaim: "I have fought a good fight ;
I have kept the faith." Every being should be able to point to some
legacy he gives to the human race and say : "That is my gift. I have
left monument, tower, castle, church, cathedral, statue, painting, poem,
boat, code of laws, philosophy, faith, hope, good cheer, bright ex-
ample behind." All are not creators of objective works of art, but all
can be creators of something beautiful in life. The man who tries to
do a heroic deed and fails, dying in the attempt, leaves nothing that
the world can see. He does better, he leaves something it can feel,
and men and women are thereby stimulated to greater bravery, courage,
heroism, self-sacrifice. Few can be Savonarolas, Cromwells, Luthers,
Patrick Henrys, but all can endeavor to be truthful, honorable, brave,
helpful, heroic.
Therefore, ask yourself, no matter what you do, or try to do, am I
truthful, am I honest, am I brave, am I beautiful ? If you are these
things, or striving to be them within you, your outward work will show
them. No hateful, ugly, hideous, deformed soul can make a lovable,
beautiful, attractive, harmonizing object. Love and beauty alone can
bring forth love and beauty. Like produces like. Figs cannot be gath-
ered from thistles. You cannot make a beautiful thing unless you feel
it, unless you are it within you. No tide rises higher than its source.
Hence, the absolute justice of the master's words : "By their fruits
shall ye know them." Judge men and women by their fruits. Do they
produce beautiful things ? Do they lead you to think beautiful thoughts ?
Do they stimulate you to beautiful lives ? Then rest assured they are
beautiful within themselves. Never mind what anyone else says ; never
mind the ripples of little outward acts that occasionally seem to dis-
turb the surface of this beauty ; trust in the unfailing wisdom of this
method of judgment : "By their fruits shall ye know them."
So, basket-maker, all this to bring you to the point. What are you
making baskets for ? To sell ? To get some money ? To be in with
the fashion ? Then you'll never make a good basket so long as you live.
You may gain certain digital dexterity, and people may flatter you and
make you believe that they believe you have done well, but in your own
heart you will certainly hear your own condemnation sounding. Only
if you love and must create, will your work be good. Only if you wish
to give pleasure to others, to serve the world, will your work amount
to anything. The money may come when your work is clone as a just
and reasonable repayment for time and energy expended, but if that,
or some other equally low aim, is what you have striven for, your labor
will be in vain. Your conceit may be gratified and pampered, but that
is nothing to be thankful for. Rather be glad to have it knocked in
the head, stabbed in the throat and slain. The great worker is never
conceited. He can see the immeasurable beyond which he wishes to
reach and has not yet attained. He even sees the select company of the
few great artist souls which he knows he is not yet capable of joining
in true kinship, and with humility he goes back to his work, striving
harder than ever, putting passion and energy unknown before into his
86 THE BASKET.
work, until by and by his very efforts compel "the far to reach to the
near," and he enters into the company of the blessed.
"The emulous heaven yearned down, made effort to reach the earth,
As the earth had done her best, in my passion, to scale the sky."
There are few sadder or more pathetic pictures in literature than
Browning's "Andrea del Sarto," known as the faultless painter.
Though he knew his own skill and power, he felt that he lacked the
striving soul.
"I am bold to say
I can do with my pencil what I know,
What I see, what at the bottom of my heart
I wish for, if I ever wish so deep—
Do easily, too—when I say, perfectly,
I do not boast, perhaps. * * *
* * * * *
I do what many dream of, all their lives,
—Dream? Strive to do, and agonize to do,
And fail in doing. I could count twenty such
On twice your fingers, and not leave this town,
Who strive—you don't know how the others strive
To paint a little thing like that. * * *
* * * * * * *
I am judged.
There burns a truer light of God in them,
In their vexed beating stuffed and stopped-up brain,
Heart, or whate'er else, than goes on to prompt
This low-pulsed forthright craftsman's hand of mine.
Their works drop groundward, but themselves, I know,
Reach many a time a heaven that's shut to me.
Enter and take their place there sure enough,
Though they come back and cannot tell the world.
My works are nearer heaven, but I sit here.
* * * * * * *
Ah! but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?
To easily attain is proof that one's aims are low, and it is low aims
that ruin the soul. Are you filled with self content at your work ?
Are you sure—as I knew a woman not long ago to be—that your bas-
kets far surpass those made by any Indian ? Poor, ignorant being, how
you are to be pitied. God grant your conceit may speedily be taken
out of you ; your self-complacency may be rudely shocked. Your work
will never equal that of an Indian until you put yourself into her lim-
ited circumstances. She has no art books, no photographs showing
suggestive designs, no teacher, no easy raffia and other flexible material
purchasable at the store around the corner. With her everything must
be sought at first hand. She must create her own design, select her
own materials from the plain and forest plants, make her own dyes,
prepare her own splints, determine the shape and size of her basket,
and do it all unaided and alone, without pencil, paper, rule or measure.
Yet she makes works of art, creates true objects that will live for their
beauty and power. She is an artist within her own soul. She sees,
thinks, feels the beauty, or it could never be shaped by her fingers.
It is not by apparent results that one's work is to be judged. Sarto
could find much just fault with the technique of his fellows and could
himself correct the faults, but the passion, the spirit, the creative desire
THE BASKET. 87
in this imperfect work, even a child could see that that was all right.
This is what makes valuable an unfinished sketch by a master who,
with a few bold strokes, shows you a soulful design, while the finished
canvas of a self-complacent, conceited worker is not worth the cost of
the canvas upon which his faultlessly technical work is done. Joaquin
Miller's rough and unpolished verses, full of passion and power that
stir the very depths of the soul, are worth far more to the world than
the carefully polished, smooth and perfect stanzas of dainty, dinky
nothingness that some people call poetry. Soul is what counts. Pas-
sion, endeavor, agonizing effort is what develops the soul, and a soul
is of far more importance than a basket or a painting.
So reach for the highest ! Be not content with a pretty nothing.
Better aim high and fail than low and succeed. Better by far an un-
finished basket of lofty conception than a finished work in which is
neither passion nor effort. The blessing of basketry is that it helps
improve human souls ; the curse of basketry is when women care more
for baskets than themselves.
FIG. 51. SAN CARLOS APACHE PLAQUE. IN COLLECTION OF E. MEHESY,

JR., LOS ANGELES, CAL.
Nature is the source of all that is possible in art.

* * * * *
Nature's art suggestions are infinite.
* * * * * * *
No man is born into the world unless his work is born with him.
88 THE BASKET.
FIG. 52. SHOSHONE BASKET OF BEAUTIFUL DESIGN, IN COLLECTION OF

E. MEHESY, JR., LOS ANGELES, CAL.
FIG. 53. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MISSION BASKET. IN COLLECTION OF

THE BASKET. 89
A FEW INDIAN BASKETS.
One of the largest dealers of Indian baskets in the world is Mr. E.

Mehesy, Jr., of Salt Lake City, Utah ; Los Angeles, Calif., and Santa
Barbara, Calif. Mr, Mehesy's chief stock is in Los Angeles, and from
his collection I have just photographed the following baskets for the
benefit of the readers of THE BASKET. Sizes and shapes are accurately
given, so that any weaver of a little experience may proceed by follow-
ing the instructions already given in my "How to Make Indian and
Other Baskets," and make copies of them.
Fig. 51 is of unique design. It is a saucer-shaped plaque, suitable for
decorative purposes, and with a plain or simple background would be
effective and attractive anywhere. It is of simple coil weave, made by
a San Carlos Apache, and, while the weaver herself did not give the
interpretation of the design, it is clearly that of a central reservoir of
water, from which two radiating streams flow, with connecting rills in
eight distinct places.
It is about 6.1/2 inches across the bottom and 15 inches across the top
and 3% inches high. The stitch is coarse, but at a short distance this
is overlooked in the effectiveness of the design. The material is willow
(white), and the design is picked out in the black of the martynia.
Fig. 52 is a Shoshone basket, secured in Inyo County, near Indepen-
dence, Cal., on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas. It is evidently
the work of an old and skilled worker and is one of the finest specimens
of its kind in the Mehesy collection. It is what might be termed a half
bottle neck, in shape, and is similar to some of the finer vases of South-
ern Europe. It is 3 inches across the top, 4% inches across the top,
5% inches high, and when 3% inches high, is 233/4 inches in circum-
ference, which is its greatest. It then narrows down to 14 inches in cir-
cumference around the neck, which is 5/8 of an inch high. It contains
32 stitches to the inch and is valued at $5o. The body of the basket
is of willow splints, with the designs worked out in black and red.
The black is the martynia and the red is the redbud (cercis occidentalis).
The result is a harmonious combination that makes this a basket highly
to be prized.
Fig. 53 is a so-called Mission basket, undoubtedly made at or near
Cahuilla, the village of H. H.'s romantic Ramona. It is of three colors,
creamy white, black and shaded yellow. The white is the willow splint,
the black is dyed in sulphur water, as described in "Indian Basketry,"
and the yellow is the cuticle of the tule root. This is a simple shaped
basket, but is artistic and useful. Its width across the bottom is 6V2
inches and across the top 6%. inches. It is 4.1/2 inches high and 20%,
inches in its greatest circumference. It bellies out rapidly from the
bottom, attaining its highest circumference when an inch and a half
from the bottom. It then slopes uniformly to the top.
Fig. 54 is a beautiful Poma decorated Shi-bu basket. The term
"Shi-bu" is fully explained by Dr. Hudson in "Indian Basketry," pages
103 and 104. This basket is circular in form, 6 inches across the bot-
tom, 3% inches high, and 4Y4 inches across the top. The design is the
90 THE BASKET.
spider-web of the basket held in the hands of Mercedes Nolasquez, as

pictured in "Indian Basketry," page 6o. It is completely covered with
yellow and dark green feathers, the former being from the yellow-
headed woodpecker and the green being the neck feathers of the
mallard duck. Around the top is a circle of quail plumes. Additional
decoration is made by threading a circle of wampum or shell beads
(kah-hoom, the Pomas call it) immediately around the top. A number
of pendant strings of wampum and abalone shell complete the decorative
scheme. There is no design woven into the wicker-splints, of which the
body of the basket is made.
Fig. 55 is a boat-shaped Shi-bu, of Ponta make, decorated with the
tiny feathers of the redheaded woodpecker, quail plumes and wampum.
FIG. 54. CIRCULAR DECORATED POMA SHIBU. IN COLLECTION OF E.

MEHESY, JR., LOS ANGELES, CAL.
It is 9 inches long by 472 inches wide on the bottom, a trifle over three
inches high, and the opening of the top is 8 inches by 43/4. It is a beau-
tiful specimen of the weavers' art, exquisitely shaped, beautifully de-
signed and perfectly harmonious in color. There are twenty-five stitches
to the inch. The design is picked out in black, and is very common with
the older Poma weavers, but, as yet, its significance is unknown to me.
Fig. 56 is of either Pauiti or Mono weave, from the higher regions
of the Sierra Nevada, east of Fresno County. The body is of creamy
brown, seldom found in any other new baskets than from this region,
and the design is picked out in a dark brown which I am unable to rec-
ognize. It consists of four sets of five wavy or zigzag lines placed one
above another, but the meaning I am unable to give.
It is 5y4 inches across the bottom and 63/4 inches across the neck.
THE BASKET. 91
.c.:1•••17'
FIG. 55. BOAT SHAPED DECORATED POMA SHIBU. IN COLLECTION OF E.

•
411.
f•■
I z=111wt...•9* ."
FIG. 56. HEART SHAPED SIERRA NEVADA BASKET. IN COLLECTION OF

92 THE BASKET.
.0.
. )w
rm.* 44
• • ., .44.08 4 . a •
Mt v
•• •• • /09, ow. •
4 N •' 44 0
40 f•, 0•. ..--
OK s. .,,, . ••• • ... ,
4614* "
a .. . ft ,,,, ts ,... .1100■09 ...... .... . .,.......
4, •• ,f , N. 1 LA . ..4.
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• . 0,00 .X001.... . 0 • 44 .....a... • . ..... • ." .."'

• ..... . . 4.-' ' ....... • ....1.- •
...../o . ...41•01••••••••••• . •,.•••••••••-•••••• ,
. .• • ■140WA., Att7.,.. •••■■•••...0 .WaNaaa."' ''...".
.••........
-••••• • •^
FIG. 57. WASHOE BASKET. IN COLLECTION OF E. MEHESY, JR., LOS

ANGELES, CAL.
FIG. 58. HOPI (ORAIBI) SACRED KATCHINA PLAQUE. IN COLLECTION OF

THE BASKET. 93
Its greatest circumference is about an inch below the neck, and is 284
inches. It is 5% inches high. The result is a beautiful "heart shape"
that is most effective and singular.
Fig. 57 is a Wahoe basket, made by a weaver near Susanville, Lassen
County, California. It is a circular basket, 5 g. inches across the bottom,
4 inches high, 6Y2 across the aperture at top, and 274 inches in its
largest circumference. Its body is white, from the willow splint, with
the design picked out in redbud. The collector failed to secure the in-
terpretation of the design, but it is undoubtedly one of their symbolic
designs, pertaining to their clanship. It is striking and effective.
Fig. 58 is a Hopi plaque, made of willow at Oraibi. The design is
of one of the Katchinas, referred to in the last BASKET. It is my inten-
tion in some subsequent number to write a full paper upon the various
Katchinas of the Hopis, as a study of this "pantheon of lesser divini-
ties" of this religious people will be of wide interest.
COLOR FOR BASKETRY.

BY MISS I. MARCIA CONDIT.
In looking over a collection of old Indian baskets one of the strongest

impressions made is the color, or rather, lack of color, in the design.
The modern commercial basket of the Indian is in great contrast to
the rare baskets of our valuable collections because of this very fact.
The stitch and form are well imitated, but the color betrays a lack of
artistic appreciation which makes the piece of handiwork crude and of
little value to the collector.
To those of us who are to-day making baskets and interested in every
phase of this delightful work, the colors selected for the design play a
most important part in the completed creation, and we can do no better
than to study carefully the colors of the old baskets, whose range is lim-
ited to red, black and tones of yellow and brown. These colors as
used by the Indians were produced by natural material of different
shades and tints, and by dyeing with vegetable preparations in which
the Indian woman was most skillful.
In our material we are limited to the use of raffia and rattan and
cannot manage the color as we might wish. But we can eschew the
aniline dyes which flood the market and obtain beautiful vegetable-
dyed raffia, if we allow ourselves the privilege of going to a little
trouble to get it, refusing to be satisfied with the dyed raffia of crude
and glaring colors that we see on every hand.
It seems to be a peculiarity of aniline colors that they will not blend
well, but clash most discordantly when brought together. They destroy
the texture of the raffia, making it as thin as paper, very easily broken,
and, when threaded, separating into fine strands that become tangled,
thus causing no end of annoyance to the worker.
In selecting our colors for basketry we never can go wide of the
mark if we study the colors of the plant-life about us ; not the flowers,
but the leaves, stems, stalks, bark and roots. As we substitute raffia
94 THE BASKET.
for the various growths of vegetable life used by the Indians, we shall
do well if we reproduce the colors found in these vegetable growths.
Colors used in dyeing silk and ribbons and in coloring tissue papers
are not desirable in basketry. They are in bad taste, for they do not
harmonize with the material. With the Indian woman's standards,
which the best modern criticism determines are the only correct ones,
we shall always have harmonious results, but our gamut of color will
be limited to a few tones, red, green, brown, black and yellow. Blue
is not one of the best colors for baskets, as the natural sources of this
color are most restricted, but it is used because it is a popular color in
every other material and blends well with the natural color of raffia.
It is not essential that tones of color should match in a design. The
mixture of a variety of tints and shades adds greatly to the artistic effect.
We see this in the plant. To have a scale of light and dark in one color
is greatly to be desired. It is not as though one were matching ribbons
and dress patterns. So do not be alarmed if the colored raffia you have
to-day does not match the raffia you get to-morrow. If it is dyed with
the vegetable dyes, it generally will harmonize, and that is what you
want in your basket.
As basketry now occupies so important a place in the curriculum of
the schools, the colors used in designs should be selected with the utmost
care. The color sense of the child can be cultivated in a very large
degree through this medium, and the value of basketry is not alone in
training the hand, but the eye and allowing the feeling for real beauty,
a natural birthright of the child, to be his forever.
Do not have colors too strong and crude. Professor Otis T. Mason,
curator of the division of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution,
high in authority on this subject, says in a recent letter : "The trouble
with all public school work that I have seen is that you do not adulter-
ate your colors enough ; your reds are too red, and so on. Water is the
cheapest thing on earth, and there is no use in making a paste of dyes.
The matter of color is a very wide one. In all the basket areas the
simplest vegetable substances were used, giving mild colors, because of
the weakness of the preparation, the moral of which is that if you wish
to imitate nature and the Indians do not gorge your water with too
much dye."
To every member of the Fraternity a letter or circular has been sent

stating that "How to Make Indian and Other Baskets," being so much
larger than was originally intended, it was made the double bulletin for
January and April. In spite of this notice several Fraters have written
for Bulletin No. 2. This is to inform them there is no other number 2
than the one they have already received in "How to Make Indian and
Other Baskets."
Many Fraters often ask me the prices of real Indian baskets. I have
accordingly asked Mr. Mehesy to give me his retail prices for the
baskets pictured herewith. Fig. 51 is $8; Fig. 52, $5o ; Fig. 53, $15;
Fig. 54, $68 ; Fig. 55, $42 ; Fig. 57, $30 ; Fig. 58, $3.50. Any of these
baskets may be ordered either from Mr. Mehesy or the Basket Frater-
nity and they will be sent, express paid, at the price named, except
Fig. 58.
THE BASKET
ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR.

NO SAMPLE COPIES ARE SENT FREE. SEND 25 CENTS FOR SAMPLE.
Advertising Rates on application.
Entered at the Pasadena, Cal. Post Office as Second Class Matter.
THE CONTINUANCE OF "THE BASKET."
This is the crucial time for THE BASKET. "To continue or not to
continue ?" is the question. When I was urged to organize the Basket
Fraternity and publish the bulletin, I promised to do it for one year.
If it ceases now, at this number, I have done all I promised.
I do not care to continue it unless there is a prompt and ready re-
sponse to this call for a renewal of subscriptions. If there is such a
response I will undertake it for a second year. My suggestive program
will be as follows :
With each bulletin will be issued a large, full size working chart of
some representative basket, with good design. Full particulars as to
material required, exact size, weaves, etc., of each basket thus pictured
will be given.
The illustrated articles on various Indian weavers and their homes
and life will be continued.
Fine baskets, in shape and design, will be pictured and fully described
in each number.
If the responses justify the extra expense a set of lessons will be
inserted by one of the best basketry teachers in the United States, tak-
ing up special forms of work and giving full and explicit instructions.
The Indian character story series will be continued, as will all the
other features of the July and October issues.
If this program pleases you, send in your renewal by return mail.
Do not delay, as if the renewals are not made at latest by the end of
96 THE BASKET.
November it will be too late to prepare the January number. And

not only send in your own subscription, but endeavor to secure at least
one new Frater for the year 1904. If each Frater would do this, the
financial success of THE BASKET would be established. Hitherto the
receipts have not more than equaled the expenses and I have done all
the work of writing, corresponding and distributing THE BASKET with-
out charge.
Let your responses, therefore, be prompt and encouraging. Ad-
dress all communications, •
THE BASKET FRATERNITY,
Station A,
Pasadena, Cal.
DECLINE IN SALES OF INDIAN BASKETS.
Last winter saw a remarkable decline in the sales of Indian baskets,

and dealers and others are wondering why. Many believe that the
cause is to be found in the making of baskets by white women—not
Indian baskets, for white women never can make any other than white
women's baskets, and the sooner they learn that these are not Indian
baskets the better. Bishop Johnson, of the Episcopal Church, in an
address delivered in Los Angeles, Cal., a short time ago, pleaded with
the ladies to discourage the art of basket-making among white women,
as the Indians were thereby being robbed of one of their most profitable
occupations. The bishop may be a good theologian, but when he talks
about Indian baskets of white women's weaving, he shoots far wide of
the mark. He shows his total ignorance of the subject—ignorance of
what an Indian basket is ; ignorance of the crudeness of the white wom-
an's imitations. The white woman who cannot see the difference be-
tween her best work and an Indian's poorest will never buy an Indian
basket. It is the best of the white weavers who see and know the wide
gulf that exists between the two. No raffia and reed construction can
ever equal a splint-made basket.
Rudely speaking, Indian basket buyers may be divided into five
classes :
1. Those who love them as beautiful expressions of the art insLincf
of an inferior race striving for the higher, nobler and better.
2. Genuine collectors of all work of primitive peoples.
3. Students of basketry who wish to copy the best models and who
desire to own them as constant incitements to do good work.
4. Those who buy because it is the fad to buy.
5. Those to whom buying and selling are mere commercial transac-
tions.
Now of these classes the first three will continue to buy so long as
their purses allow. The fourth class, perhaps, need not consider the
question of purse, but, as soon as the present fad dies out their interest
will die with it, as will also the interests of the fifth class.
In some parts of the country the fad is on the decline. In others it is
still "on." The decline of the fad will necessarily decrease the sale of
good Indian baskets somewhat, yet I do not think that this is the prime
THE BASKET. 97
cause of the decline in sales. There is another and, I believe, most po-
tent reason. That is this. A couple or more years ago there was a
sudden increase in the number of dealers buying from the Indians.
This meant competition. Prices naturally increased. The more buyers
there were the more the collectors asked, and finally the more the In-
dians asked. The latter was good for the Indians, yet it was not an
unmixed good ; for as soon as the Indians tasted the joys of monopoly,
of dictating prices, they began to ask exorbitant prices for poor work.
The competition among dealers led them to purchase at these prices,
and a consequent result was the increasing of prices so that only the
exceeding rich could purchase. Unfortunately many of those in the
first, second and third classes were and are not the exceeding rich, and
the wild inflation of prices rendered it impossible for these people to
purchase. In Pasadena and Los Angeles, where I am reasonably famil-
iar with conditions, they may be thus stated : Four years ago there
were two or three dealers in Indian baskets in Los Angeles and one
or two in Pasadena. Now, in the former there are not less than twenty
to thirty, and in the latter fully a dozen. An Indian, Mexican or white
collector from the Indian weavers comes to either place with, say, half
a dozen baskets. He goes to one of the older houses and asks what the
dealer knows to be too high a price. It is refused. Off he goes with
his baskets to the other dealers. They must each have a stock and the
output is necessarily somewhat limited. If the second refuses to pur-
chase the third one does not, and there are still twenty or more dealers
on the lookout for a similar lot, even if they have to pay an equally
high price.
It naturally follows that everywhere the retail price goes up, and
those who were regular purchasers before now find their hobby too
expensive. Hence the decline in the business
Now what will the outcome be? I am neither prophet nor the son
of a prophet, but it does not require that I should be either to forecast the
future. The dealers who went into the business while the fad was on
will retire. The competition among dealers to get hold of what the
Indians make will decrease, and consequently the high prices will also
decrease, and, in proportion to the resumption of normal prices, sales
will begin again, for there will always be a reasonable number of pur-
chasers belonging to classes I, 2, and 3 who will buy when their purses
are not thereby too much depleted.
OUR BOOK TABLE.

-• 441.0.
It is the editor's intention to publish under this heading personal re-

views of such books or magazine literature as may be sent to his table
or be of general interest to the readers of THE BASKET.
Indian Basket Weaving. Published by Whedon & Spreng Co., Los
Angeles, Calif.
This is a new book just issued on basket weaving, prepared by the
so-called Navaho School of Indian Basketry. It is a beautiful booklet
of 1o4 pages and 112 illustrations, most of them in half tone, with a
supplementary envelope containing a colored plate of an old Yokut
98 THE BASKET.
basket, with feathers, twenty-four special basket designs, and one work-
ing design of a Poma bottle-neck basket. The booklet is sewed into a
burlap cover and is gotten up in neat and attractive style, the cuts be-
ing good and the printing well executed. Price $1.
Looked at from a practical standpoint this book is useful to those who
wish to make baskets. The instructions are clear and elucidate the
making of the various baskets pictured. There are no new stitches
shown, although there are practical details for working that are not
given in Miss White's or my own books upon the subject. The author's
technical knowledge is sometimes incorrect, and her naming of the
baskets is not always to be relied upon, for instance, the basket titled an
Aleut, on page 89, is not an Aleut but a Haida basket.
There are some interesting directions for the making of baskets from
the date and fan palm leaves. These baskets are both pretty and useful.
On principle I am opposed to the assumption of the title of this book,
"Indian Basket Weaving." A white woman cannot make an Indian
basket. She may imitate an Indian basket, but imitation is not reality.
This title reminds one of the story recently published in the Youth's
Companion, where a white woman was very indignant because her
friend did not enthuse over her Indian basket.
"But it is not an Indian basket !" exclaimed the friend.
"Certainly it is," responded the wrathy weaver, "for I made it my-
self!"
Let white women make baskets by all means, but let us drop the idea
that their baskets are Indian baskets. Only Indians can make Indian
baskets and the sooner white women learn this, and, with due humility,
remember that they are mere imitators, the better it will be for them.
But all criticism aside, the book is a very useful one and well worth
the money spent in its purchase.
It will be sent post free by sending one dollar to The Basket Fra-
ternity.
THE QUESTION BASKET.
We shall be glad to have Fraters ask all the questions they desire
that come naturally into our province, and if we can answer them, will
do so in this page of the succeeding BASKET.
What is squaw grass ?
This is a general term used by many people to designate any material
used by the Indians in making their baskets. Hence the material varies
in different localities. In the chapter "Materials used in Indian bas-
ketry" I have quoted what Mrs. Velina P. Molson says on the subject
(see page 76 Indian Basketry).
Where can I obtain a map that will show the location of the different
Indian tribes in the U. S.?
Send for the Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, address-
ing him at Washington, D. C., and therein you will find a fair map
giving the locations of the reservations.
THE BASKET. 99
Your knowledge of and interest in Indian baskets doubtless will
enable you to tell me what I can do to destroy the weavils which are
cutting some of my baskets very badly. I have brushed them thor-
oughly with turpentine and linseed oil, and it has apparently soaked
through and through them, but these little creatures seem to be em-
bedded in the fibre, and evidently the turpentine does not reach them.
The baskets most badly affected are the comparatively new and orna-
mental ones, the feather baskets and such like.
In Professor Otis T. Mason's "Directions for Collectors" he says :
"Those collections that have been made with a view to permanence
should be kept so that they will suffer least from damage. The dust
may be blown from the specimens with bellows. Those containing
remnants of vegetable matter, berries, food, and so forth, should be
carefully scrubbed with soap and water and rubbed down with a very
small portion of oil and dryer. Above all, they should be poisoned with
a weak solution of corrosive sublimate or arsenic dissolved in alcohol."
I submitted the queries also to Dr. Walter Hough, Professor Mason's
assistant, who has had much practical experience in caring for the bas-
ket collection in the National Museum. Here is his reply :
We have never formulated here any methods of specially preserving
baskets from moth, weevil, etc. We put them through the regular pro-
cess, which consists in submitting them to the fumes of benzine or
gasoline in a tight box. This will kill out all germs, eggs, or live
insects in the specimen. The second step then is to give it a wash of
corrosive sublimate applied with a brush and with a strength of quarter
of an ounce to a quart of alcohol.
As to the finishing of the baskets there seems to be nothing which
is quite satisfactory. The nearest we can come to it is to dissolve one
ounce of paraffine in a quart of turpentine and apply to the specimen
with a sponge or brush.
Everything of this kind, however, makes baskets too shiny, and, to
my mind, detracts from their appearance.
I am very anxious to know if there is any way or means by which

you can tell the meaning of a basket design. When T have gone into
some of the stores the salesmen and women have seemed to speak as
if there were some common method of interpreting the design. Is this
so ? And if so, how can I find out about these general designs ?
I do not know that any one can definitely answer this question. As
far as I myself am concerned I can only emphasize the fact that I have
not found any general method of interpreting Indian basket designs.
The only source of information is the weaver herself. As a rule each
weaver conceives her own designs and the meaning to be attached to
them. As I have already written in "Indian Basketry," "It must be
borne in mind that the same design may and often does mean entirely
different things to different weavers. For instance, the zigzag designs
seen in various baskets are representations of lightning. But when the
same design appears in the baskets of the Pomas I am assured they
have no reference to lightning, but it is the conventional method fol-
lowed by the Pomas of representing a flowing stream." The subject
is further followed on page 206, "Indian Basketry."
I00 THE BASKET.
There can be little question, however, that with some tribes certain
designs are universally used with the same meaning. For instance,
it is scarcely open to question that the diamond design found on the
baskets of most of the basket weavers living in the region of the Sierra
Nevada, in California, both on the east and west slopes, signifies or
symbolizes the diamond backed rattlesnake, which is so common
throughout that region. The St. Andrew's cross, which, as I have ex-
plained in "Indian Basketry," is merely a conventionalized variant of
the diamond backed rattlesnake design, is also very common with the
weavers of this same region. The quail plume, which appears so much
like a golf club, is also universal with the Sierra Nevada weavers.
These three designs, as far as I know, have but one significance. The
diamond and St. Andrew's cross always represent the rattlesnake and
the quail plume the quail.
The Pimas also have several designs, which are clearly variants of
one common design, and which invariably have the same meaning.
In common with most of the tribes of the Southwest, the Pimas believe
that there are two great central water reservoirs—the one of "the
above," from which all the rains descend, and the one of "the below,"
from which all the springs ascend. The outflow of water from these
two central reservoirs, "the above" and "the below," is typified in the
Greek fret designs, with its many variants, and also the swastika, with
its equal number of variations. Several baskets containing these de-
signs are shown in "Indian Basketry," as, for instance, the two baskets
in the bottom row to the left of Fig. 27, page 32 ; the second basket
from the right, Fig. 75, page 76 ; the two baskets on the left, Fig. 82,
page 84 ; Fig. 120, page 117 ; Fig. 153, page 133 ; Fig. 245, page 175 ;
and Fig. 246, page 177.
The rattlesnake design, both in the diamond and the St. Andrew's
cross, and the quail plume design will be found in Fig. 28, page 32 ;
Figs. 52 and 53, page 58 ; Fig. 86, page 92 ; Fig. 345, page 254 ; and
Fig. 275, page 192.
If there are any other interpretations than those I have mentioned
to these designs I am not familiar with them.
From a careful reading of Dr. Rowland B. Dixon's "Basket Designs
of the Maidus," quoted in full in "Indian Basketry," page 234 et seq.,
it will be seen that he found quite a number of designs among the
Maidus which invariably have the same interpretation. It may also be
said, no doubt, that the various katchina baskets of the Hopis have the
same invariable meaning, but I am not yet prepared to state that this
is or is not so. The subject has not yet been studied sufficiently.
Yet, in spite of the fact of there being so many designs of definite
interpretation, my experience has demonstrated so positively the exist-
ence of personal and individual interpretation on the part of the weaver
herself, that I have no hesitation in reaffirming that it is an unwise pro-.
cedure to accept as correct the interpretation of any besket design that
did not come directly from its maker.
Can you give me the address of some reliable person who has had
practical experience in dyeing basket material with vegetable dyes ?
Yes. Miss I. Marcia Condit, 706 Fine Arts Bldg., Chicago, and Mrs.
Charles Miller, 525 Fortieth street, Brooklyn, N. Y., have both had
THE BASKET. IOI
practical experience. Miss Condit contributes an article to this BASKET

on the subject of "Color," and it will be remembered that Mrs. Miller is
spoken of in high terms by Miss Margaret Whiting on page 31 of "How
to Make Indian and Other Baskets."
I have in my possession a basket about which I have been unable

to obtain any definite information and as a last resort I am going to take
the liberty of appealing to you. The person from whom I obtained it
called it a Tulelep basket. In your "Indian Basketry," page 183, Fig.
259 shows the exact weave, and on page 184, Fig. 262, is the exact
shape. I have about decided it must be a Makah basket under a differ-
ent name, but would be glad to have some really accurate information
in regard to it, which will be much appreciated by an enthusiastic mem-
ber of the Fraternity.
The basket has a lid. Its body is the natural white ; the light part of
the design is orange, the dark part purple.
If some member of the Fraternity in the North will answer the query
of this Frater I shall be much obliged, as I have no personal knowledge
of the baskets of this region.
Will you kindly inform me in the next BASKET if in using the lazy
squaw stitch the Indians work from right to left and if they stitch
toward or from them. In illustration they seem to hold the work which
to me seems left handed. Will you kindly explain.
There is no right or wrong method. Some Indian weavers work
one way, some another. Either is correct, provided you get the best
possible results.
LECTURES BY THE FRATER PRIMUS.

As several fraters have written to inquire about lectures on Basketry,
I herewith append my lecture circuits for the next season. My charges
to Local Chapters of the B. F. for a lecture on Basketry are Thirty-five
Dollars ($35.00), railway fare to and from the nearest point at which
I last lectured, and local entertainment. I shall have with me a number
of the most important historic baskets described in Indian Basketry,
including Wedding Basket, Hopi Sacred Meal Plaques, Katchina
Plaques, Apache 011a, Flying Bat Basket, Havasupai Tornado Basket,
Mono Invitation Basket, Ramona's Star Basket, etc. That the lecture
is interesting many audiences have most cordially testified. It has been
delivered many times, before such audiences as Y. M. C. A., American
Museum of Natural History, Cooper Union, Teachers' College (Colum-
bia University), all in New York ; Cantabrigia Club, Cambridge, Mass. ;
Arts and Crafts, Syracuse, N. Y. ; Arts and Crafts, Chicago, Ill.;
Teachers' Club, Minneapolis, Minn. ; State Normal School, River Falls,
Wis. ; Women's Club, Grand Forks, N. D. ; Women's Industrial and
Educational Institute, Boston, Mass., and many others. It was also
delivered before the combined Art, Elementary and Manual Training
Departments of the National Educational Association, in Boston, July
8, 1903.
102 THE BASKET.
From November 1 to 15 I expect to be in Southern Illinois ; from

November 15 to 30, near Minneapolis, Minn.; the month of December
in New England, and the month of January, 19o4, in the South. Those
who wish for a lecture should write as early as possible, as all dates
are speedily being fixed.
Address The Basket Fraternity, Station A, Pasadena, Cal.
Or for New England to L. A. Blaisdell, P. 0. Box 1215, Boston,
Mass.

This list makes no pretension to being complete. Any reputable
dealer may have his name inserted on payment of $2.50 for each inser-
tion. The editor, however, will allow no dealer's name to appear whose
standing is not guaranteed and responsible.
Benham Indian Trading Companies,
138 West 42d street, New York.
F. M. Covert,
329 Fifth avenue, New York.
E. Meliesy, Jr.,
Fourth and Spring streets, Los Angeles, Cal.; also
Potter Hotel, Santa Barbara, Cal.
Field & Cole,
street, San Jose, Cal. ; 706 K street, Sacramento,
327 Kearny street, San Francisco, Cal.
Barker Burnell,
San Diego, Cal.
Portland, Ore.
The Curio,
Phoenix, Ariz.
A. Cohn,
The Emporium, Carson City, Nevada.
Miss Grace Nicholson,
41 and 43 S. Raymond avenue and 46 N. Los Robles
avenue, Pasadena, Cal.
Another good Basketry Teacher in New York City is

Miss Mertice NlacCrea Buck,
507 Lenox Ave.
THE BASKET
THE ORGAN OF THE BASKET FRATERNITY 4.
Vol. 2 JANUARY, 1904 No 1.
PRIMITIVE INVENTIONS.
(Reprinted from "Craftsman," November, 1903.)
When does the age of invention begin ? Could we but look back
into the far away dim ages of the past and watch the ascent of man
from barbarism to civilization, how fascinating the occupation would
be! Especially would our keenest interest be aroused at those epoch-
making periods in which some small but important discovery was on
the verge of being made ; when humanity was stumbling toward some
great fact that, once seized, was to revolutionize future methods. Who
would not delight in such occupation, were he able to take with him
into those dark days the light of present day knowledge ?
How did men invent fire? When, where and how did they first
make any kind of clothing or house ? Under what circumstances did
they fashion the first weapon ? When consciously grind corn ? Weave
baskets ? Make pottery ? And the thousand and one other things
that the little bronze women and men have handed down to us ?
I can conceive of few things as interesting as these in all human
progress. How one's heart would beat in high expectation, knowing
what was to come, when the naked aborigine first began to shape a bow
and arrow ; a throwing stick, a war club, a battle-axe! How many
attempts there were before success crowned the first efforts; or, alas !
how often the thing had to be given up until some future time, perhaps
centuries later ! How the primitive inventor, prompted by some feel-
ing, he knew not what, working solely for his own interest and profit.
without thought of financial reward, or the higher incitement of doing
good to his fellows, blindly groped along, confident that lie could suc-
ceed where success had never yet beckoned ; assured that he could
accomplish, where none as vet had accomplished !
In the arts of hunting and war man has always been the inventor—
those were his prerogatives. In the arts of peace, the domestic arts,
woman was the pioneer ; she was in her peculiar province. It is a ten-
dency of our latter-clay civilization that man claims chieftainship in
FIG. 66. MOHAVE IN BLANKET WOVEN OF SKINS.

- I3NSVEI 3ILL
FIG. 62. CHEMEHUEVI WEAVER MAKING SPLINTS. FIG. 63. HOPI WOMAN WEAVING BASKET.
THE BASKET. 5
the arts of peace ; but in reality he is there an intruder, an usurper.
Woman was the originator, the pioneer, the inventor. Man is the reaper,
the enjoyer, and, sad to say, often the claimant and the boaster, forget-
ful that he inherited what he has and knows from his quieter and less
arrogant female ancestor.
During the last few years a great wave of righteous sentiment has
been aroused in favor of the North American Indian. As never before
in our history, we are seeking to do justice to the peoples we have dis-
possessed. And not merely in the lower forms of justice—as honesty
in treating with them about their lands—but in the higher forms, such
as the recognition of what portion of our advancement we owe to their
hitherto almost unrecognized struggles and labors.
We pride ourselves upon our advanced civilization, and in some
things truthfully, if not wisely. But how many of us have ever consid-
ered the question : To what do we owe our high position among the
civilizations of the world? Where did our civilization come from ?
Who first groped the way out of primitive ignorance, and made our
present methods possible? Someone had to begin. The trackless coun-
try is not built over with cities all at once. First, the explorer must
go over it ; then follow the pioneer and colonizers ; finally, when every-
thing is known to be reasonably safe, the multitudes pour in. So it is
in the march of the world's civilization. There have been explorers
to blaze the trails, and pioneers to suggest possibilities, and, in our race
struggles, the little brown man and woman whom we know as North
American Indians, have played a noteworthy part. It is high time,
therefore, that we recognize this and express our gratitude for what
they have done.
We too often think of our primitive tribes as dull, stolid, unthinking,
unimaginative. Nothing can be farther from the facts. They are
quick-witted, observant, thinking, imaginative, poetic. They set the
ball of progress rolling ; indeed, they first made the ball, then started
it and indicated its general direction.
Given a Franklin, a Joseph Henry, and a Morse, the work of Edi-
son, Gray, Bell, Marconi and Pupin is possible. But where would the
second group have begun if the first had never been ? One mind may
influence millions. Stephenson and Fulton changed the history of the
world ; yet they were only men, not gods ; men whose brains weighed
but an infinitesimal fraction more than those of other men.
It is to the Indian that we owe the beginnings of the things we have
carried to a greater or less degree of perfection. They were the original
inventors, the suggestors, the "imaginators" (if I may coin an expres-
sion). We, the highly cultured and civilized, are the followers ; they the
leaders. We reap the rewards in the fields they grubbed, plowed, har-
rowed and sowed. A second crop is easy when the first hard work of
clearing is done. So, while we complacently boast of the crops we now
reap, let us not forget the day when our fields were wild swamps,
rugged mountain slopes, or densely covered forest-growths. And in
remembering, let us give clue thanks to the long-ago aboriginal toiler,
who, unconsciously working to improve his own condition, uncon-
sciously worked to improve ours also.
This upward impulse is one of the most remarkable facts of all life.
"Onward, ever onward ! Upward, ever upward !" the hidden impulse
rn
.L3N SV T 3111
FIG. 64. HAVASUPAI DRESSING BUCKSKIN. FIG. 65. HAVASUPAI PARCHING CORN IN BASKET.
THE BASKET. 7
urges, and the races have been compelled to obey. Necessity may have
been the spur. That matters not. Something kept urging, and we are
what we are to-clay because of it, and because the little bronze man
and woman obeyed imperative commands from some high and un-
known power.
It must have been in the early days of the race that a vehicle for
carrying was first discovered. The bird's nest, the tangled vines, the
spider's web,—who knows ?—may have suggested to the undeveloped
mind of the early woman of the race the first net or basket, and aroused
in her the desire to construct something that should enable her to carry
many small things together. The desire awakened, she was forced to
carry it out. How ? What material could she use? What shape fol-
!ow ? At the very outset she was, by necessity, an adapter, an inventor.
So she set to work, trying a variety of materials, experimenting again
and again, until she found what she judged to be the best. And now
we have learned that those native materials which she judged "best"
for constructive purposes, modern science has accepted as having no
superiors. Rapidly looking over the field of the Indian basket-maker
of to-day, we find that she has tested every available material. She has
covered the ground most thoroughly. The splint of willow, cedarhark,
spruce-root, yucca-fiber, ash, hickory, slough-root, tule-root, corn-husk,
squaw-grass, maiden-hair fern stem, red-bud, and a thousand and one
other vegetable growths cause the student to wonder at the wide reach
of the Amerind's knowledge of materials. There is nothing that she
has left untested. Every possible article has been tried and proven.
Having obtained the best possible material, the primitive woman
proceeded to the invention of forms. Here Nature was her teacher.
The primitive art-instinct is to imitate. The eyes fall upon some object
that is pleasing. The object arouses a desire to copy it. True art in-
spiration can be best obtained in Nature. All the great masters of our
later times have returned to the great source of life. Cloister-fed fan-
cies may have pleased cloister-trained minds.,._but the great world has
never been moved by anything but that whiC'hAfas been inspired by Na-
ture. It is "one touch of Nature that;.,inakesthe whole world kin."
Our harmful divergencies lie in being artificial. The Amerind, for-
tunately, had no art schools ; no teachers, with theories and systems
deflecting the mind from undefiled sources of inspiration ; no books
confusing by their attempted explanations. No ! she had nothing but
pure, sweet, rugged, tempest-tossed, sun-kissed Nature. Nature in all
her moods. Mother Nature ;,Father Nature ; sunshine and storm ; ever-
lasting hills and earthquakes ; waving grass-fields and tornadoes ; flow-
ing streams and tidal waves ; towering trees and modest flowers. Here
was her school of art and 'design ; here were her models. She saw the
spider's web, and she constructed the "reda" or net. She saw a gourd.
and proceeded to make a water bottle shaped like it, and thus invented
a shape rational and therefore permanent, at once useful and grace-
ful. For, should this vessel fall from the saddle, such is its shape
that it would immediately right itself, so that but little of its precious
contents would be wasted ; a desideratum in the desert, where water is
most valuable.
Thus, one by one, nature-shapes were adopted, until now the num-
ber and variety of them are almost beyond enumeration. The shapes
00
'133S1/£13H1
FIG. 67. NAVAHO INDIAN SPINNING. FIG. 71. MOHAVE POUNDING MESQUITE BEANS
IN WOODEN MORTAR.
THE BASKET. 9
alone of a good basketry collection would number many hundreds.
And; remarkable to say,—or, rather, it would be remarkable, were it
not that Nature never errs, and that in copying Nature the Amerind has
avoided our errors—there is not a single shape that is ugly or inappro-
priate to the work for which it is needed. Water-bottle, treasure-basket,
cooking-basket, mush-bowl, carrying-basket, meal-tray, hat, roasting-
bowl, gambling-plaque, fish-basket—all are perfect in shape, and in
adaptation to use.
The Indian woman, having chosen her material and invented her
shapes, next considered the kind pf stitches to be put into her work.
Nature did not give her models from which closely to copy here, so
she experimented and invented. The spider web was to her a mere
suggestion, but that is all. So also the bird's nest. Therefore, our pa-
tient inventor sat down, undiscouraged by her task, and, year after
year, faithful and patient, she tried, again and again, every weave and
stitch that occurred to her. Who can imagine what this meant ? Which
of us, to-day, would like to be required to invent a new stitch or
weave ? At first, one naturally thinks that there can be few varieties of
stitches ; yet the North American Indian invented the simple mat weave,
and then played variations upon it by changing the order of intersection
of the splints ; she passed to the net weave, with its infinitude of
changes ; the plait or braid with its great diversity ; the coil with its
score or more of varieties ; the web with its endless series of modifica-
tions. Indeed, it may confidently be said that there is not a single stitch
or weave known to modern art, made with loom however complicated,
that the Indian woman did not invent, and which has not been in actual
use for centuries. Is she not, then, entitled to our esteem and gratitude
for her accomplishments in this direction, for what would the man of
to-day be without his textiles varied? He is indebted to the Indian
woman, as to other inventors of primitive times, for that which gives
him his clothing, napery, bedding, and upholstery.
Basketry and fabric weaving are closely related. It is probable
that basketry was invented first, and that weaving came much later.
Undoubtedly, the first garments, after fig leaves, were skins of animals.
Men killed the animals, and they, together with the women, dressed the
skins ; though, as belonging to the province of the hunter, it was purely
optional with the woman whether or not she touched the skin. This
division is clearly marked even to this day among the Havasupais ;
every man dressing the skins which are the result of his own hunting.
and the women having no part in their preparation. The process is
simple, yet perfect. No machinery or modern process can produce
better, if as good, buckskin, as that which is made by these primitive
people. Its quality is known and coveted by tribes a thousand miles
away. The green skin is soaked in water until the hair is loose. Then,
with a pair of ji-vi-so-o (bone knives made from the ribs of a horse),
the skin is scraped until perfectly clean. Another brief soaking and the
skin is ready to be dressed. This is done by pulling, stretching and
working the skin between the fingers, hour after hour, until it is as
soft and pliable as desired. Many a time at a pow-wow or council, I
have seen the men occupied in quietly rubbing and stretching the buck-
skin which they had in preparation. (See Fig. 64.)
Among the Havasupais, also, one may see the means still in use by
'.L3)I SVEI3H 1
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t4f* •
et—ik
‘," ".41
111; Aetri* .
HOPI AND NAVAHO W &AV kikta.

FIG. 68. PRIMITIVE LOOM USED HY.
.riiE BASKET. II
which pottery probably came into existence. The term, "Basketry the
Mother of Pottery," is more real than imaginative. The basket was the
matrix of the pot. Not long ago I saw a Havasupai woman parching
corn in a basket. This she lined with a mixture of sand and clay, in
order to prevent it from cracking, and then threw into it a handful of
corn and a scattering of live coals. Blowing into the basket, she kept
the contents whirling by a circular motion of the hands, until the corn
was properly parched. Finally, with a dextrous swing, the corn and
coals were separated ; the latter was thrown out, and the parched coal
remained.
In due process of time the clay lining, under such treatment,
hardens, bakes, and separates itself from the basket. What must have
been the thought of the first Indian corn parcher when she found a new
and convenient vessel, made without the tabor of weaving, shaped and
perfect at her hands, ready for carrying water or anything else that she
chose to place therein ? That was a, triumph of accidental invention.
But scientific reseach has shown that, voluntarily, for centuries, aborig-
inal pottery was made in basket or net moulds, and I have myself seen
the Zuni, Laguna, Hopi, Navaho, Acoma and other Indian potters,
coiling the clay in ropes in exact imitation of their method of making
basketry.
But now let us briefly return to textiles. Before skins were dressed.
they were used for clothing; first, undoubtedly, in their rude entirety,
afterward subjected to some process of cutting, and shaping to the body
of the wearer. But this assumes the skins to be of a size large enough
to be so used. What of the skins of smaller animals, such as the
gopher, beaver, rabbit, raccoon, etc.? These are too small for garments.
Something was necessary to make them broadly useful. So the wits of
the primitive inventors were set to work, and how slowly or how
rapidly the idea came we do not know, but, eventually, we find the
aborigine taking the small skins, and sewing or tying them together
until he had a long rope ; then, on a crude frame, actually weaving
them into a blanket, such as that worn by the Mohave Indian in Fig. 66.
Later came the spinning and weaving of vegetable fibre, and what
a memorial we owe to the long forgotten, if ever known, discoverers
of these processes ! My heart has often thrilled at the sight of the
great monuments of the world erected in honor of the stayers of man-
kind, our warriors ; and I have silently shed tears as I have watched
loving hands strew the graves of unknown soldiers with flowers. But
now when I see the mausoleums, triumphal arches, columns, statues;
memorial bronzes, I say to myself : "How unjust, how foolish is man-
kind! Scores of monuments to the slayers of men, and nothing but
curses and anathemas for the busy-minded inventors of the arts of
peace. If we must honor the slayers, by no means let us forget the
conservers of life."
How did the primitive spinner work ? Watch him to-day. He is a
Navaho,—he or his wife, sometimes one, sometimes the other. The
process followed is the primitive one invented in the dawn of history.
The Navaho and his neighbor, the Hopi, grew and spun cotton long
before a white man's dreams saw a passage to India by way of the
North West. When Spanish colonization began, and sheep were
brought into the Western world, three hundred or more years ago, Hopi
THE BASKET. 13
and Navaho were quick to see the advantage the long, fine wool staple
had over the fibre of the cotton. But originally it was yucca-fibre and
cotton. And the spinning wheel ? See it by the side of the Navaho in
Fig. 67. It is a smooth stick on which a circular disc of wood is fas-
tened. It is held in the left hand and rapidly twirled on the knee, with
the cotton or wool in the right hand, so that the yarn can be stretched
to the required thickness.
Everything is now ready for the weaving. The loom on which the
skin blanket, already described, was made, was, perhaps, the most prim-
itive of all. It is still in use by several tribes of Indians of the South-
west. It consists of four pegs driven into the ground to hold the four
corners of the article to be woven, and completely around these one
strand of the skin rope is tightly stretched. This forms the edge for
sides, top and bottom, and the top and bottom strands also act as bases
for the stretching of the warp strands. As soon as these are in place,
the weft strands are woven over and under the warp, until the whole
square is filled. Little by little, improvements on this primitive loom
were made. The heddle was invented, and an article of many pages,
with many illustrations, could be written upon this subject alone. The
primitive loom as it is used by the Navaho and Hopis of to-day is a
crude and simple, yet most effective contrivance. On it the most mar-
vellous blankets are woven. I have carried water seven miles in a blan-
ket of Indian construction. Yet the whole affair is made by the Indian
woman weaver with a few poles cut from the nearest grove, and a couple
of raw hide ropes. Using two of the heaviest poles as uprights, she
fastens the third across the top, and a fourth across the bottom. Below
the upper cross-beam, another beam is suspended by lashings of raw-
hides, and to this the yarn beam is fastened. On this yarn beam the
vertical threads of the warp are tied to a corresponding beam answering
the same purpose at the bottom. The rawhide above serves to draw
the threads tight, and when thus fixed, the loom is ready for the wea-
ver. (See Fie-. 68).
With her different "shuttles" of yarn she sits on the ground, tailor
fashion, and, thrusting a stick through the warp, divides the cords, so
that she can run through them without delay the different threads of
the wool. The "shuttle" is a simple piece of stick, on the end of which
the yarn has been wound. As soon as the thread is placed in position,
a "batten stick" (which, like the woof stick, is always kept in the
warp) is brought down with such great force as to wedge the thread
into a firm and close position. And thus every thread is "battened
down" with such energy that one does not wonder to find the blanket
when finished impervious to the heaviest rains.
Of the invention of designs for Indian blanketry, basketry and pot-
tery I hope to write later. The subject is one of great fascination, and
the more it is studied the more does it revolutionize many of our ideas
regarding the development of the aesthetic faculties.
The popular conception of the Indian is that the man, the buck, is
a monarch, rude and savage, and the woman, the squaw, is a slave.
abject and servile. Like so many other "popular" conceptions based
'upon ignorance or superficial observation, this is an error. Almost
without exception, the higher class of explorers, Livingstone, Spcke.
Burton, and others, tell of the freedom and equality of the primitive
THE BASKET. 15
woman. The general error seems to have had its birth and growth
from the failure of early writers to recognize the fact that among the
Indians a distinct division of labor was invariably observed, and that
neither sex ever intruded upon the work of the other.
Even to-day misunderstandings of this character are constantly
liable to arise. Suppose a woman unacquainted with the customs of
the Hopi to have witnessed the scene pictured in Fig. 69. Here a score
of women are seen engaged in building a house. They mix their own
mortar, gather or quarry their own stones, are their own hod-carriers,
and neither seek nor expect the slightest help from the men,—who sit
calmly smoking near them. With such a scene before him, the un-
acquainted observer would grow angry at the indolence of the men,
and their brutality in compelling their women to do such hard work
while they sit idly by.
But this would he waste of sympathy, and a clear evidence of the
observer's ignorance. Hopi women, in building their houses, do not
desire aid from the men. The women are the owners of the domiciles ;
therefore, what more natural than that they shall build them ?
This very act of house-building is a proof of the Hopi woman's
equality with her husband, and, possibly, her superiority over him.
For within the walls of the house she is supreme. Except the per-
sonal, ceremonial, hunting and war belongings of her husband, every-
thing brought within belongs to her, or is under her control. Even the
corn of the field, planted and gathered by her husband, once put into
the corn-storage room, is no longer at his disposal.
With the neighboring nomad Navaho the same equality of the sexes
obtains, and I can imagine the laugh of scorn that a person would meet,
who would question the Hopi or Navaho woman as to her degraded and
subordinate position.
Among the aborigines, the sex division of labor was instituted ac-
cording to the law of natural selection of work ; woman, the home-
maker, the child-bearer, remaining behind while the men went abroad
to hunt or to make war.
As the food provider, the Indian woman has always been the
beast of burden. She has not only been compelled to find the food, but
also to transport it to her home (to this the results of the chase are the
main exception, woman never having been a hunter). For methods of
transportation alone we owe many valuable inventions to primitive
women, and bearing upon this subject, Professor Mason of the Smith-
sonian Institute, has written a lengthy illustrated article of great inter-
est and value.
The food having been carried home, it was necessary for it to be
prepared ; and here was large scope for the exercise of the primitive
inventor's faculties. How was corn to be ground? How cooked ?
How preserved ? Aboriginal woman was the first miller. She took a
flat slab of rock, sloped it to a convenient angle, took a smaller slab to
act as a grinding stone, and, placing the corn between the two, rubbed
the one rock over the other, until the grain became meal. Every Indian
of the Southwest to-day uses these primitive mills, as seen in Fig. 70.
Some grains were found unfitted for grinding. They were better
crushed by pounding, and the Indian woman invented the mortar and
pestle. Many of the mortars still in use are made from tree trunks cut
rn
*.L3)1SVila Hi.
FIG. 72 WALLAPAI WITH MORTAR MADE FROM LAVA. FIG. 73. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INDIAN STONE MORTAR
WITH BASKET HOPPER.
THE BASKET. 17
off near the root and hollowed out, so that the gnarled twistings at the
bottom form a solid base. (See Fig. 71 ). Later, mortars were cut out
of solid rock. (See Figs. 72 and 73.) The process was slow and
laborious, and a well prepared mortar meant the hard work of many
months. On Santa Catalina Island, just off the coast of Southern Car-
ifornia, a primitive quarry of these mortars was recently discovered.
The material is a kind of soap-stone, and bears the marks of the excava-
tion of many mortars. Others were in the process of removal at the
time of the abandonment of the quarry. If one could draw back the
veil of the past, what interesting disclosures might this abandoned
quarry reveal! Was it war or pestilence that moved the quarriers and
FIG. 74. MONO INDIAN BOILING WATER IN BASKET.
left their work uncompleted ? Did they start to cross to the main land
in their frail boats, and meet death in some sudden storm ? Alas, we
can only conjecture, for there is no record to tell us how this change
came about.
The food ground, how must it be cooked? Here primitive woman
had to use her faculties, and she became an adept at broiling, boiling,.
steaming and baking. Although still without pottery or metal utensils,
the Indian woman of to-day boils water in a basket, heating it far more
quickly than can be done by the means of gas stove or electrical appa-
ratus. At her camp fire she always keeps a number of fair sized stones,
and close by is her basket full of water. As soon as the stones are
18 THE BASKET.
heated thoroughly, she takes a stick with a loop at one end, and, with a
dextrous twist, picks up one of the stones upon the loop and throws it
into the basket. As long as it "sizzles," she stirs it to keep it from burn-
ing the bottom of the basket. When it is cooled, it is rapidly jerked out
and another hot stone takes its place. In this way the water is made
to boil quickly. Many times I have seen acorn and other mush cooked
in this way ; the hot stones being stirred into the food until it was thor-
oughly cooked. (See Fig. 74.)
Even in the inventions of necessary toilet articles, the primitive
woman has had her share. As we use the delicately scented Lubin's or
Pear's soap, we are not liable to be grateful to the greasy little primitive
woman of long centuries ago.
But we are so indebted. It was she, not our refined ancestors, who
invented soap. The latter have invented new methods of preparing it,
but the finest and best soap made even to-day, is the same as that which
was prepared by the bronze woman of the wilds. She took the root of
the amole (a species of yucca), bruised and macerated it, and then beat
it up and down in her bowl of water. She thus made better, sweeter
and more agreeable soap than comes from the French or English per-
fumer of reputation.
I have thus rapidly outlined a few of the things which we owe to
primitive woman. The list might be letwthened ten times. I have said
nothing of the instruments for making fire, the hand drill, the making
of skin and birch bark canoes and other vessels, the work in metals,
the taming of wild animals, the cultivation of plants, the discovery of
medicines and of their methods of application.
But even with these things the list would be inadequate. The inven-
tiveness of the primitive woman was never more wonderfully shown
than in religion and philosophy. She devised a system of religion to
account for all the fearful phenomena that she observed. She was the
inventor of the story-telling art, and, indeed, the first teacher of lan-
guage. She excelled in the art of representing human thought by
picture-writing, out of which the alphabet was slowly developed. There-
fore, it is not too much to say that we owe a vast amount of gratitude
to the ignored women of the dawn of history. If, in future, we find our-
selves unable to speak a good word for the Indian, our American rep-
resentative of a primitive race, we shall no longer be able to plead
ignorance. We shall at least "have awakened our senses, that we may
the better judge."
THE BASKET. 19
POETRY AND SYMBOLISM OF INDIAN

BASKETRY.
(Collated from articles, which appeared in the Kindergarten Maga-

zine, Chicago, and the Drawing and Manual Training Journal,
Charleston, S. C.)
In my Boston address before the N. E. A., I endeavored to empha-

size several matters in relation to the Indians wherein we had done
them injustice, that have long been overlooked.
This neglected injustice is injurious to ourselves as well as to the
Indian. We cannot wrong him and escape unhurt ourselves. In addi-
tion to the material wrongs we have inflicted upon the Indian there
are other wrongs that we might term of a sentimental nature, such as
the attributing to him of qualities that he does not possess and denying
to him the possession of qualities that he does possess.
My use of the Indian basket has been an elucidation of these
charges. I contend that the basket demonstrates that the Indian woman
is not only an artist, but a far superior artist to most civilized American
women. She is a poet as well as an artist, and her poetry is as spon-
taneous as the singing of the mocking bird.
Most people in looking at an Indian basket for the first time see
nothing in the work, and make such remarks as : "Certainly, their
baskets reveal skill and ability, but that is all." These superficial ob-
servers do not consider the knowledge of materials required, the botan-
ical knowledge, so that all materials shall be gathered at precisely the
exact time when they are the most flexible, durable, and brilliant and
permanent in colors. If you, madam, who sneer and scoff at the Indian
were about to gather material to make a basket, how would you know
what to gather ? How would you know what time in the year to gather
the willow or the tule root, the squaw grass, the red bud and a score of
other plants that are used ? What would you do to dry and prepare
them ? Would you know how to dve them with dyes of your owrr
choice and preparation, durable, beautiful and harmonious ?
In these matters alone the Indian woman can give pointers to the
most advanced scientist. They know where we only conjecture.
Then, too, think of the labor . and skill: required to prepare the
splints for weaving. They use no flexible raffia, or rattan rounded into
sizes already for use. They have no machinery with which to do this
for themselves. Everything has to be done by the old-fashioned, simple,
primitive methods of their own invention.
Now they are ready to weave, and see how they go to work. They
know nothing about books, teachers of design, geometrical figures, or
the use of pencil and paper. All they know is what Nature, the chief
and true inspirer of all artists, has taught them. They get their de-
signs from the heavens above, the earth beneath and the waters under-
neath the earth, absorbed and worked out in their own active brains, so
20 THE BASKET.
FIG. 75. PART OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST CALIFORNIA COLLECTIONS.

THE BASKET. 21
that they know how they will appear when pictured in willow splints up-
on a flat surface. Everything is mentally measured and mapped out be-
forehand. There is no error as to the width of a single stitch. The
shape of the basket is definitely planned, its mathematical increase
carefully measured, and the location of every particular of the design
clearly foreseen. And thus, with this perfect mental picture before her,
conjured out of her own imagination, the Indian weaver proceeds to
her own work. Her digital skill is equal to her mental conception. No
wonder, then, that she produces such masterpieces of art as her baskets
certainly are.
In Fig. 75 is a portion of one of the best known and earliest of
California collections. Its owner early perceived the rich beauty of
these aboriginal creations, and became interested in them and their
weavers. One by one she added new specimens until her collection
numbered nearly 500 rare and beautiful pieces. They were mainly the
work of the California tribes, but there were specimens also from
Alaska and Arizona. In the upper right-hand corner of the illustration
are a carrying basket and a seed-wand or gatherer. These are rightly
placed together. The basket is conical in shape and is capable of
holding a large quantity of fruit or seeds. Resting this basket against
her legs, the woman would strike into it with the scoop, wand, or gath-
erer, the seeds of the wild grasses she desired for her granary. As
soon as the basket was full, she would swing it over her shoulders upon
her broad back, and carry it down the mountain slopes, over the sandy
desert, or up the steep canyon trails to her "hawa," "kish," or "hogan."
It is the Indian's wheelbarrow, and if there arises in the mind of the
reader any question as to the relative capacities of the two vehicles, let
it be settled definitely in favor of the "kathak," or carrying basket.
Next to this is an Oraibi sacred plaque, made of willow, beautifully
colored, and used by this strange people in their religious ceremonials.
Just to the left and above this is another sacred meal plaque made at
Mashongnavi, another of the Hopi towns.
The next basket is a V-shaped affair, made by the Louisiana In-
dians, and by this and below it are two wicker water-bottles. The
larger one is of beautiful shape and weave, durable and strong, similar
to those made by the Washoe Indians of Nevada to-day. The smaller
one is of a rarer type, and found only among the Pueblos of New
Mexico. I am inclined to think that this was made at the interesting
town of Zuni, so intimately connected with the name of Frank H. Cush-
ing, whose early death all students of ethnology will long deplore.
As a rule, these water-bottles, or "tusjehs," as the Navahoes call
them, are covered with pinion gum, which makes them absolutely
water-tight. The chief objection to their use, however, is that the water
soon partakes of the flavor of the wicker.
I now wish to introduce to my readers a few of the most striking
baskets of the Babbitt collection. Preceding the descriptions of the
baskets I wrote the following, which appeared in the November, 1903,
Drawing and Manual Training Journal.
It has been my good fortune for twenty-two years to closely ob-
serve Indian basket weavers at work. From the Paiuti Indians of
Nevada, the so-called Pitt River Indians of California, all clown both
the eastern and western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas, into Arizona
22 THE BASKET.
FIG. 77. A PALATINGWA (SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA) WEAVER FINI3HIN

A BASKET.
THE BASKET. 23
and New Mexico, and down the Colorado River almost to the Gulf of
California, I have visited their camps, remained days and weeks with
them and thus absorbed some of the inner spirit and motive which con-
trol the older basket makers at their work. This absorption of the
thoughts behind work is a slow process. It does not come as the result
of purchase. It is only to those whose sympathy and interest are actu-
ally felt by the Indian that she will open up her heart. I have never
gone to her camp in any other spirit than that of a learner, a friend, a
brother. As a designer, weaver, preparer of materials she was the
master, I the pupil, and thus, placing myself in the attitude to awaken
and sustain her sympathies she readily told me all she knew or thought
I would care to learn.
A few months ago the band of Indians living at the Hot Springs
( Spanish, Agua Caliente, Indian, Palatingwa), on Warner's Ranch,
San Diego County, California, were evicted from their long-centuries-
occupied homes. The United States Supreme Court had decided that
the eviction must take place, although it is well known that these In-
dians have lived on that spot or in the immediate neighborhood long
befoie any white man ever entered the country. Accordingly they were
required to remove. This was another blot upon our national es-
cutcheon ; the beginning of a new "century of dishonor" in our treat-
ment of the helpless and inferior race. There have been some redeem-
ing features, however, and the chief of these is the fact that Commis-
sioner Jones of the United States Indian Department spurred Congress
to make an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for the pur-
chase of a new home for the Palatingwas. Accordingly this was done
and Pala was chosen. A hundred or more years ago this was the home
of a large number of Indians under the spiritual control of the priests
of San Luis Rey, for whom they built a picturesque little church which
now remains.
The teacher of the United States Indian School at Agua Caliente
for about fourteen years has been Mrs. J. H. Babbitt. In her kind and
helpful association with them she has had unusual opportunities for
purchasing their finest basket work.
Soon after their removal to Pala, the Indians wished to consult
with me about several matters and sent me an invitation to go and visit
them. I did so, and remained a week, listening to their story. It was
a very different story to that told by their professed friends and some
day I intend to lay it before the American people as they wish it to be.
During this visit I carefully studied Mrs. Babbitt's collection and
photographed all the most important specimens.
Fig. 76 shows her choicest baskets. In the main they are of but two
colors, white or creamy, with the design picked out in the varying
browns of the tule root. This is the finest collection of these baskets
in existence, I believe. Several of these are pictured later and more
fully, and their history given as related by their weavers. The center
basket at the bottom and the one on the top of the overturned basket to
the right are made of the tule stem, and are woven loosely, so that the
basket acts as a sieve. I have seen corn placed into this kind of basket,
and dipped alternately into lye and water. The ►Hills were thus soft-
ened and removed and hominy was produced.
THE BASKET. 25
As I have shown in my book on "Indian Basketry" the chief art in-

stinct of the Indian weaver found expression in imitation.
She imitated the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars, the moun-
tains, valleys, streams, lightning, rain, clouds, falling rain, whirlwinds,
tornadoes, rivers, springs, snakes, birds, beasts and insects, men, women
and children, and then, when her objects of imitation wearied her
she began to vary them, ring changes on them, as it were, and thus in-
vented new designs, which, however, retained the names and meanings
attached to their imitative originals. Thus the St. Andrew's Cross is a
variation of the diamond of the rattlesnake, and the score or more beau-
tiful star designs are all variations of the original five-pointed star.
In the designs of Fig. 76 will be seen vultures or buzzards, hills and val-
leys, a net, arrow points, a rattlesnake with its diamonds, dancing men
FIG. 78. PALATINGWA BASKET, BURRO AT TROUGH DESIGN.
and women, flowers, twigs, a burro feeding at its trough, several stars,
a whirlwind, and a variety of conventional designs that require much
explanation.
They are all beautifully worked out; each one according to the
thought of the weaver. It is interesting and educative to the trained
white artist, familiar with books on art, drawings, art designs, etc., to
remember that the Indian woman has none of these. Her designs are
in her brain, worked out without pencil or paper, and mentally projected
upon the surface of her basket before she takes a stitch, and so perfectly,
too, that she has determined the exact size and shape of her basket, the
exact stitch where she will begin and place every portion of her design
and how it will look when completed. Surely with these facts in mind
the intelligent artist will be the last to call this woman a savage.
In their skillful use of the tule root which gives a variety of shades
of brown these Palatingwas produce a basket that for richness of color
effects surpasses anything I have ever seen, except the more gorgeous
26 THE BASKET.
feather baskets of the Northern Indians of California. Sometimes the

body of the basket is in white, indeed, generally so, and the design
picked out in the varying shades of brown. On the other hand the
weaver will sometimes make her basket of the brown splints and pick
out the design in white. The effect then is most strikingly beautiful.
Such a basket as this is shown in the woman's cap, the second from the
right in the front row on the table.
Fig. 77 is that of a Palatingwa weaver finishing a basket, which I
purchased from her and now have in my own collection. It is of milk
pan shape, though the sirles are a little high for a milk pan, but it makes
a most useful shape and size for a work basket. As a rule the weaver
FIG. 79. THE CELEBRATED RATTLESNAKE BASKET.
leaves all the ends in her work until the basket is completed. Then she
washes it and dries it thoroughly in the sun. Then with a knife or piece
of clam shell in hand she picks off each loose end until the basket is
quite "clean."
This basket has particular interest to me as being the first baskqt
finished by any weaver of the evicted Palatingwas after their arrival at
Pala.
Fig. 78 is a uniquely designed basket in the Babbitt collection. It
a saucer bowl, seven inches across the bottom and fourteen and a half
inches high. The bottom is a star, wrought in shaded brown splints.
and on the sides are four figures, two of which are donkeys or burros
THE BASET. 27
eating out of a trough. The body color of the sides is brown and the
designs are in white. The effect, therefore, is most striking. The
body of the burro is in white ; also the trough, but the eyes, mouth,
muzzle, the packs on the burro's back, the dividing lines between the
legs, body and tail, the shadows in the troughs, etc., are all in brown.
Under the body of the burro is a rooster.
This design affords me a good deal of food for thought and reveals
far more, than at first sight, one would imagine. Whenever did any
one ever see an Indian burro feeding at a trough ? Never. And yet this
weaver intended this for her own burro. What then does it mean ?
You ask the weaver, and she averts her eyes, perhaps, or laughs, or
gives a nervous little giggle, and says nothing, or deliberately lies to
you. But gain her confidence. Let her feel your sympathy, and, bye-
and-bye, she herself will tell you that "some day, may-be so, I not be
FIG. SI. PALATINGWA BASKET, WITH BACHELOR WALK DESIGN.
poor all the time, as I am now. May-be so I sell 'em lots baskets, I feed
'em my burro in a trough all same rich white man."
Ah! think of that ! Longing, desire, prayer, all woven into that sin-
gular design of an Indian burro eating out of a trough, "all same rich
white man's burro."
The weaver is a poor old woman, named Margarita, who lives near
Murietta, and who has so many hungry children to feed that it is one
of her dreams that some day she will be able to feed her burro in a
trough. Pierpont Morgan and Rockefeller are not the only persons in
the world who crave more wealth.
Fig. 79 is the celebrated rattlesnake basket of Mrs. Babbitt's collec-
tion. It was made by Maria Antonia, originally a La Jolla Indian, and
later living at Mesa Grande, and is a most beautiful specimen of the
weaver's art.
The poor weaver had a most unfortunate history. Well might she
serve as an illustration of the fact that misfortune seems to follow
28 THE BASKET.
some people all their lives. She was married to an Indian, who sudden-
ly, without any apparent cause, went away and left her. As time elapsed
and her husband did not return, she assumed marital relations with a
man named Balenzuella, who was living alone. Two years ago he died,
leaving a team of horses, wagon, a fair house with plenty of furniture
and some money. As soon as he died his wife, who had abandoned him,
appeared in Court at San Diego and claimed all his property. The
Court awarded it to her, although it was clear that Antonia had earned
much of it, for she was a tireless worker. Thus she was cast adrift
again and had to begin life afresh.
The basket is bowl shaped and is 3Y2 inches high and about
inches across the bottom. The top is 6Y2 inches across, and the circum-
ference in the widest part, which is about an inch and a half from the
top, is 22Y2 inches. The shape, colors, design and workmanship com-
bine to produce a most pleasing result. The body color is white, but
FIG. 82. PALATINGWA STAR DESIGN BASKET.
so important is the design that it takes up all but eleven coils, and its
color is the brown of the tule root. Beginning in the fourth coil
from the center is the rattle of the snake. Two stitches of white follow
two stitches of brown, and thus the three small rattles are made. Then
eight brown stitches connect with other brown stitches on the two
rows below in such a way as to suggest another and larger rattle. The
rattles are thus enlarged until there are four more, making eight in
all. The real coil of the snake's body then begins, in six rows of brown
weaving with diamonds picked out in white. As these six coils of
brown come to the point of their commencement, they are ingeniously
diverted upwards, and three coils of white introduced. The six brown
coils now become nine, denoting the thickening of the body of the
snake. When these nine coils are complete a new diversion upwards
THE BASKET. 29
is made, diminishing the thickness of the snake's body to seven coils,

and this continues around until the head is reached, which is clearly
depicted in the photograph. Two eyes are placed in perspective, and
the general effect is most striking and unique. This is an original
and interesting basket and one that may well be desired in any collec-
tion. Looked at either outside or inside the snake is very realistic, but
more so on the inside. It thus seems to be coiled up most naturally, the
head resting on the body, with the rattles in the center.
The snake design is placed in the basket as a propitiation of the
powers of good and evil behind the living snake, in order that those
which are good may remain so, and those which are bad and vicious
may be restrained from striking or wounding any members of the wea-
ver's family. Thus this basket becomes the enshrinement of a prayer.
To my mind Fig. 8o is one of the most pleasing designs of the Bab-
bitt collection. The body is white, the design is brown. It is "milk
pan" shaped, eleven inches on the bottom, three-quarter inches high,
and nearly thirteen inches across the top, so that it will be seen that the
sides are almost perpendicular. The flaring is immediately near the
bottom.
The center is a nine pointed star, which is the motif of the whole
design, the star enlarging in four successive series of rays. It is per-
fect in shape, harmonious and complete, the nine clusters of tiny stars
on the upper part of the sides giving a finished appearance to the de-
sign that is pleasing and agreeable. The border coil stitch is in brown.
The design continues from the bottom up the sides without change or
interruption. Its weaver is Ramona Balenzuella, a pure blooded In-
dian, who lives at Mesa Grande. She is the best weaver in that village
on the mountain overlooking Warner's Ranch.
Fig. 8i is a very interesting specimen. It is a fair sized bowl-shaped
basket, nearly eight inches high, five inches across the bottom and thir-
teen inches across the top. The body is white and the design is picked
out in color. The interior "square heart" is in brown and the two
enclosing squares are in grayish black at the top, shaded down to a
lavender gray at the bottom. The effect is very delicate and most pe-
culiar ; indeed, I have never seen anything like it elsewhere. The lower
third of the bowl is marked with designs in variegated brown, with the
bottom line in black and shaded with the lavender gray. The maker
was Ramona Cibimooat, who, with her sister, is one of the most intelli-
gent basket makers of the tribe. The lavender tint of splint is found
in few places, and these are unknown to any others than Ramona and
her sister. Hence their baskets are highly prized when these colors
and tints are introduced. Though I am not a botanist I am under the
impression that the color is caused by some chemical element in the wa-
ter which dyes the tule stem while growing.
This "square heart" design is commonly known among the Indians
as the "Bachelor's Walk." It has a symbolism that is very clear to the
Indian and yet it must be carefully expressed to avoid misapprehension
in the civilized mind. The inner part represents a maiden's heart.
The young man who remains a bachelor may walk around and around
(as represented by the outer square) the object of his most ardent affec-
tions, but he will ever be kept at a distance. He may woo her most
urgently and come nearer and thus encircle her (as represented in the
30 THE BASKET.
inner square), but he is just as far as ever from entering the maiden's
heart, the holy of holies, if he still remains a bachelor. It is only when
he and she unite in the sweet and holy communion of heart, mind and
body in the dear and blessed relationship of true marriage that the man
can enter into and know the inner heart of the maiden, who has given
up her maidenhood to become his devoted and true wife.
Some imagine that this design and thought apply solely to the phy-
sical relationship, but this is not so. While this relationship is well
understood, and by the Indian (to her friends) spoken of with a dig-
nified freedom that few white people understand, he who conceives
it rests upon that relationship alone reveals his ignorance of the exalted
nature of the true Indian's thought. It applies to the higher, the spir-
itual communion of souls, and, of course, the higher includes the lower.
Fig. 82 is of a bowl-shaped basket made by Maria Antonia, and now
in the collection of Mrs. J. H. Babbitt. It is four and a half inches
high, seven inches across the top, and twenty-five inches in circum-
ference in its widest part. The design is a star. There are six points
picked out in brown, with a white background. The enlarging rays
are also in brown, followed by another set of rays. The whole upper
part of the basket is finished in brown, thus producing a charming
effect. This is a good illustration of the color used in making the de-
sign being the predominant color, without destroying the effect, in-
deed, materially enhancing it. The stitch is the simple coil fully de-
scribed and pictured in Indian Basketry, pages 162-3-4.
Fig. 83 is a so-called Tulare bottleneck of fine size, shape, form,
color, weave and design, in the E. Mehesy, Jr., collection, Los Angeles,
Cal. Even though the design is most simple, it is exceedingly effective.
It consists of the wavy, garter snake design, very common on the older
baskets of all weavers who live near the motintains. It is 314 inches
across the bottom, 3% inches across the neck, 7Y2 inches high, To%
inches across the top, and 36 inches in its largest circumference. It
"bellies" out rapidly from the bottom up to about 23/4 inches high and
then more slowly to the top. The neck is half an inch high and the
flange is 3/ inNes wide. In color it is creamy white, and the design
is picked out in red bud, the wavy lines themselves being in white. Mr.
Mehesy values it at $too.
Fig. 84 is a "milk pan" shaped bowl of Mission weave. The body is
white willow splint, and the design the brown of the tule root. On
the bottom are two pairs of designs. One pair is lozenge shape and the
other of the spider-web suggestion, shaped into geometric form. On
the flange one pair is of double diamonds, and the other pair of un-
recognizable shape. It is inches across the bottom, inches
across the top and 2Y2 inches high. Its price is $15.00.
FIG. 83. FINE TULARE BOTTLENECK. IN THE COLLECTION OF E.

FIG. 34. MISSION BASKET, IN THE COLLECTION OF E. MEHESY, JR.,

LOS ANGELES, CAL.
'.1.331SVE1 3111.
FIG. 85. PEDRO TAXER() AND HIS WIFE AT THEIR HOME IN SABOBA.
Photo by G. L. Rose.
THE BASKET. 33
PEDRO LIICERO AND HIS WIFE.

(The Story of an Old Couple's Love.)
Few people took him for an Indian. He was so intelligent and

bright ; then, too, he had a moustache and full beard of snowy white
hair, and that was so rare that everybody imagined him to be a Mexi-
can, a member of some dark-faced race, perhaps, but not an Indian.
Yet he was pure blooded and proud of it. "There is nothing but the
blood of the Saboba in my veins," he would say, with pride. "I and my
forefathers and foremothers are all Sabobas, and we have lived here
for many, many generations."
Saboba was where they lived, near San Jacinto, in Southern Cali-
fornia. Helen Hunt Jackson has described the place and told a little of
its history and its wretchedness and also of the tenacity with which the
Indians cling to it. Few white people can understand this aboriginal
devotion. "Why not go elsewhere, to a better place?" they ask, ig-
norant of the belief of the Indian that the gods alone placed him here,
and that if he would keep their smile and favor here must he live and
die. The story told me by Lucero as to the coming of the Sabobas is
told in "Indian Basketry," pages 218-220, and on page 217 is a picture
of Pedro, with the historic basket of his wife's making in his hands.
Everybody knew Pedro and his wife. They were a loving couple,
though aged, wrinkled and worn. Poor was no name to describe the
abject wretchedness of their lot, yet in each other's love they were
content, nay, even happy. But Pedro was blind. I never asked him
whether he was born blind, or if it was the result of some later acci-
dent, but ever since I have known him he has been without the power
of sight. His wife was a quiet, even-tempered, sweet-spirited, industri-
ous old woman ; one of the few remaining basket makers of the Sabobas,
and she would sit hard at work, day in and day out, shaping the pliant
willow and tule root into the useful and pretty baskets that in these
days we have learned so much to value.
They didn't have much of what we should call intellectual inter-
course. There were no chats on the latest operas, or novels, or poems,
or pictures. They did not discuss the newest scientific theories and
argue about the descent of man, or life being a product of ferment.
One would have thought there was little to bind them closely together.
Poverty is said to be "grinding"; and where one is "ground" he does
not generally feel loving and gentle. Still this couple were ever loving
and gentle one with another. The old woman would talk to the old blind
man, and he would reply, and a look of content and peace would come
over his face in spite of the sightless orbs that spoke him blind. For
they loved each other deeply, truly, faithfully, lastingly. Theirs no
fair-weather love, while youth and good looks lasted ; no formal tie to
be severed at will for a younger man or woman, but a true union of
hearts—Indian hearts though they were—and their ever-present re-
ward was a conjugal happiness to be envied. Happiness is a relative
THE BASKET.
krill, and, as the Christ put it, it conies not from without ; the kingdom
of 'heaven is within you." Poverty and squalor cannot affect it, for
it is a state within. The "diners on herbs" might enjoy it and the
"feasters on stalled ox" know nothing of its calm delights and per-
petual inner banquets. These two loved, and in the gentle serenity
of that never failing devotion to each other the days passed in happi-
ness and content, and one, seeing them as I did, could wish them
nothing better than to pass out into the beyond together, thus loving
and being loved.
But the cyclone considers not the gamboling of the innocent lamb.
The tornado sweeps with equally direful force over the happy as well
as the wretched, just as the rain falls upon the just and the unjust.
The stormy blasts of winter have no discernment of the poorly clad,
and the disasters of the earthquake smite the deserving and the good
as well as the undeserving and the bad. So it need not seem strange
that when the earthquake of a few years ago visited Southern Califor-
nia it slew the wife of Pedro as well as several other women, none of
whom, perhaps, were as happy in conjugal bliss as she.
Sad and bitter were the wailings when the mournful news of these
tragic deaths was told. Assembled together in an adobe but ; asleep
tinder its walls after a fiesta of celebration of the happy Christmas time
(and let us not be too censorious that their feasting was of the grosser
kind), the temblor de tierra came, one of the walls fell and the lives of
the sleeping women were instantaneously dashed out, Pedro's wife
among the number.
He himself was also a victim of the earth's unsteadiness. Leg and
collar bone (I think it was) were shattered, and when the dead body of
his wife was found and brought out into the sunlight, Pedro was lying
in agony and pain, broken and shattered in body. Out of kindness he
was not told of his aged companion's tragic death. The Indian agency
doctor visited him and gave him all the benefit possible of his great skill
and knowledge. Ever since Pedro had opened his heart to the doctor,
when he and I some years before had talked with him about the origin
of his people, the physician had taken the deepest interest in this old
blind man and his wife, so that now he needed no urging to do all that
could be done to restore him to health. The fractures were reduced
and the wounds treated, and the pure natural life of the old man aided
the surgeon's endeavors so that he seemed on the way to speedy recov-
ery. But all the time he kept asking for his wife. Where was his
wife ? Why didn't he hear her voice comforting and consoling him in
his pain ? That it might not retard his recovery the dreadful news
was still kept from him, and he was left under the impression that his
wife, like himself, was injured too seriously to come to him, but that
she would doubtless soon recover. Tears rolled down his aged and
wrinkled cheeks from his poor, sightless eyes as he thought of his
loved partner thus injured and he unable to go and minister to her.
"Those Above" had stricken them with severe blows. Why was it ?
He could patiently have borne for himself, but his poor old wife—she
was so feeble, and so old. Could not she have been spared?
His distress was pitiable to observe, and it was only when the doctor
urged self-control and speedy recovery for her sake that Pedro's agita-
tion was overcome.
THE BASKET. 35
His broken bones began to knit and his wounds to heal. Speedy
restoration to a fair degree of health was looked forward to, when it
was deemed that the time had come to tell him the truth. The result
was terrifying. In a few pathetic words this Door Indian exposed his
whole inner heart :
"And is she gone from me? Shall I never hear the gentle love-
sweetness of her voice in my ears again ? From youth to old age we
have walked hand in hand together, and now she has left me alone.
She has gone on alone. I need her—she needs me. Care for me no
more, I must go to her," and straightway he turned his face away
from all succor, refused all food and in a few hours was again walking
hand in hand, though now in the Indian spirit land, with the aged wife,
who doubtless, with himself, had renewed her youth.
IMITATION—ARTISTIC AND VICIOUS.
I have written and spoken much at different times and in different

places upon the fact that the primary influence in the aesthetic develop-
ment of the Indian is the instinct of imitation. I use the word instinct,
as it seems better than any other, to express its subtle and unprompted
workings. Who has not watched a young child imitating its elders ?
Indeed, who is there that is not aware that it is under the powerful
exercise of this instinct that we grow up from babyhood to manhood,
some to one kind of life, some to another, all various, all diverse, yet
all influenced by the actions, etc., we have had before us to imitate.
Yet in connection with the exercise of this law of imitation is an-
other equally potent. It is what the older school of metaphysicians
used to call "the law of native tastes and talents." We imitate, cer-
tainly, but we imitate that which we wish. We are guided and di-
rected from within, by our native tastes and talents, our inherited ten-
dencies, our native-born desires. Hence two forces control us, viz., I.
The alluring power of things without us which we desire to imitate ;
II. The selective power within us which dictates which of these outside
things we shall imitate.
That Nature outside is full of objects of charm and beauty, worthy
of imitation, all will concede. They were placed there by the benign
Father of us all, who himself loves Beauty, it being an essential part of
himself. But whence comes the love of beauty within, the desire to
imitate only the beautiful, found in the soul of the young child, in the
heart of the desert savage ? To me the answer to this question is the
same as to the preceding one. Is it reasonable to suppose that the
Creator of external Nature is controlled by one set of principles for
one form of His creation, and that, being also the Creator of the mind,
soul, instinct, or whatever we choose to call it that elevates man above
the rest of creation, He follows a different set of principles for this
higher creation ? He is one. His Beauty is one. Harmony is His law.
Exterior and interior agree, so the unvitiated child or savage naturally
seeks to imitate the good, the true, the beautiful.
36 THE BASKET.
The workmanship of this imitation corresponds to the strength of

the inner desire, to the patience with which the body strives to make
that which the soul sees. Some feel strongly, deeply, powerfully. They
will work and work until their work corresponds measurably to their
emotions. These are the superior workers. They have felt the power
of the Divine and have yielded to it. Others feel not so deeply. Their
work shows a corresponding faultiness, incompleteness.
Here, then, is the secret of the difference in workmanship found in
even the oldest of the fine basket-makers of a savage tribe.
But there is something more enters into the subject. Man has the
power which allies him to the Creator—the power of will, of selection,
of choice. The weaver, therefore, can herself direct her choice in the
right or in the wrong direction, and it is in the exercise of this selective
power that we find so many errors made. Where we may subject our-
selves to evil influences and select wrongfully, the truly aesthetic
weaver refuses to yield her own innate consciousness of what is good
and beautiful to any outside influence, and she therefore continues to
make good baskets. But the weaver who desires money more than
beauty, who seeks the approval of outsiders more than the approval of
her own heart, will imitate the evil as readily as the good, if she thinks
that will bring her the money, the approval she desires.
In all meretricious or vicious basket-weaving there has been one or
the other of these motives at work. On pare Indian Basketry, Fig.
91 is of a North Coast Basket. It is of vicious form. On page 121 is
Fig. 126, of a Yakima basket, on the edge of which the weaver has put
an unnecessary ornament. Professor W. H. Holmes thus comments
on these two baskets:
"Modifications of a decidedly aesthetic character are generally sug-
gested to the primitive mind by some functional, constructive or acci-
dental feature which may with ease be turned in the new direction.
In the vessel presented in Fig. 126, the work of Washington Indians,
the margin is varied by altering the relations of the three marginal
turns of the coil, producing a scalloped effect. This is without refer-
ence to use, is uncalled for in construction, and hence is, in all proba-
bility, the direct result of aesthetic tendencies.
"In the pursuit of this class of enrichment there is occasionally
noticeable a tendency to overload the subject with extraneous details.
This is not apt to occur, however, in the indigenous practice of an art,
but comes more frequently from a loss of equilibrium or balance in
motives or desires, caused by untoward exotic influence.
"When, through suggestions derived from contact with civilized
art, the savage undertakes to secure all the grace and complexity
observed in the works of more cultured peoples, he does so at the
expense of construction and adaptability to use. An example of such
work is presented in Fig. 91, a weak, useless, and wholly vicious piece
of basketry. Other equally meretricious pieces represent goblets, bot-
tles and teapots. They are the work of the Indians of the northwest
coast and are executed in the neatest possible manner, bearing evi-
dence of the existence of cultivated taste."
To those of my readers who are making baskets I heartily commend
these words. If you imitate, be sure and imitate only the best. The
best in color, in form, in weave, in design, in ornament.
THE BASKET
A Society of Lovdrs of Indian Baskets and Other Good Things.

Through inadvertence the Editor failed to give the U. S. National

Museum credit for all the cuts used to illustrate Professor 0. T.
Mason's lucid descriptions found on pages 38, 41, 62-65, 125-135 of
"How to Make Indian and Other Baskets." In the next edition this
omission will be corrected. The thanks of the Editor and of his readers
are due to the Museum for the privilege it has of using these cuts and
the valuable information that accompanies them.
Has it ever occurred to you that until the day you were born the
universe had no significance to you? Until that time, to you, there
was no universe. No sung no moon, no planets, no stars, no comets,
no nebulae. Time, space, force, all existed, but not for you. The
heavens above, the earth beneath and the waters under the earth, but
not for you. The gentle breezes, the stormy winds, the fierce tor-
nadoes, the howling hurricanes, the destroying earthquakes, the burn-
ing lava-flows ; all, all were here, but you knew it not. The moun-
tains, the valleys, the forests, the canyons, the plains, the deserts, the
rivers, the cataracts, the mountain cascades, the tiny rivulets, all were
here, but you knew them not. The exquisite flowers, delicious odors,
sweet sounds, beautiful forms, all existed ere you came. Roaring
Niagara, sublime Grand Canyon, mysterious Luray and Virginia
caves, delicious Yosemite, glowing Yellowstone, heaven-aspiring Big
Trees, majestic Mississippi, St. Lawrence, Amazon, Rhine and Hoang
Ho, were all aged before you drew first breith. And joy and peace and
harmony and brotherliness, and unselfishness were 'all here awaiting
you. Faith, hope, charity, sympathy, tenderness all stood waiting
to welcome you.
Even here on earth God the Father had prepared a fitting place for
you,—body, mind, soul. He had sent forth His ministering angels to
get the earth ready ere your soul and body were conjoined.
38 THE BASKET.
Is there not in this proof of Divine, far seeing love ? Can you not,
then, as you gaze upon and ponder over these long existent marvels of
goodness and power say with sweet Pippa :
"God's in His heaven
All's right with the world."
The Frater Primus considers himself an experienced and good hand

at decipering writing, but there are specimens that come to him which
he defies anybody on earth to decipher. Fraters sometimes complain
that they do not receive their magazine promptly, when the fact of
the matter is that it is impossible to tell how they are to be addressed.
Hence the caution, BE SURE AND WRITE YOUR NAME WITH THE UT-
MOST DISTINCTNESS. Because you know your own name, do not
assume that a stranger several thousand miles away can guess the
meaning of a lot of wriggles and pot hooks which you have accustomed
yourself to regard as your signature, and because you know the name
of the street on which you live, do not assume that I am able to tell
whether a lot of wiggles mean "ium" or "mun," or "unit)," or "num,"
or "mum." So print in capital letters, so there can be no possible
error, your own name and your address. If you don't, your failure
to receive your magazine or answers to your letters be on your own
head.
Some people have no idea of honesty in small things. They seem to

be apparently deficient in honor, not through any intent to be dishonest,
but through sheer want of thought. Very few are scrupulously honest
in everything, but when the immorality of our neighbors directly affects
our own pockets then we are apt to find fault. Such is my condition at
this moment of writing, and the experience has been by no means an
unfrequent one, since I announced the organization of this "Basket
Fraternity." Every few days brings a local check on some out of the
way country bank—Podunk, Milpitas or Waving Willow—for one dol-
lar, the fee to become a member of the Fraternity. Now, no one can
plead ignorance of the fact that to collect that check will cost from
fifteen to twenty cents. Such checks may be received at par in New
York, Boston or San Francisco, but, unfortunately for this purpose,
the Basket Fraternity is in Pasadena and not in any of those great
financial centers. The result is such checks mean only eighty or eighty-
five cents instead of one dollar, and it is neither fair nor honest to
expect the Fraternity to receive an eighty or eighty-five cent dollar at
par.
So, in the future, when you make your remittance, either send P. 0.
Orders, Currency or Checks on New York banks, all of which are
worth their face value.
One other little kick. I am willing to do my best to answer questions

that may be put to me by members of the Fraternity. Many of these re-
quire a good deal of time and thought to answer them correctly, but it
does not seem to me reasonable or honest that I should be expected to
answer these questions and also pay postage on the letters. So, in
future, be thoughtful in your dealings with others in such matters, and
send a stamped addressed envelope for the reply.
THE BASKET. 39
WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
Fear, fear, fear ; dread, dread, dread ! From the cradle to the grave
some one or other finds it to be his "bounden duty" to try to make us
afraid. Don't, don't, don't ; don't do this, don't do that. Beware of
devils, demons, hobgoblins, vampires, ghosts, boggarts, wizards,
witches and the rest—look out for this, or that will happen. Avoid
tweedledee or you'll suffer from tweedledum. Hell fire, damnation,
eternal perdition, the bottomless pit were counted in and helped swell
the sum total of human fear. In old New England they grew so scared
that they daren't smile, daren't crack a joke on Sunday or any other
day, and were even forbidden, under heavy penalties, to kiss their own
wives on Sundays. Fear has been the most cruel monster that has ever
reigned over men. It has had dominion over their hearts. It has
cramped their souls. It has dwarfed and disfigured and distorted
their immortal part. It has made all other slavery possible. If men
had not been slaves to fear in their hearts the cruel monstrosities of
kingcraft, priestcraft, feudalism, etc., could never have existed. There
would have been no slave question in the South if there had been no
fear. And wherever a note of human progress has been rung it has
been by those men and women, who, to a greater or lesser degree, drove
fear from their own hearts.
We are told in Holy Writ to "fear God," but not in abject, servile
fear. We are not to be afraid of him. The word fear would better be
expressed if "revere" were substituted for it. "Look up to God,"
rather than "be afraid of God." Man has been so afraid of doing
wrong that for centuries he stood still. The "dark ages" were produced
by fear. The "dark ages" in every individual human soul are while
he is under the bondage of fear.
Quit your fears ! Be men, be women ! Go ahead and do something,
even though you do it wrong, do wrong. Do ! do ! and in doing you
will learn how to do right.
Tennyson believed this and expressed it when he said:
"Men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things."
In his "Sappho and Phaon" Joaquin Miller expresses the same
thought :
"Grow as God hath planted, grow
A lordly oak or daisy low,
As He hath set His garden ; be
Just what thou art, or grass or tree.
Thy treasures up in heaven laid
Await thy sure ascending soul,
Life after life,—be not afraid !"
Browning, also, when he wrote :
"And what is our failure here but a triumph's evidence
For the fulness of the days ?"
And the sacred writer, too, expressed this same thought when he
wrote to the church at Laodicea :
40 THE BASKET.
"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot : I would thou
wert cold or hot ; so then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold
nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth."
Sin consists in inaction ; doing nothing for fear of doing it wrong.
That servant who buried his talent in a napkin was the one who was
condemned. Life consists in doing, and as you do, you learn how to do.
Where would the world be today if all its leaders had held back be-
cause they were afraid of doing some things wrong ? Just nowhere !
They all made mistakes, of course, and none but fools would expect
otherwise. Human nature is synonymous with error, ignorance, incom-
pleteness ; and human existence is given us to struggle from the im-
perfect towards the perfect. But if we quit struggling for fear of mak-
ing mistakes we forfeit the good life is and ought to be to us.
Do as right as you can and fear nothing except your own fear.
Fear that so much as to grow to hate it. Determine to kill it each time
it springs new born into your heart. Be ruthless in dealing with it.
"Kill it on sight." Keep your head upright and your heart humble,
and thank God you have had courage and energy to do something
even though it was something wrong. That shows you are alive. If
you never do wrong you'll be damned anyhow for never trying to do
anything. For, if you are human, you never tried to do anything
and did it right the first time. By his errors man learns. It is the
"unlit lamp and the ungirt loin" that are the sin. Be cold or hot, good
as you can, or bad as a devil, but one thing or the other, not lukewarm,,
for it is not the cold, the vile, the wicked, that God spews out of His
mouth in loathing and disgust, but those timid, fearful souls, who, too
cowardly to sin openly, manly, bravely, and too sin desireful to be
bravely good, sneak into the back alleys of sin and are lukewarm, neither
one thing nor the other.
Some people are born to fear as the sparks fly upward. It is a sad in-
heritance. Only constant watching and prayer can overcome these in-
herited fears. Resolutely argue with yourself and compel acquiescence
to your judgment. Bid your fears begone, and then work on regardless
of their existence. Be resolved that you, not they, shall be the arbiters
of your destiny. A foe bravely met is half conquered. If you fear to
do a thing go and do it. If you fear to see a thing march right up to
it and see it, afraid or not. Kill every fear as it arises, and you will
soon kill the parent fear at its roots.
Do not be reckless. There is a vast difference between fearlessness
and recklessness. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Reck-
lessness is often more allied to fear than bravery. The brave man
knows how to hold back as well as to go ahead. It is often far harder
to listen in silent calmness than it is to strike back. If a scoundrel
calumniates you it is much easier to say, "You're a liar !" than it is to
allow your life to prove him to be one. Be brave in silence as well as
in speech. Be brave in inaction as well as in action.
In conclusion: Fear nothing save your own fear.
"All moral apostleship and all high art come directly from above
and from within, and their laws are not to be proved by an external
collection of facts, but by the emphatic assertion of the divine vitality
from which they proceed."—Professor I. S. Blackie.
THE BASKET. 41
BLESSED IS HE THAT HATH ENEMIES.
This is no more incomprehensible than are some of the New Testa-

ment beatitudes. Few Christians nowadays believe that "blessed are
the meek," or "the poor in spirit," or "they that have been persecuted
for righteousness' sake." I never saw a Christian who when reviled
and hearing all manner of evil said against him for the Master's sake
"rejoiced" and was "exceeding glad." I've seen them downcast and
distressed and "wondering why God allowed such evil to come to
them," but never saw them doing what Christ commanded.
Yet there is no doubt whatever in my mind that, rightly understood,
these beatitudes lead one into that higher life ; that serene, perfect, glo-
rious life where storms beat and tempests rage but fail to disturb.
But my beatitude, "Blessed is he that hath enemies," is one of those
truths that does not capture you all at once. It has to filter into your
brain slowly. Truth is truth only to him whose soul is prepared to re-
ceive it. Words in themselves mean nothing unless one's own experi-
ence has prepared him for the reception of the thoughts of which the
words are merely the symbol.
I used to think that enemies were a curse, a proof of God's disfavor,
a punishment for sins committed, a sign of my depravity and general
unworthiness. I've completely changed my mind. Your enemies are
a reasonable index to your character. There is a profound ethical
truth behind the words : "We love him for the enemies he has made."
Show me the men who hate and seek to injure you and I will tell you
what you are.
There are some men who are of so quiet, gentle, loving and calm dis-
position that they make none but secret enemies. Such a one was Dr.
Cary, of Thomas Nelson Page's novel, "Red Rock," which I have
briefly reviewed elsewhere in these pages. But he was a man in ten
thousand. Ordinary men are more impulsive, less careful of the feel-
ings of others, less quiet, less self-controlled. Hence they wound and
hurt and arouse sometimes where it is not necessary.
In matters of life, of principle, however, a man must go ahead as
he is, seeking ever to be honest, just, true, pure, doing his work as he
is, imperfectly, inadequately, yet to the best of his ability. If he be of
a somewhat positive character that work alone will often bring him the
antagonism of others. Misunderstandings arise that nothing can ex-
plain, because one or the other is not in the mood to receive explana-
tions. Thus enmity grows, and we wake up some day to realize- that
some one hates us, despises us, actively and furiously, and is seeking in
every possible way to injure us.
To personally seek to assuage the hate of such people is as wise as
it would be to go unarmed to reason with a hungry tiger. I've tried it
again and again, and in every mood and spirit I was able to conjure
up, or that naturally arose. If you go angrily, you add fuel to the
fire. If you "demand explanations," you are met with cold haughti-
ness. If you go with gentleness, willing to take some of the blame
upon your own shoulders, you are snubbed, kicked, spat upon and
plainly shown to be a cowardly whippersnapper.
42 THE BASKET.
What then are you to do?

Nothing ; purely, simply, deliberately nothing at all, but your duty.
Go right ahead and attend to your own knitting. God hasn't left it to
you to right all the wrongs of the universe or to straighten out all the
pig-headed fools He allows to exist. Go ahead with your own work.
If it hurts these other people that is their lookout, not yours. Be mind-
ful of their rights. Watch yourself that enmity and resentment to
them do not become motive powers in your own life, for the undisturbed
and unopposed exercise of feelings of that kind will speedily canker
your own soul.
Don't try to fight your enemies, for if you do you'll surely be
knocked down and kicked for falling. You can't fail to be abused
more than ever before. Ignore them. Use your life and strength for
useful work, not for the vain labor of hitting back. Nine times out
of ten when you hit back you're so mad that you miss your aim and the
force of your unlanded blow drops you on to your own back, where
you see many stars in a firmament of your own composing that no
astronomy has ever yet classified. Think of the days, months, years
of wasted energy spent in fighting enemies that if devoted to active
usefulness would have furthered the progress of the world. Leave
them alone to work out their own salvation and go on with your own
work. And, to your great surprise, little by little, you will discover
that your enemies are your best friends.
How ?
Let me show you.
Do you write? You read that last little story to one of your good
friends. He claps you on the back and says, "Bully boy ; it's immense !"
and he'd do that no matter what rot it was you had written. Print it
and read your enemy's criticism upon it. If he's smart you'll find more
to learn out of what he says in his desire to injure you than from ten
thousand "Bully boys !" of your friends. Ah ha! You're off on this
point, and you've misstated that fact, and failed to work up the other,
etc. Now, if you're smart and really wise, you'll go to work to see
if what your enemy says is true. If it is, profit by it, and see that your
next story avoids the faults he pointed out in this. Mere carping crit-
icism you can afford to despise ; you are man enough to overlook it,
but genuine criticism, avail yourself of it for your good.
Do you make furniture ? Construct something new and show it
to your friends. Ten to one they'll tell you it's beautiful and fine, and
just the thing. because "they don't want to hurt your feelings, as you're
such a nice fellow and such a good friend of theirs." And the moment
your, back is turned they'll go to work and criticise it kindly and hon-
estly, and show up things in which it could be improved.
Put it on the market. Let your enemy see it. My, wouldn't it make
you hot to listen to his savage comments on it. "It's ugly, it's clumsy,
it's without style, etc., etc." Then he goes into particulars and pulls it
to pieces. My word for it, in that criticism of enmity there will be so
much of truth that you can glean therefrom ideas that will be of the
greatest possible help and benefit in your future efforts.
Then, too, in your enemy's efforts. to belittle you he often over-
reaches himself. Is what he says true ? How are you going to prove
the falsity of his charges ? By getting onto your mettle and settling
THE BASKET. 43
down to the hardest kind of work that your life may demonstrate the
wickedness of his words. Life tells every time as against mere words.
It may take time, but the world's judgment, though tardy, is pretty
sure to be correct. Alive, Byron was kicked, cuffed, sneered at and
ostracised, and so was Shelley. Keats lived on "porridge" while his
detractors drank claret and ate turtle soup. Today nobody knows or
cares to know who the Noakes, Stoakes, Hobbs and Snobbs were who
thus showed their littleness by reviling genius. They have sunk into
the rottenness of oblivion, and the wind has blown their rotten dust
to the four corners of the earth, while the "detracted" are placed in the
temples of fame and honor.
It's strong doctrine, nevertheless true, that an enemy is a sting, a spur
to renewed endeavor. Hence be thankful for him. Browning knew
what it meant when he wrote :
"So, welcome each rebuff,
That turns earth's smoothness rough,
Each sting that bids not sit, nor stand, but go."
Who knows what Columbus would have done had he not had his
crew and mate opposed to him? His own heart might have fainted
had not these men by their bitter opposition aroused his blood and
quickened his soul to renewed vigor.
Who knows how much the world of free thought owes to Luther's
bitter opponent, Eck ? Blood against blood, man against man, soul
against soul, vigor against vigor. "You say I'm wrong. I'm not
wrong, and I'll show you and the world I am right." And the opposi-
tion, the enmity, the hated, fired Luther until he won.
It was the scorn, enmity, hatred and determination to down Beecher
that made him capable of informing the whole of England on the ins
and outs of the question of slavery and state's rights as he saw them.
England would never had known in that generation had it not been for
the wrath and fury of Beecher's opponents.
God maketh the wrath of man to praise him.
Your enemies are going to clown you, are they ? Then by the gods go
down fighting, your face to the foe, your breast full of wounds, your
face gory, but victory wrung from defeat in your heart. It is the turn-
about, the coward, the runaway that men despise. And when a man
knows he's done his best in spite of his foes—victorious or defeated
seemingly—he knows he has won the greatest victory of all. Enmity
spurs on a man to his best endeavor. Webster's reply would never
have been written if Hayne had not fiercely attacked what he held dear.
Out on the point at Monterey is a group of cypresses, noted all over
the world. They have stood the power and stress of ten thousand
storms ; they are gnarled, weather beaten, battered, but victorious ;
their very struggles have endeared them to us. Only the strong, the
stalwart, can stand the enmity of winter's fierce storms and summer's
scorching heats.
Ships are not built of the easy growing cottonwood. It is the sturdy
oak, that faces and triumphs over the enmities of Nature, that alone
is worthy of being used for the noble purpose of making man's house
on the sea.
My friend Bass, at the Grand Canyon, is an example of a "human"
oak, a human cypress. For twenty years he has worked like a troj an,
44 THE BASKET.
hanging on to the edge of the great gorge, barely making a subsistence,

yet fired with love for his portion of the canyon and determined to bring
people to see as he sees. He has built roads, spent a fortune in mak-
ing it possible to ride out to the canyon and down into its deepest
depths, built trails innumerable, planted a garden, had surveys made
for a railroad, struggled to get capital interested, studied the dynamic
phenomena as has no other living man, and is still hanging on.
Opposition and fighting have but made him cling the firmer. He
is out of the immediate line of the travel of those tourists who go by
rail, and those who might help him to a little business, contemptibly
steer it away from him, yet he hangs on, and success will either ulti-
mately crown his heroic efforts or he will go down with a brave face
to his foes, and a stout heart that never yet knew fear or recognized
defeat. He's rough and rugged, of course, but he's a hero, and though
he only stands five feet six in his stockings, he towers up, in my mind
and to all who really know him, a giant above the men who would
down him if they could. Life for him has been a long fight, and,
though to the world he may not have seemed to be a victor, he's been
a mighty good fighter. And that is much. Better fight well and be
beaten, in a good cause, than cowardlike be supine and never try.
There is a natural basis for a man's love of war. He is naturally a
fighter—unfortunately he is not far from a savage, a torturer, a mur-
derer. Hence a call to war arouses his natural fighting instincts and
awakens the dormant savage within him. So he justifies war. He
would never do so unless he found a natural basis for it in his own life.
Divest it of its murderous corollaries and it is a good thing. Indeed,
warfare, divested of the horrors of murder, is one of the most en-
nobling works a man can engage in. Warfare for the good, warfare
against wrong, error, darkness.
So, when your enemies beset you, fight ahead, determined to prove
yourself a man in spite of their enmity, their hatred, their opposition.
Prove yourself a worker, despite their contentions, and let your work
rather than your jaw be your justification for living. If it is good work
it will survive as a memorial to the short-sighted enmity of your oppo-
nents and of your own work ; if it is bad work, the sooner it sinks into
oblivion the better.
Beware, however, that your enemy is not one made by your own
meanness, your own wrong-doing. If this be the case, "quit your
meanness," as Sam Jones says, and you will then possibly rid yourself
of your enemy at the same time by changing his enmity.
In all I have said about the virtues of possessing enemies this must
be clearly understool. You are not wilfully and deliberately to injure
or hurt a man and make him your enemy in order that you may flourish
under his enmity. By no means ! Do your work honorably, openly,
as well and as kindly as you can, and then if enmity comes you are not
only not to be held responsible, but can joyously reap all the good you
can from the seed your enemy sows on your behalf.
THE BASKET. 45
THE SIX BLIND WISE MEN AND

THE ELEPHANT.
When I was a lad I had an invalid aunt, who for several years was
bedridden. I was her favorite nephew and acted as her amanuensis.
On one occasion she was much occupied in trying to remember a poem
she had read in her childhood about the visit to the elephant of the wise
men who were blind. As she could not recall all the verses she set to
work and composed them, and the result was the following.
The lesson is as much needed today as ever, and can be well applied
by all the readers of THE BASKET to the Indian question. The Indian
is dull, stolid, cruel, brutal, lazy, vindictive, treacherous, a thief, or
quick, bright, laughter-loving, kind-hearted, tender, active, reliable,
ingenuous, honest or what not, as you look at him. The all round
view is the most satisfactory and truthful.
GEORGE WHARTON JAMES.
There were six men of Hindustan,

To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the elephant,
(Though all of them were blind),
That each, by observation,
Might satisfy his mind.
The first approached the elephant,

And, happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl :
"This wonder of an elephant
Is very like a wall."
The second then came slowly on,

(A cautious man was he) ;
Up to the creature's hinder leg
He came quite soberly,
And cried : "I'm sure the elephant
Is very like a tree."
The third man then, with eager face,

To make the matter clear,
Anxious to have a good account,
For those at home to hear,
Decided from its ivory tusk,
'Twas very like a spear.
The fourth, determining to be sure

That he made no mistake,
Felt up and down the trunk with care,
It's shape and size to take,
And then declared, "The elephant
Is very like a snake."
46 THE BASKET.
The fifth came slowly tip behind,

With hands outstretched to grope,
Delighted thus to realize
A fondly cherished hope.
He found the long and swinging tail,
And said, " 'Tis like a rope."
And now the sixth came gleefully

The elephant to scan,
He found the broad and spreading ear,
And laughter through him ran ;
"With all the fuss that's made," he cried,
" 'Tis only like a fan !"
So oft in other human wars

The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what the others mean,
And quarrel o'er an elephant
Not one of them has seen.
WORKING BASKETRY DESIGN.

-•• ■•1110..-
For the first model basket, life size, I have chosen a beautiful
Mono, bowl shaped, with two bands of the diamond, which, as is fully
explained in Indian Basketry is placed upon the basket for the propiti-
ation of the powers of good and evil, behind or over all rattlesnakes.
The basket is 6% inches high, 6% inches across the bottom, and 12Y2
inches across the top. Its shape, therefore, is a perfect one. After
the center coil of the bottom is started there are twenty-two coils be-
fore the upward turn is made for the sides. Twelve more coils bring
the weaver to the lower band of the design. On both bands the inner
part of the diamonds are woven in the red of the red bud; the diamond
itself is composed of two ordinary white splints, and the fill-up is in
black. The body of the basket is in the creamy white of the willow.
Between the lower and upper band there are eighteen coils, and three
coils above the upper band.
In making the diamonds it may be well to know that on the first
coil the stitches are divided as follows, ten black, two white ; second
coil, eight black, four white ; third coil, six black, two white, two red,
two white ; fourth coil, four black, two white, four red, two white ;
fifth coil, two black, two white, six red, two white ; sixth coil, two
white, eight red, two white. It now diminishes in the same proportion,
taking the same stitches as the fifth, fourth, third, etc., in reverse order.
This is not a difficult basket to make, and it is hoped that many will
find the large design and the descriptions helpful.
Over twenty of these large designs may now be had, with full
instructions for weaving ; price fifteen cents each, or two for twenty-
five cents, post-paid. Write to the Basket Fraternity for them.
THE BASKET. 47
BASKET PICTURES.
Has it ever occurred to the readers of THE BASKET how many and
various are the uses to which the Basket is put ? In "Indian Basketry"
I have shown how much the basket meant to the Indian, and while
we have substituted many utensils in our civilized life for the Indian's
wicker-work counterpart we still use baskets in far more ways than, at
first, one would imagine.
If one reads with this thought in view he will be surprised to find
many references to the uses of the basket.
1 have long thought it would be interesting to have a collection
of pictures made by first class modern artists representing the various
uses of the basket. I shall be glad, therefore, if all the readers of THE
BASKET will assist in making this interesting collection and send what-
ever quotations they may find in which the writer gives a picture of the
uses of a basket. We may then be able, perhaps, some day, to have
these verbal pictures transformed upon canvas and placed in the
National Home of the Basket Fraternity.
PHARAOH'S BAKER'S BASKETS.
The Bible contains quite a number of most interesting BASKET pic-
tures, which, if studied, will reveal many quaint and peculiar ideas and
customs.
One of the earliest remembrances of my childhood is of family
prayers in a devout household. My father and mother endeavored with
all earnestness and sincerity to bring us (my five brothers and sisters
and I) up in the "fear and admonition of the Lord." Each morning,
directly after breakfast, we sat in a semi-circle around the open fire-
place, Bibles in hand, and "read verse and verse around." The story
of Joseph was always fascinating, and we asked for it again and again.
Some of the readers of THE BASKET who have not read it for many
years, perhaps, will find a new interest in re-reading it. When we came
to the fortieth chapter of Genesis, which describes how Pharaoh's chief
butler and baker were sent to join Joseph in prison, the pictures of the
baskets arose. Both butler and baker dreamed dreams which they
told to Joseph. He interpreted that of the butler which foretold that
in three days he would be restored to his royal master's favor and to
his old position. And now the biblical narrative itself :
"When the chief baker saw that the interpretation (of the butler's
dream) was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in Jmy dream, and,
behold, I had three white baskets on my head.
And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats
for Pharaoh ; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my- head.
And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof :
The three baskets are all three days :
Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee,
and shall hang thee on a tree ; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off
thee."
The next four verses tell how Joseph's prophecies came true. The
butler was restored and the baker hanged as he foretold. And I well
remember how my childish mind and heart used to puzzle over the
48 THE BASKET.
fate of the baker. My sympathies went out to him, for he was hanged
in disgrace, while the butler was restored. To my mind this was all
wrong. The baker provided food, needful, healthy food ; the butler
merely poured out the unnecessary wine, the wine that so often caused
sin and misery and that had wrought the downfall of men and nations.
Yet the butler was restored and the useful baker hanged. It was ever
a mystery in my youthful days.
YAM B A AND HER BASKET.
I have just read De Rougemont's Adventures, published by Lippin-
cott's. It is one of the most romantic and interesting stories of being
lost, living among the cannibal aborigines of Australia, marrying a
faithful native woman, controlling the natives by bluff and skill, and
final escape to civilization.
De Rougemont made several efforts to escape from his life with the
natives, but so loved his native wife for her fond devotion to him that
he always refused to go unless she could go with him. In several
endeavors she accompanied him, and in one of them she found her
native knowledge of food supplies "sorely taxed. It was obviously
unfair," says De Rougemont, "to expect her to be familiar with the
flora and fauna of every plant of the great Australian Continent. Some-
times she was absolutely nonplussed, and had to stay a few days with
a tribe until the women initiated her 'into the best methods of cooking
the roots of the country. * * * All that Yamba carried was a
basket made of bark, slung over her shoulder, and containing a variety
of useful things, including some needles made out of the bones of birds
and fish ; a couple of light grinding-stones for crushing out of its shell
a very sustaining kind of nut found on the palm trees, etc."
What an interesting picture. This white man and his aboriginal wife,
both almost nude, wandering over the wilds of Australia, she carrying
her bark basket slung over her shoulder.
That endeavor to escape was unsuccessful, and they finally returned.
Later, De Rougemont writes : "Gradually there came a time when
life became so monotonous that I felt I must have a change of some
sort, or else go mad. I was on the very best of terms with all my
blacks, but their mode of living was repulsive to me. I began to
loathe the food, and the horrible cruelty to the women frequently sick-
ened me." So again he and his wife started, she carrying her net full
of odds and ends, and he his bow and arrows, tomahawk and stiletto.
This time they went by sea across Cambridge Gulf, where there were
many islands. While among these he "came across many sad signs of
civilization, in the form of a lower mast of a ship, a deck-house, a
wicker basket, empty brandy cases, and other flotsam and jetsam, which,
I supposed, had come from various wrecks."
It is very easy to imagine that, after years of absence from civiliza-
tion, the sight of a wicker basket floating in the ocean would start the
quick tears and send a thrill of new longing and desire through his very
being.
It is a story well worth reading, full of excitement and wonder. The
man finally escaped, though he left his faithful wife in the wilds, after
having her die in his arms, and his tribute to the sweet goodness, love
and devotion of this native woman is one of the best things in the narra-
tive.
THE BASKET. 49
STRENGTHENING THE BODY.

-44111.1.-
One of the great mysteries of life to me is that the men of greatest

intellect of the century have not seen the sure, the inevitable, the ines-
capable destiny of the man who develops and uses his intellect, and at
the same time neglects his body. How mournful, how utterly sad it
makes a lover of his kind, one who would have had his heroes full of
the enjoyment of life, to read of the physical sorrows of the men whose
thoughts have largely influenced the mind of the world. Think of the
dyspepsia of Carlyle ; the melancholia of Booth ; the nervous breakdown
of Huxley ; the weaknesses of Spencer ; the constant illnesses of Darwin ;
the mental collapse of John Ruskin.
And these things are made immeasurably more sad by the thought
that each and every one of them were preventable and avoidable. Bluff
old brusque Abernethy's "Live on Sixpence a Day and Earn It" con-
tained the germ of a truth in which the mental and spiritual as well as
the physical well being of the race is enshrined. Are the dyspeptic,
nervous, over-sensitive, weak, frail, physically imperfect men, the super-
refined, super-cultivated to be the leaders of the new thought, the new
world, the new era America ought to give to the generations of men?
Far from it !
Robust physical strength and power are as much needed in leaders to-
day as when Richard Coeur de Lion and Saladin and Cromwell con-
trolled men by majestic physical strength as well as by majestic mental
and moral strength. Hence the why of the declaration with which I be-
gan these lines. The time will soon come when in self-defence the
artist, the poet, the scientist, the statesman, the orator, the professor,
will undertake gladly, willingly, purposely the work of the physical
laborer, the hewer of wood and drawer of water, the farmer, the digger
of ditches, the maker of roads, the carpenter, the builder, the iron
founder. I firmly and sincerely believe that the day is not far distant
when the members of the so-called literary and artistic professions will
willingly assume some of the burdens of the physical laborer. The artist
will be an artist half the time and the other half a farmer. The states-
man will guide his country half the day and the other half will be la
ditch digger. The poet will write his lays in the morning, when his
brain is clear after a healthy sleep ; and in the afternoon will hoe corn.
The philosopher will do his philosophizing half the day with a pen and
the other half with a muck-rake. In other words, there is a healthful
sentiment, which is essentially practical, favoring a return to physical
labor on the part of those whose occupations are sedentary. I do not
pose as a Bible critic, but the longer I live the less do I believe the
popular idea that the Bible teaches that labor is a curse visited upon
man as the result of his sin. Physical labor is never a curse unless the
laborer forgets that he is a man and makes himself, or allows himself
to be made, a dumb brute beast and not a man. To be a man means to
be a thinker, and he who works without thinking is only a part of a
man. Equally so is it true that to be a man implies physical labors and
this is the side of the proposition that has been too long overlooked.
In the scramble for wealth, man has chosen the fields of speculation
and intrigue rather than the slower and less exciting paths of the
laborer. In our desire for culture we have erected false standards and
have looked down upon the farmer and the man who labors with his
hands. The result has been what might have been expected of a
50 THE BASKET.
national departure from natural standards. The nation is growing

more nervous, more dyspeptic, less strong. Nervous diseases with all
their attendant ills have been frightfully on the increase, and with that
desire to right all wrongs that Nature possesses, she has been leading
us back into the good old way. A healthy body is the first necessity
for a strong and vigorous mind. Physical strength is an absolute
essential for the healthy propagation of the race. Without sturdy
physical strength in both man and woman we cannot maintain it ; the
nation has already begun its decline. We may look at it any way we
will, these are inexorable facts. Hence the wisdom of following the
guidance of Nature in endeavoring to erect better standards than have
heretofore existed. The gymnasium of the Y. M. C. A., the kinder-
garten, the Manual Training Schools, the Polytechnic Institutes, the
great Arts and Crafts movement are all straws pointing in the right
direction.
But we shall have to go further yet. It is all very well to play golf,
yet what is golf but a tacit acknowledgment that the golfer has not
done enough physical labor ? It is all right to spend an hour or two a
day at a gymnasium, yet every man who does this is loudly telling the
world of thinkers that he has not done his share of the physical labor
of the world. The real fact of the matter is that we have been so taught
that we are ashamed to take up some honest dirty physical labor, which
requires that we dress in workman's clothes, lest our neighbors should
look down upon us and think we are poor. The result is we take refuge
in shuffling and subterfuge and engage in the "gentlemanly" recreations
of golf, baseball and general athletics. These things are all right as an
occasional recreation, but to take them as a substitute for that physical
labor which every man owes to himself, as well as to every other man,
in order that he may do his part in the strengthening of the race, is to
shirk his responsibility and become a coward.. Why not boldly face the
proposition : I am a physical being as well as a mental being, and it is
as important that I do a certain amount of physical labor each clay as
it is that I do a certain amount of mental labor. Then one can wisely
choose the physical labor that he will engage in, and in directing his
energies in that line will discharge his obligations to his physical nature
and at the same time enlarge his physical usefulness. How much bet-
ter it would be for a dozen lawyers to band together and purchase a
blacksmith shop wherein they could develop their physical strength,
and help each other to become good blacksmiths, than to form a
Bowling Club, a Golf Club or an Athletic Club for the cultivation of
the manly art. What pleasure there would be, if the judge of some
superior court could show his guests a pair of massive andirons which
he himself had wrought in the Blacksmith Shop of the Lawyers' Club.
What a sense of achievement the District Attorney would have if he
could "point with pride" to a wrought iron gate which he himself had
made.
Why would it not be proper for an artist to plow an acre of corn
and grow something rather than excel in knocking down skittles ? Why
should not all the preachers in a city club together to make a mile of
first-class road in the outskirts of their own city as well as try to point
out the intangible road to the heavenly city?
Let us get down to realities. Labor is dignified, when honestly per-
formed, and the man who handles a hoe, a muck-rake or a scavenger's
bucket, though doing an unpleasant duty, is just as much a dignitary
as the bishop in the pulpit, or a judge on the bench.
THE BASKET. 5=
OUR BOOR TABLE.
It is the editor's intention to publish under this heading personal re-

views of such books or magazine literature as may be sent to his table
or be of general interest to the readers of THE BASKET.
A very interesting little book is "Indians of the Southwest," by Dr.
G. A. Dorsey, of the Field Columbian Museum, and published by the
Passenger Department of the Santa Fe Railway system. It is full of
pictures, facts, hints and interests. It is reliable, as Dr. Dorsey is a
student in the field and an authority. The Santa Fe in issuing adver-
tising matter of this character, which is valuable literature, is doing
good service to the Indian cause, as it all helps people to see and know
more of the good in the hitherto despised Indian. The book is sent
post free from the Chicago office of the Santa Fe for fifty cents.
I have just read "Red Rock," by Thomas Nelson Page. The book
has been out three or four years, vet it is never too late to commend a
good thing. Its author, Thomas Nelson Page, a Southern gentleman,
has presented a wonderful picture of the period of reconstruction in the
South. It is a book that every Northern man and woman ought to
read, for it gives a graphic picture of the events of this period from the
standpoint of the noble and gentle element of the South. It is a fearful
picture, undoubtedly correct in drawing and with its coloring repro-
duced by one who has as great a genius for color as for outlines. Most
of the characters stand out as distinctly and vividly as if one had actually
lived in daily intercourse with them. The simple nobility of grand old
Dr. Cary impresses one as clearly and boldly as a beautiful tree against
a clear sky. It gives one nobler aspirations to meet with such a char-
acter, even though it be in the pages of a novel. Hiram Still and his
son Washington, with the carpet-bagger Leach are, alas, faithfully
drawn portraits with which we are too familiar, even though the
period of reconstruction is past. The daredevil Steve Allen is a wonder-
fully drawn picture of a young man in whom the highest and noblest
impulses are constantly battling with a daring recklessness that leads
him to do many things that good people reprobate. Dear Aunt Thom-
asia is as dainty and sweet spirited as a violet, and Blair Cary and Ruth
Welch are young ladies with whom one instinctively falls in love. All
my readers who purchase this book and read it will be benefactors to
themselves. It will broaden their sympathies, deepen their affection
for good things and make them more humane. Published by Charles
Scribner's Sons, New York.
The Navaho and His Blanket, by W. S. Hollister. Published by the

Author at Denver, Colo.
This is a handsomely printed, beautifully illustrated, well bound
book of 144 pages, large 8vo, full of interesting reading and pictorial
matter about the Navahoes. It shows 'the author to have been a care-
ful observer during his twenty years of contact with the Indians and
.La)1SVfi3H,L
FIG. 87. THE EDITOR'S RESTING CHAIR, MADE BY GUSTAV STICKLEY,
THE BASKET. 53
will give to students of the Navaho and his blanket much useful infor-
mation. Ten of the full-page plates are reproductions in color of Nav-
aho blankets, new and old. The text is well written and generally re-
liable, although the cut on page 38 (Fig. 6) is incorrectly titled. It
should be "A Havasupai Sweat House," for the photograph was made
in Havasu (Cataract) Canyon, with my two old friends, Capt. Burro
and Waluthama, as the attendants. I have taken a Toholwa (or sweat
bath) with both these men and have known them for over a dozen years.
The Navaho Sudatory, however, is of a similar character, so the wrong
title is not misleading.
This is a minor error to call attention to compared with the many
real excellencies of the work. General Hollister has written sympathet-
ically and intelligently, two essential conditions so often lacking in those
who write about the Indians.
COMFORT IN CHAIRS.
When the Editor finds a superlatively good thing he desires to

pass it On to his friends. He is constitutionally opposed to what he
calls "jim-crackery," whether that be zinc copings or tin fronts in
architecture ; canteens that won't hold water.; beautiful valises that fall
to pieces on your first journey ; oil paintings done by machinery ; or
exquisitely carved (by machine) chairs that flatten to the floor when
you happen to sit on them in a hurry.
This is an age of flim-flam jim-crackery. The "Bargain Counter"
controls the house. Even the much advertised "Not how cheap, but
how good," is a tacit acknowledgment that to most of us we care more
for cheapness than goodness. Hence the delight with which I hail
any practical working out of the problem of how to get good, simple,
honest things, things that are what they look to be, articles of dignity,
simplicity, solidity, strength.
When I first entered the Craftsman Building, in Syracuse, New
York, and saw and studied the furniture there, designed and made by
Gustav Stickley, I said at once : "Here is what I have been long seeking.
This is what I want. This is what satisfies me." Prices were more than
for "bargain counter" chairs, etc., but nothing could compare with the
dignity, frankness, honesty, and real solid comfort of the chairs and
the general stability and durability of all the furniture there made. So
I picked out a few things and said : Ship them to the home of "The
Basket," Pasadena, California, and now I daily write (when I am at
home) sitting in the "chair of comfort" pictured herewith. It pushes
back easily and freely and almost noiselessly on glass ball bearings, its
seat is of solid Craftsman leather, that is comfortable without being
heating, and the back is a broad leather band which allows one to throw
himself back in easy restfulness, when resting for a few moments, or
when ideas don't flow as freely as usual.
It also has a contrivance that is a great convenience to a busy and
preoccupied man. You get a revolving chair and want it at just such a
54 THE BASKET.
height to be comfortable. It is your chair, for your own personal use.

You can fix this Craftsman chair at just the height you want it and then
revolve it all you like, but it keeps at exactly the same height. In a
moment you can change the screw and it goes up or down as you desire.
Hence I can say emphatically : If you want a good chair that will
last a lifetime and be a daily joy and comfort, get one of these for your
desk use and you will ever afterwards be thankful to "The Basket."
Exactly the same praise applies to the Gustav Stickley chair pic-
tured in the other illustration. I have one in my library and one in my
sitting-room. The cushions are of Craftsman leather, solid and good,
and the wood is stained by chemical fumes to a rich dark brown. A
FIG. 8ti. THE EDITOR'S DESK CHAIR.
three-hundred-pound man may sit on one of these chairs with his

three-hundred-and-fifty-pound sweetheart on his lap and the chair will
laugh at the fun. It is no more a burden to the chair than the sweet-
heart is to her lover.
If you wish to know more about these chairs, and a score and one
other good and substantial things in furniture, write to Gustav Stickley,
Syracuse, New York, and tell him you are a friend of The Basket.
THE BASKET. 55
INDIAN BEADWORK.
By GEORGE WHARTON JAMES.
-N1111•11.-
Is it not remarkable that "fads" are often but the revival of century
old customs. Just now the fad is for beadwork, yet how few who
"follow the fad" have the remotest idea that bead belts,—"wampum,"
as they were called,—were used by Indians in this country centuries
ago as records of treaties, and as instruments in making peace. In-
deed, several writers have written whole books upon the subject, books
of great learning and interest to those who desire to know more of a
matter than at first appears on the surface.
In conformity with my avowed purpose of furthering and aiding in
any work that will help Americans to know the Indian better, I am
glad to call their attention to some of the lesser known but most im-
portant facts of the relationship of Indians to Beadwork.
How many of the readers of "Hiawatha" have ever dreamed that
his name is connected with Beadwork ; indeed, simply translated, means
"the maker of the wampum belt." It is derived from ayunwa (wampum
belt) and an old verb katha—now, according to Father Cuoq, rarely
used—signifying "to make." Such names as this were not infrequently
given by the Iroquois to a member of the tribe to commemorate some
notable achievement which he had effected. The historians tell us that
he gained this name because he was the means of bringing about the
great federation of the Iroquois Indians, which they affirm must have
taken place in or about the year 1459.
Hence it will be seen that Beadwork boasts a remarkable and his-
toric as well as most honorable lineage.
When Cartier, the French explorer, kidnapped the Indian chief.
Donnaconna, his terrified people, in the hope of redeeming him, pre-
sented to the captain no less than twenty-four collars of porcelain,"
or wampum belts, which, the writer tells us, "is the greatest treasure
hey have in the world, for they prize it above gold and silver."
Professor Holmes shows how wampum or bead belts were used in
council. He thus writes : "From an account of a council held by the
Five Nations at Onondaga nearly two hundred years ago, to which
the governor of Canada sent four representatives, I make the following
extract : During the course of the proceedings Cannehoot, a Seneca
sachem, presented a proposed treaty between the Wagunhas and the
Senecas, speaking as follows : 'We come to join the two bodies into one.
* * We come to learn wisdom of the Senecas (giving a belt).
We by this belt wipe away the tears from the eyes of your friends,
those relations have been killed in the war. We likewise wipe the paint
from your soldiers' faces (giving a second belt). We throw aside the
ax which Yonondido put into our hands by this third belt.' A red marble
sun is presented—a pipe made of red marble. `Yonondido is drunk ;
we wash our hands clean from his actions (giving a fourth belt).
* * * We have twelve of your nation prisoners ; they shall be
56 THE BASKET.
By Courtesy ti. S. National Museum.
FIGS. 1, 2, 3. NECKLACE AND GARTERS MADE BY THE SAC INDIANS.

THE BASKET. 57
brought home in the spring (giving a belt to confirm the promise).
We will bring your prisoners home when the strawberries shall be in
blossom, at which time we intend to visit Corlear (the governor of
New York), and see the place where wampum is made.'
"The belts were accepted by the Five Nations, and their acceptance
was a ratification of the treaty. A large belt was also given to the
messengers from Albany as their share. A wampum belt sent from
Albany was, in the same manner, hung up and afterwards divided.
"This indicates a most extravagant use of belts ; but since it is
probable that as many were received in return this was a matter of lit-
tle importance. The great profusion of wampum used in some of the
later treaties is a matter of surprise. In a council held between four
Indian ambassadors from New England and the French thirty-six
fine large belts were given by the ambassadors to thank them that their
people had not been treated with hostility."
Miss Mary A. Owen, of St. Joseph, Mo., in 1895, writing about the
two garters and necklace pictured in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, wrote of the
Swastika design seen thereupon as follows : The Indians call it (the
Swastika) the "luck" or "good luck." It is used in necklaces and gar-
ters by the sun-worshippers among the Kickanoos, Sacs, Pottawatomies,
Iowas, and (I have been told) by the Winnebagoes. I have never seen
it on a Winnebago. The women use the real Swastika and the Greek
key pattern, in the silk patchwork in which they make sashes and skirt
trimmings. As for their thinking it an emblem of fire or deity, I do
not believe they entertain any such ideas, as some Swastika hunters
have suggested to me. They call it "luck" and say it is the same thing
as two other patterns which I send in the mail with this. They say
they "always" made that pattern. They must have made it for a long
time, for you cannot get such beads as compose it, in the stores of a
city or in the supplies of the traders who import French beads for the
red folk. Another thing, Beadwork is very strong, and this is begin-
ning to look tattered, a sure sign that it has seen long service.
These sun-worshippers—or, if you please, Swastika wearers—be-
lieve in the Great Spirit, who lives in the sun, who creates all things,
and is the source of all power and beneficence. The ancestors are a
sort of company of animal saints, who intercede for the people. There
are many malicious little demons who thwart the ancestors and lead
away the people at times and fill them with diseases, but no head devil.
Black Wolf and certain ghosts of the unburied are the worst. Every-
body has a secret fetish or "medicine," besides such general "lucks" as
Swastikas, bear skins and otter and squirrel tails.
Of the other cult of the peoples I have mentioned, those who wor-
ship the sun as the deity and not the habitation I know nothing. They
are secret, suspicious and gloomy, and do not wear the "luck." I have
never seen old people wear the "luck."
Later she sent two other garters in which this wonderful symbol is
distinctly worked, Figs. 4 and 5.
Now that interest is so rapidly growing in this ancient symbol I
have made arrangements to republish, by courtesy of the U. S. National
Museum, in the BASKET a large part of the learned monograph of Pro-
fessor Wilson upon the Swastika. Scores of illustrations will he pre-
sented. Fig. 6 is from an Ancient Greek vase, found in Egypt, and
By Courtesy U. S. National Dios. 11111.

FIGS. 4, GARTERS MAJE BY SAC INi•IA FIG. 6. DESIGN FROM AN
ANCIENT GREEK VASE.
THE BASKET. 59
which may serve as a suggestion for a belt to some ambitious bead
worker. Upon it will be found several Swastikas.
For the interest and pleasure of those who wish to study Beadwork
further I have prepared a small handbook with over seventy fine en-
gravings, showing designs for belts, necklaces, watch fobs, purses,
pouches, shopping bags, etc. See advertisement elsewhere.

This list makes no pretension to being complete. Any reputable
dealer may have his name inserted on payment of $2.50 for each inser-
tion. The editor, however, will allow no dealer's name to appear whose
standing is not guaranteed and responsible.
Benham Indian Trading Companies,
138 West 42d street, New York.
E. Mehesy, Jr.,
Fourth and Spring streets, Los Angeles, Cal. ; also
Potter Hotel, Santa Barbara, Cal.
Field & Cole,
street, San Jose, Cal.; 706 K street, Sacramento,
327 Kearny street, San Francisco, Cal.
Portland, Ore.
The Curio,
Phoenix, Ariz.
Miss Grace Nicholson,
41 and 43 S. Raymond avenue and 46 N. Los Robles
avenue, Pasadena, Cal.
Another good Basketry Teacher in New York City is

Miss Mertice MacCrea Buck,
507 Lenox Ave.
Where can I obtain Indian Sweet Grass and Hickory Splints ?

Miss Helen Watso,
Pierreville, P. Q.,
Canada.
THE BASKET
etz THE ORGAN OF THE BASKET FRATERNITY 4i
Vol 2. APRIL. 1904 . No 2.
BASKETRY OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS.

BY C. GADSEN PORCHER.
To most basket collectors, the term "Attu Basket" means a beautifully

woven, rather frail and very expensive basket, which comes from some
indefinitely situated island somewhere near Alaska.
This island, Attu, is in reality almost a thousand miles from the main
land of Alaska, as it is the extreme western island of the Aleutian
chain, which extends in the arc of a circle, and in a westerly direction
from the southwest corner of Alaska proper, forming the dividing line
between the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. Attu is the most westerly
point of land of North America, and is, in fact, so far to the westward
that it is actually in eastern longitude. The great distance of the island
from the lines of traffic is the chief cause of the value of Attu baskets,
although the limited supply is also a factor.
Although there are eight villages among the Aleutian Islands, most
of the baskets that reach the market pass under the name of Attu.
Many a basket which has not been within hundreds of miles of this
place, is sold as an Attu to the unsuspecting collector. This is not
always because the dealer wishes to mislead, but because he does not
know. In fact, it is often a very hard matter to decide where a certain
basket is made; for natives moving from one village to another take
their methods with them. There is, however, usually something in
the weave of a basket which indicates to an expert the locality from
which it came.
In all of the eight Aleutian villages : Attu on Attu Island, Atka on
Atka Island, Nikolski on Umnak Island, and Unalaska, Makushin,
Kashiga, Chernofski and Beorka on Unalaska Island, the materials of
basketry are the same, with the exception of those which are used in
decoration. What is said of one as to the grass and its curing and
68 THE BASKET.
preparation, can be said of all, except that more care and skill are
exercised at Attu and Atka than at any of the other places. The grass,
—wild rye,—the only material supplied by nature for the making of
baskets in these regions, grows profusely on all the islands, and all
along the Western coast of Alaska. It is a coarse, heavy grass, with
blades about two feet long by a little more than a half inch wide. It
heads in the autumn, and looks somewhat like wheat ; but the heads
are generally light, and there is seldom any grain in them. There is
always a rank growth of this grass along the water's edge. In the
villages, it grows everywhere, even on the tops of the barabaras, or sod
huts, in which the natives live. The basket maker is very careful in
the selection of her grass ; long experience having taught her that the
grass growing so rank in front of her door is coarse and weak, and
that to get strong, tough material, she must go to the hillsides. Just
before the grass begins to head, that is, between the first and middle of
July, the growth is at its best, and, at this time, women can be seen
all over the hills gathering quantities of it for the winter's work. This
is no ordinary grass cutting; it is a slow and tedious process of selecting
the good and of rejecting the unsuitable. Never more than three, and
often only two blades are taken from the stalk. These are the younger
ones, which are of a much more delicate fibre and are much stronger
than the older leaves. These two or three blades are broken off at the
base, and, when taken home, are spread out in rows on the ground,
where they are carefully watched and turned for about two weeks.
They are kept out of the sunlight as much as possible since the heat
tends to dry the grass too quickly for strength. It is true that the
islands are very little troubled with sunshine. Some weather observa-
tions by the Russian missionary Veniaminof, covering a period of
seven years, show fifty-three clear days, one thousand two hundred
sixty three cloudy days, and one thousand two hundred thirty days
when it rained, hailed or snowed. This does not mean that the sun was
seen only forty-three times in seven years, for it is not uncommon to
see a dozen showers in a day with bright sunshine between, yet this
would not be counted a clear day. When the grass has reached the
proper degree of softness or wilt,—that is, in about two weeks, it is
taken into the house and sorted. The blades are all separated, the
coarse, the medium and the fine inner blade ; each having its own pile.
Those of the two coarser grades are split with the thumb nail into
three parts ; the middle piece with the heavy rib being discarded. The
very fine, young blades are too soft and tender as yet for much hand-
ling, so they are dried whole. The different grades are now made in
small bundles and hung out to dry on a sort of clothes line, made of
braided grass. This must be done altogether on foggy and cloudy days,
THE BASKET. 69
and the process requires about a month. During this drying, at a

certain stage, each bundle is twisted or wrung, so as to separate the
fibres and make the grass more pliable and tough. The drying is
finished indoors. When they are almost dry, the bundles are separated
into wisps about the size of a finger, and the ends braided loosely
together, so that they will not tangle. A single piece can be pulled
out, just as a woman pulls out a thread of darning cotton from a braid.
When it is to be so used, the grass is split with the thumb nail to the
desired fineness.
The result of the above method of curing gives a rich straw color to
the coarser straw ; while the finer straw is almost white. At Attu,
they cure a grass still whiter by cutting it in November and hanging up
the whole stalk, roots uppermost, until dry. But this material is used
only to make white stripes in the warp of "drawstring" baskets ; as it
is very weak, having been practically weather white before it was cut.
There is still another shade procured at Attu, and sometimes at Una-
laska. This is a very soft tea-green, obtained by keeping the grass
near the houses, in the dense shade of the growth of weeds and grass,
for the first two weeks of the curing. It is then taken out and dried,
as in the first method, only it is kept more in the shade.
Beside the grass, the only materials used are for the decorations. At
Attu, they decorate with colored silks, or worsteds, worked into de-
signs, with vertical stripes of green or white grass, and, also, with the
very white and papery skin taken from the throat of a fish of the sculpin
family, called by the natives "Koloshka." At other places, silks and
worsteds are the only decorations, save that occasionally white eagle-
down is used by natives at Makushin and Beorka, and thin strips of
seal-gut, colored with native paints, at Umnak. But these two last
are seldom, if ever, seen now. At one time, the use of the down of
eagles and of other birds was quite common with all the natives, but
this was long since discontinued. Worsteds and silks are generally
procurable from the traders and are more convenient to handle. Often,
when the weavers cannot get these materials, they ravel out a scrap of
cloth and use the ravelings.
By far the greater part of the basket weaving is done during the
winter months and, therefore, indoors. Most of the natives in the
western villages live in barabaras or sod huts. These are all alike and
from the outside look like grass-covered mounds about six feet high.
There is a little door at the side, near one end, and a small glazed win-
dow at the other end. The door opens into a room about four or five
feet long by seven or eight wide. On one side is a fireplace with cook-
ing utensils and a pile of grass, roots, etc., called "chiksha," for fuel.
At the other side is a wooden partition with a door opening into the
70 THE BASKET
living room, which is from seven to ten feet square, with straw on the
floor and a narrow wooden bunk on each side. The inhabitants are
kept warm by not allowing any of the heated air to escape, and as the
natives live chiefly on dried salmon, it is not hard to imagine the state
of the atmosphere. On entering one of these huts, a novice will im-
mediately back out to get a breath of fresh air, but if there is hope of a
basket to be found, the collector cannot be kept away, and soon making
a strong mental effort, he takes a long breath of air and dives in, not
breathing again until he comes to the surface with his trophies. These
must be aired before they can be stored away. How such fine and beau-
tiful work can be done in such a place and in such light is hard to tell,
yet here it is done. The weaver sits on the ground with knees doubled
up nearly to her chin. Often some little girl, five or six years old, away
in a corner, so quiet that one would never know of her presence, weaves
away as if she had been doing it a lifetime, and she does surprisingly
good work. There is a little girl six years old at Atka who can weave
with either zigzag, straight, or crossed warp, and who does quite as
good work as some of the women.
While the types of basket made in the different villages are usually
distinct, in several instances, strange mixtures have been found, for
Figure I. Plain twine, openwork weave, with ziz-

zag warp, used in Attu "drawstring" baskets
when a basket-maker of one village moves to another, she generally

mingles the methods of both places.
Starting with Attu, there comes first the burden-basket of the people,
often known as the Attu "drawstring." This is a collapsible basket,
cylindrical in shape, with a height about equal to its diameter. The
upper ends of the grass forming the warp, terminate in a braid which
runs around the top, and continues on in a string or strap for carrying,
about three times as long as the basket is wide. The weave which is
THE BASKET. 71
peculiar to Attu, although imitated in other places, is a plain twine,

openwork weave, with a zigzag warp. At the bottom, the warp is
straight and radiates to the sides, where these straws are split and ex-
tend up in a zigzag ; each half being caught alternately by the woof
with its other half and the adjoining half of the next straw, thus form-
ing triangular openings. So as to give extra strength where the strain
of carrying falls,—that is, at the place where the string is attached
and the place where it is made fast, on the side opposite,—there are
three or four pieces of grass twisted into cords. These extend to the
bottom and form part of the warp. In their native climate, where the
Figwe II. Plain twine weave, with straight warp

and closely drawn woof tenlarged)
atmosphere is always damp, these baskets are surprisingly strong and

carry safely as many salmon as they can hold, the largest of them
from forty to fifty pounds. The same baskets in a steam-heated
museum might be broken at a touch. The decorations on this type of
basket consist of a border of worsted, or worsted and fish skin, just
below the braid. It is sometimes said that these baskets are woven
under water, but the straw is always so damp from the atmosphere
that it does not have to be even dampened when worked.
The Attu covered baskets are always small and made from finely
split grass. The weave is a plain twine with a straight warp and closely
drawn woof, making a flexible but almost watertight basket. In weav-
ing, the woof is drawn close at once, as is the case with all fine work of
these natives, and is not driven down afterwards, as is sometimes sup-
posed. The decorations in these baskets are done with silk or wo'-sted
threads ; the figures being scattered all over the sides and top. There
is also a pleasing variation made by working two or three rows with
crossed warp, thus forming small hexagonal openings.
'IRMSVEI RH,L '

Figure VI. Types of Attu and Atka work
Atka Attu Attu Attu
THE BASKET. 73
It is in cigarette cases that the climax is reached, for there is nothing

in basketry to compare with their fineness. These are made with
straight warp, plain twine weave, the same that is used in the small
covered baskets, but much finer. Some of the finer cigarette cases have
Figure III. Cigarette case (enlarged), showing

hexagonal openings in the plain twine,
crossed warp weave
as many as fifty meshes to the inch. In weaving, to keep the work

smooth and straight, the weaver has two round pieces of wood, one a
little greater in diameter than the other, over which the outer and inner
parts of the case are woven. They are then drawn off, finished at the
Figure IV. Plain twine, openwork weave, with

straight warp (enlarged)
tops, creased at the bottoms and slipped one inside the other. The
decorations are of silk, very often with several rows of open work,
done with the crossed warp. They are almost always charming in both
color and design.
*IaltSVEIaFI,I,
Figure VII. Types of
Cbernofski Unalaska Island bas
Makushin kets
Makushin fleorka Makushin
THU BASKET. 75
Beside the baskets above mentioned, the Attu natives make mats of
the same weave as the "drawstring" baskets, and cover bottles with the
close weave used in the covered baskets.
At Atka, the most usual product is a large covered basket of straight
warp, plain twine weave ; the woof running in rows, more or less sep-
arated, leaving rectangular openings. The sides bulge out like a barrel
and are larger at the top than at the bottom. The pieces are decorated
all over the tops and sides with worsted or silk. Here the small cov-
ered baskets are similar to those made at Attu, only, as a rule, the work
is finer.
The Atka burden-basket is the strongest of all Aleutian baskets ;
being made very heavy and in a wrapped twine weave, differing from
the plain twine in having one element of the woof running horizontally
;
k, 1:
;;
• tar ta1c1
it7 ZtQlfe: t't
i%r ;: iihT4 vtti
1,1 Itte;
rur c,:tt t is at,
4 11
Figure V. Wrapped twine weave used in Atka
burden baskets
outside the basket. Though roughly finished, this basket is quite at-
tractive. However, it is seldom seen away from the island, as it is
made for daily use, and not for sale. There is no decoration ; but
around the top there is a heavy braid to which a strap or rope is tied,
by which to carry it. These natives also make mats in the straight
warp openwork, and cover bottles with a great waste of beautifully
fine work.
The baskets made at Nikolski are; for the greater part, a coarse im-
itation of the Attu "drawstring." They are of bad shape and have no
string. However, a basket is sometimes found at this place which is
different from any found elsewhere. It is a straight warp, plain twine
openwork weave. The bottom is very coarse, but beautifully flat and
-evenly made. The sides come up straight, but the diameter is greater
at the top than it is at the bottom. Near the bottom, the weave is
. El SILL
*,L axSV
Figure VIII. Making an Attu "drawstring"
THE BASKET. 77
coarse and the warp heavy. At every row or two of the woof, the
warp is split and the weave becomes finer and finer, till at the top it
is of a close fine weave where the warp is terminated in a fine braid.
The decorations, if any, are at the upper edge and are of worsted or
very thin strips of seal-gut, colored red or black, with native paints.
At Chernofski and Kashiga the baskets are large and of irregular
shape, much larger at the top than at the bottom. The weave is the
plain twine with straight warp, the rows in the woof being separated
by intervals as great as half an inch. They are decorated all over with
worsted and are in a way attractive and rather savage in their coloring.
There also is made a poor imitation of the Attu "drawstring," coarse
and irregular, with no braiding or string at the top.
The natives of Makushin and Beorka make a very good covered
basket of the same weave as that used at Attu in covered baskets, with
the difference that these, though of smooth and regular weave, are
much coarser and heavier, making a more serviceable basket and one
that holds its shape better than the finer ones. At the present time,
these are decorated with worsted, but until quite recently, the ends of
the down, stripped from eagle plumes, were woven in, so that the little
plumes stand out about an inch and give a pretty feathery effect.
At Unalaska, where natives from all the different islands come from
time to time, the influence of the whites is strong, and the baskets take
all manner of fantastic shapes and show all sorts of combinations of
weaves and designs. There are some very good baskets of the Attu
"drawstring" type, the only noticeable difference being in the string,
which is either shorter or omitted altogether. There are also some
good covered baskets of the Makushin type, but the great majority of
Unalaska baskets are crude and gaudy imitations of better baskets made
at other places. In fact, if the collector obtains a basket which is such
a hybrid as to defy classification, he will be safe in putting it down as
a product of Unalaska. Of course, such baskets are all made to sell,
and these monstrosities are simply the result of competition and the
desire to invent something new that will attract those who know nothing
about basketry, as the great majority of customers are of this class.
As was said above, the chief reason for the high valuation placed on
Attu and Atka baskets is that these places are so inaccessible, and so
far from the beaten track of vessels, that it will not pay to send a
vessel out solely for the purposes of collection. Communication with
the outside world occurs twice a year, once when a schooner, owned by
a trader living at Atka, goes out early in the spring, and a little later
at the arrival of the revenue cutter, which is sent out each year to look
after the welfare of the people. The owner of the schooner takes out
supplies for the year. and, in turn, brings away baskets and furs. The
'LHNSVEE HHI
Figure IX. Interior of a " barabara," at Attu
THE BASKET. 79
natives are wholly dependent on the trader for these supplies, while he
practically owns the population, keeping it in debt most of the time.
He never fails to get out early in the spring, knowing how few baskets
would be left if the cutter should chance to arrive first. But the natives
know that the cutter will soon arrive, and they keep hidden all the
baskets that they dare.
These people are pleasant to deal with and speak English well enough
to be easily understood. They are inclined to favor the officers of the
cutter, and, as a rule, never make them pay more than twice as much
as the trader, unless they are bad at a bargain. Like all natives, they
are good merchants, and appear utterly indifferent whether they trade
or not, and, in fact, act as if they were doing a favor, when they bring
out a basket which they are really longing to sell. It is slow work deal-
ing with them, and impossible to get all the baskets they have to sell, in
less than three or four clays, as they never bring out more than one at
a time, and as each one wants to see what kind of bargains the others
are making. However, they do not object to having their barabaras
rummaged, and as this is by far the quickest method, it is usually em-
ployed, for after the basket is found, there is never any trouble in
making a purchase.
INDIAN ANECDOTES.
By J. H. SHARP.
Paint and feathers are not the only characteristics of the Indian.
In his natural state he has many of the finer qualities of the white man
and few of his vices.
His life now is simply a struggle for existence against great odds.
With the ambition and glory of the warpath and chase suppressed, his
interests are narrowed to a few things. His stoicism, bravery and
cunning have little opportunity for display or applause. His talk is
of the glories of the past and the pressing need of himself and family.
He has a humorous as well as serious side. On many of the
reservations freight rates are high, while the traders have to carry
large book accounts over the year, making necessaries of life expensive.
Chief Running Rabbitt was asked last year how he was getting
along, and if there was any smallpox on the reservation. His quick
reply was :
"No, we haven't any smallpox now—we can't afford it, as the
stores charge so much for their goods !"
8o THE BASKET.
Judge Shorty White Grass (who had posed for me many times)
on the Fourth of July during their ceremonial festivities of the Medicine
Lodge, came to me, and with grave dignity (possibly assumed) said :
"This is the great Fourth of July, a very fine holiday, and I would
like it very much if you would give me one dollar to get a little fruit
for my children."
I compromised with two bits because his• children were all grown,
with families of their own.
Old Chief Running Crane, as noble and honest a man as ever
lived, was one of the few who understood why I wanted to paint him.
He spent more for new beads and trinkets to decorate himself than I
could give him for posing. He did not expect to live long, and arrayed
himself with great care, saying he wanted to be painted at his best, so
that when he had gone over the Great Divide the people could see
what a great chief looked like. Two weeks later he died of heart
disease.
Another time several of the old fellows were sitting in the circle,
passing the pipe and talking. A priest went by, when Running Crane
said :
"There goes the black robe, he has one religion—the one at the
agency has another, and they tell me there are hundreds of religions,
all conflicting ; but as for me (pointing) I believe in that sun; it makes
the grass grow ; it makes the light ; it keeps me warm ; I feel it."
His tribe are sun worshippers. Could the greatest minds say
more of their religion?
Being so close to Nature their lives and thoughts arc of great
simplicity, while their conclusions are often formed as a child's would be.
A short time ago old Bull Thigh, a Cheyenne, was beaten almost to
death by a white man. The man was arrested and taken to Helena
for trial. Bull Thigh was called as a witness. It was his first ride
on the railroad. He said he wanted to be asleep as they went over
rivers and through the mountains (bridges and tunnels). At the
hotel every one gave him a cigar, which he thought necessary from
politeness to smoke, nearly doing him up. In the dining room he would
eat all the waiters brought until he was "much stretched."
In the morning he complained about being cold in the night. The
interpreter went with him to his room and found the bed untouched.
He had simply rolled up in his own blanket and slept under the bed
on the floor.
The judge finally discharged the man who whipped him, but Bull
Thigh thought it was all right, and that taking him to Helena on the
cars, the presents, food and good time was to even up matters and he
was perfectly satisfied, and now he brags of the trip with gusto.
THE BASICUT. 81
THE MOHAVE "RAMONA."

By GEORGE WHARTON JAMES.
11■11101...-
"There's no hope for the poor wretch ; he's got to go, that's all."
"What's that ? Do you mean to say his case is hopeless ?"
"Yes, I do ! He's got smallpox, and got it bad. He's sure to die
and the sooner he goes to the pesthouse the better."
The speakers were the post surgeon and the Commandant of Fort
Mohave, and the subject of their conversation was a soldier who a
few days before had come down with the dread disease. It is a dread
disease, even when its victim is situated within the confines of civiliza-
tion, where the best physicians, nurses, sanitary appliances and con-
veniences and medicines are immediately at hand. How much more
dread, then, when its unhappy victim is located in the heart of a
veritable Sahara, several hundred miles from civilization, and with no
other conveniences than those known at a desert army post on the
frontier. For such was Fort Mohave, even though located on the
Colorado River. This river, instead of blessing, curses the region
through which it passes, draining away all its moisture instead of
distributing it.
So the poor soldier's case was indeed sad. He was removed, with
several others who were attacked by the same disease, to the rude
wooden shack which served as pesthouse, in order that their isolation
might be the more complete. Oh, how the fever burned, how hot and
parched his mouth and lips were. His tongue seemed to be ten times
its normal size, and he only made a queer, half gasp, half groan, when
he tried to speak. His blood was all on fire, and at times his brain
burned so that reason fled, and he was tortured with the wild fan-
tasies of delirium. •
Outside the scorching sun pitilessly beat down upon the gray sand,
which radiates it back again, making the air as hot as if it were the
breathings of a fiery furnace. Not a cloud moved across the richly
blue sky and nothing tempered the fierce rays. Hotter and still hotter
it became. Now the wind began to blow and raised such furious
clouds of sand as cut the faces of any unfortunate enough to be ex-
posed to their fury. In the hospital shack heat and dust added to the
discomfort, distress and suffering of the afflicted one, and he rolled
and tossed in his augmented agony.
At one of his somewhat lucid intervals he felt a gentle hand on his
fever-stricken brow. Soft, wet cloths were placed over his lips and
they cooled and soothed him so deliciously. As he tossed uneasily in
82 THE BASKET.
his bed to escape the heat he could tell that some different hand from
that of the rude soldier, detailed to nurse him and the others, had
arranged the bed clothes. There were no creases, no lumps, no hol-
lows in the mattress. The pillow lay just where he best liked it, and
wet cloths were hanging in the miserable room to temper the fierce
heat of the burning desert sun.
In vain the half conscious soldier sought to solve the mystery. He
felt the comfort and the restfulness of the change, but was unable to
understand it.
In the officers' quarters, however, it was known and understood.
And there had been considerable talk about it.
"Why, it's perfectly scandalous," exclaimed the prim wife of the
captain.
"I don't like it myself," said the colonel's wife. "It doesn't seem
the thing to let an Indian girl nurse a sick soldier. If the men must
form illicit associations with those rude, disgusting creatures, I suppose
there is no help for it, but to have her go right publicly to nurse him
is carrying the thing too far. I'll have to see what the colonel says
about it !"
Accordingly the colonel was "seen," but the results of the interview
were never made public. The only public fact was that Mrs. Colonel
never said any more about it, from which it may have been inferred
the Colonel thought she had better keep her hands off.
But others did not.
"Who is the girl, anyhow ?"
"Why, she's old Dox's daughter. You remember her, that bright,
laughing girl that used to watch the parade, dressed in a skirt and a
bead collar."
"Well, it's shameful, and I think it ought to be stopped !"
All the same it was not stopped, and daily, the sick soldier, ignorant
and oblivious to all the scandal the action of his Mohave nurse was
causing, was slowly but surely overcoming the fierce power of the
disease by the intelligent assistance she was rendering him.
At last came sanity. One morning he awoke perfectly clear-headed.
It was early morning, and who but those who have enjoyed it know
what that means on the desert. Cool ! ah, so cool and delicious and
refreshing. Its joy and comfort were marvelous ; its refreshment,
divine. Surely he must be in heaven, after the weary weeks of fever
and horrid dreams it had brought him. For three or four hours he
enjoyed it, his thoughts going now and again to the subject that had
puzzled him so often while he was in the throes of the loathsome disease.
All at once he thought he heard a step approacing. He could barely
hear it on the soft and yielding sand, so he knew it was no white
THE BASKET. 83
person, as the whites seldom, if ever, walk barefoot, and then, anyhow,
no white man was coming to see him now. Then the door opened,
and the key to the mystery was offered him. He knew now who was
the good angel of his dreams. His nurse was Maha (the mocking-
bird), old Dox's daughter, who used to come for his washing and to
whom once or twice he had spoken in a friendly manner. He had been
friendly but not free; jocular but not rude, and perhaps it was that
that had separated him in the mind of the Indian girl from his fellows.
For such a thing had never been heard of before. The Indian girls
were generally terrified at the presence of soldiers, and would run far
out of the way rather than meet them away from the protection afforded
by "quarters." But here was one who, when it was known that Frank
was dangerously sick and not expected to recover, had gone without
any request or permission from anyone, gone, just as naturally as a
mother goes to her son, or a wife to her husband, to watch over, tend
and nurse him. The army surgeon was a wise, level-headed old dog,
whose heart, too, was in the right place, and he had sense enough to
care nothing for "proprieties" when the recovery of one of his patients
was at stake. Here was a chance for Frank's life, and he was going to
let him make the best of it. So Maha remained, and the patient began
to improve from the hour of her appearance.
Why had she come ?
Let the conversation she had with her old mother, who lived on
Soapsuds Row, be the answer.
"He is sick, my mother, He is to die, the white medicine man says,
and I am never to have my heart warmed by his smile again."
"Daughter of my heart, my Mohave mockingbird, why have you given
your heart to the white soldier? You know you can never become his
wife. If you give yourself to him he will by and bye go away and
forget he ever knew you, and to do that is not good for a maiden who
wants a mind full of peacefulness and a heart at rest."
"Ah, mother, but my bosom swells with love for him. One day's
love with him would be worth a lifetime of other love. I love him, I
love him, and he knows it not, and now the medicine man says he will
soon die. Sorrow is mine. Deep grief is my bedfellow."
Twice, thrice, for two days, did Dox and her Maha thus converse,
Maha growing more restless and full of woe as the hours of the day
and night passed. At length she could bear it no longer, and on the
third morning she stealthily crept up to the hospital shack and there
felt the joyous pain of hearing the groanings of the white man she
loved and the wild ravings of his delirium. Yet, though changed by
his sickness, her keen ear knew it was .his voice, and though its agony
smote her with cruel force, the fact that it was his and he was alive
filled her with joy unspeakable.
84 THE BASKET.
By and bye the door opened and the night watcher came out. Sud-
denly an impulse entered Maha's heart. While the watcher was away
why should she not steal in and give of her loving care to the sick
soldier? A child of impulse, she obeyed, and for a few delicious, stolen
moments sought to assuage his pain. She was there when the watcher
returned, but she was indifferent to his curses when he bade her be-
gone. She sought her mother.
"I have seen him and given him sleep," she said. "Soon I shall go
again."
And go again she did, to the watcher's amazement. She came as if
she had the right, and he, knowing naught to the contrary, imagined
perhaps the doctor had sent her, and, willing to be relieved of as much
of his unpleasant duty as possible, was speedily reconciled to having
her stay.
When the doctor came he took in the situation at a glance; that is,
he thought he did, and, being human, was inclined to overlook human
frailty in others, though in this case his charity and complaisance were
misplaced.
The result was that Maha remained, and day and night saw her at
Frank's side.
Little by little, as he was slowly dragged back from the deathpit
which had yawned wide open for him, he began to realize what she
had done.
"Maha, -why did you come?" one day he asked her.
He got no reply but one sharp, keen glance of fiery sweetness, and
then she bent her head so that he could not see her eyes. Then she
speedily went away and was seen no more until the dusk of evening fell.
Hour after hour Frank puzzled over it. At last it began to dawn
upon him. He opened his eyes once, suddenly, and found her eyes
swimming with love for him, and then fie knew.
"Maha, come here. Do you know what you have done for me? Do
you know whose my life is ? Without you I should have 'gone out'
with the others. (Several had died and been buried during his illness.)
Why did you do it ? Was it because you loved me ? Ah, Maha, I know
not how to return such love as yours !"
But from that moment his heart became peculiarly tender towards her,
and when she next placed bandages upon his head he seized her swarthy
hand and pressed several kisses upon it. Then, when night time came,
and he tossed about, he found that her very presence soothed him, and
that when she gently stroked his hand and brow he speedily forgot his
feverish nervousness and slept.
When did he begin to love her ?
He could scarcely tell, but before he was deemed convalescent and
THE BASKET. 85
allowed to leave the shack, he had discovered it, and frankly told it to
her, having bravely fought over the whole battle of "what his folks
would say," and "what would the 'boys' think of it ?"
He was a man, and womanly devotion even to the gates of death had
won his warmest admiration and sincere devotion.
Now came a revelation.
Though a comman soldier he was the son of a proud officer father,—
a colonel in one of the regiments located in the East. He would himself
write to his father and tell him all the facts and also what he intended
to do. For he had already resolved that Maia should be his wife. He
had asked her, and she had said that what he had decided was a decision
for her also. And so he decided as a brave man should.
The doctor was taken into his confidence and the Colonel was finally
asked for consent. The former had carefully prepared the way and had
shown the commanding officer that common humanity demanded that
no obstacles be placed in the way.
As soon as Frank was well enough the strange couple was duly mar-
ried by the chaplain, and quarters allotted them. For nearly a year they
lived together in a happiness that was ideal, and that taught many les-
sons to the few married white women of the garrison.
Then joy and sadness came to Frank in the same hour. Maha gave
birth to a sweet, beautiful baby girl, but as the new life began her own
ceased. The happy year was at an end and it is no figure of speech to
say that the light of Frank's life went out. He idolized his wife and was
overcome with profound grief at her death. Such was the effect upon
him that he was granted a leave of absence and he went back East,
visited his stern old father, the Colonel, who, with his daughters had
been horrified at Frank's marriage. The profundity of his grief, however,
soon revealed to them what his marital joy must have been, and to their
new amazement they found their son and brother actually grieving to
death for his loved one. Nothing they could do seemed to have any
effect. Slowly but surely his life ebbed away and in a few months he,
too, had solved the mystery of the beyond, with Maha, his Mohave wife.
As soon as she heard of Frank's death, the grandmother, old Dox,
spirited the baby girl, who had already been named Ramona, away.
For several years she was seldom seen by a white person. She was
brought up as any other Mohave child, a true daughter of the desert.
Then a superintendent took charge of the school, who, as soon as he
heard Ramona's story and found she was old enough to come to school,
determined that the white man's daughter should have a white girl's
education. He called upon his Mohave policemen to find the girl and
bring her and her grandmother to him. There were many tears and
much wailing and some open defiance, but when Dox was assured that
86 THE BASKET.
she might see her darling granddaughter any and every day, so long
as she behaved herself, she became more reconciled.
The child was put in school. Her white blood soon began to tell.
She learned rapidly and showed a sweetness of disposition that won
natives and whites alike to love her. Her voice was as soft as the
sweetest notes of the Maha (mockingbird) her mother had been named
after. She was not rough and robust as most of the girls were, but
gentle and dainty in all her ways. Had it not been for some trouble
with her eyes, a common thing with the Mohaves, and which developed
early in her case, everyone would have called her pretty.
One of the lady teachers became so fond of her that she could not
tolerate the idea of her being ignored by her father's relatives, so she
began to write letters to the stern old Colonel in the East, telling him
about his Mohave granddaughter. Evidently the aunts got hold of these
letters, for they replied. In a year or so they wrote they were coming
to California and would like to see Ramona if they could do so without
her knowledge.
SoOn afterwards Ramona and half a dozen other of her companions
were taken by this teacher down to the Needles to see the train come
in. When it arrived two well dressed ladies beckoned to the teacher out
of one of the cars, and she led all the girls into the drawing-room where
the ladies greeted them kindly, but watched Ramona with special inter-
est. Not one of the girls had the remotest idea that anything strange
or dramatic was occurring, yet it was dramatic in the extreme. It was
the first meeting of Ramona with her white aunts.
The girls left, the train pulled on to California, and except that the
white ladies and their kindness were often spoken of the incident was
apparently forgotten at Fort Mohave. But not so with the aunts. They
talked Ramona over, and, on their return East, had many and serious
talks with her grandfather.
At length a letter reached Mohave from Indian headquarters with
instructions that the scene at the railway train was to be repeated, but
that, this time, there would be an elderly gentleman as well as the two
ladies, and that, if, when the train went Eastwards, the gentleman signi-
fied with a word his desire, Ramona was to be left on the cars and her
companions were to return to Fort Mohave without her.
The train arrived from the West. Happy and jolly, as thoughtless
young girls generally are, the crowd followed the teacher into the draw-
ing room. The ladies greeted them kindly as they had done before, and
the stern faced gentleman gazed at them, and then, when Ramona was
pointed out to him, found his glasses suddenly covered with mist.
Candies and other sweets were distributed, and the teacher, hearing
the All Aboard ! of the conductor, backed her young charges out, but
THE BASKET. 87
somehow, did not seem to notice that Ramona was left behind, and
when one of the other girls remarked it, calmly said : "Oh, never mind."
And the train pulled away with the blinds of the drawing room down,
so that Ramona never even said Good Bye ! to her companions or to
Mohave. It sped away East and took her from the desert for evermore.
MATERIAL FOR REED BASKETS.

BY MATTH IAS HOLLANDER.
-14•11.11,-
Reeds are manufactured from rattan. Rattan grows best in quality

and abundance in the East Indian Islands, where the annual rainfall is
one hundred and twenty-eight inches. Rattan is cylindrical in form and
jointed. It grows wild in the jungles, twining about the trees and
hanging from the branches in beautiful festoons.
The length to which it grows is given by different authors as being
from fifty to five hundred feet ; but the longest specimens that I find
any authentic record of are two specimens that were on exhibition at the
Paris Exposition in 1855. One of these was two hundred and thirty
feet and the other two hundred and seventy.
Some years ago some enterprising men undertook to cultivate rattan,
and met with success. Long clearings, 12 feet wide, were made leaving
a strip, next. to the cleared one, and of about the same width, in the
natural state. Next to this another pair of cleared and uncleared strips
and so on.
The seed of rattan, which is about the size of a pea and black in color,
was planted at equal distances on the edge of the cleared strip close to
the wild strip towards the sun. This left a space between the rattan
plants and the wild strip on the opposite side, wide enough for the men
and their teams to drive in to cut and gather the rattan when ready.
Trees were left in the uncleared strip, so that as the rattan grew it might
have something to climb. It grows always towards the sun.
Only one shoot grows from the seed, and this first shoot is allowed
to grow for four years, when it is cut close to the ground, and from that
one plant as many as three hundred shoots will spring up. These are
cut every year. Large, beautiful leaves, that always face the sun, grow
where we see the joints in the rattan. Little fibres grow out from those
same joints by means of which the rattan plant makes itself fast to the
trees, and its hold is so firm, that when the plant is cut it requires the
88 THE BASKET.
strength of from two to five men to pull it down. Rattan comes to us

stripped of its leaves and tied in bundles of convenient length for ship-
ping and handling.
It is estimated that the revenue from cultivated rattan is from $350 to
$450 per acre.
Reeds were first manufactured in this country about fifty years ago.
Seating cane is made from the outside of the rattan and the reed is made
from the inside—the pith of the rattan. The sizes into which reeds are
cut are from .00—about the size of common thread—up to No. 17—
about the size of a man's thumb. The sizes used in light basketry
range from Nos. i to 6.
There are five or six factories that manufacture reeds in this country
and two of these—the Wakefield Rattan Co., at Wakefield, Mass., and
the New England Reed Co., in Boston—make reed furniture from
their own reeds. Reeds are also imported from three or four other
countries. The best of the imported reeds come from Germany and
Belgium. The poorest reeds come from China. The American manu-
factured reed is as good, if not better, than any that is made.
South Framingham, Mass.
MODEL INDIAN BASKET DESIGN.

NO. 2. ALASKA TREASURE ;BASKET.
-44•1.1.- •
This basket is made of the twined stitch as described in "How to

Make Indian and Other Baskets." The white weaver will make it as
suits her own pleasure. It is 8Y2 inches in diameter and 33/4 inches
high. First make a round base. Then insert new spokes for the sides
and imitate the design shown in the side view. The main color is the
natural brown of the spruce root, and is shaded in the design ; the white
is the squaw grass and the black is of a reddish brown.
The cover is made just one coil wider than the body of the basket
and the flange consists of 9 coils or rows of weaving, three rows of
white, three of brown and three of white.
THE BASKET. 89
MODELS FOR REED BASKETS.
In teaching basketry as in teaching anything else experience counts

for more than theory. I have, therefore, had some of the best teachers
of the country arrange this model set of lessons and make the models
accompanying them that future students may have the benefit of their
experience. Follow this order and you will find a distinct development
of your own power along what experience has demonstrated to be the
right lines. Those who have used these models find that both teachers
and those who wish to teach themselves basketry have in them all that
is essential to a practical knowledge of this kind of work. Stick to these
models and you will make better looking baskets than if you undertake
to follow your own untrained wishes.
MAT.—MODEL NO. i.
Material needed-14 feet of No. 3 reed, 25 feet of No. i reed.
Take to stakes or spokes No. 3 reed i6 feet long. Pierce 5 with an

awl in the middle of the stakes and slip 5 reeds through the 5 punctured.
Take a No. i weaver (fine) and double the weaver so that the short
end will be 4 feet long, twisting it to keep the reed from breaking.
Now place the double weaver or loop around one set of inserted spokes
working to the right. Place the face weaver down between the next
quarter over 5 spokes and bring the back weaver to the front on top of
the other weaver. Hold top weaver with right hand and bring left
hand forward one place. Repeat this process until you have encircled
these quarters 3 times. Now cut out the extreme right hand stake
or spoke on the first set of fives, then point off two spokes, repeating the
same process of weaving, only going over two spokes 3 times around.
Now weave the same way over each individual spoke. This is to be
done until you reach end of short weaver. Your spokes should now be
divided so as to allow plenty of room in each space, working with
single weaver by going over one and under one with one weaver.
Single weaving should be done until you have reached 5 inches. In
the meantime should one of the weavers run short, splice in the follow-
ing manner : Leave the end of finishing weaver back of any spoke.
Insert the end of new weaver in space where former weaver would
come out and continue as before.
To form the scalloped edge : Point the ends of all spokes to an even
length. Take any given spoke numbering it one, then take No. I spoke
Monist. No. 1. Mat. Made by Miss M. L. McIntyre.
MODEL No. 2. Made by Mites M. L. McIntyre.

THE BASKET. 91
bending it to the right crossing in front of No. 2 spoke and insert on

left hand side of No. 3 spoke. No. 2 spoke is now taken, brought
forward to the right over No. 3 spoke and inserted beside No. 4, and
so on. When your mat is finished your scallops should form a true
circle.
MODEL NO. 2.
Material needed-18 feet No. 3 reed, 6o feet No. i weaver.
Take to stakes No. 3 reed 20 inches long and pierce 5 with an awl,
leaving 5 stakes on the awl, then slip the other 5 stakes through this
puncture. Now open the center just as is done in the mat (Model No.
) and weave 3Y, inches. Immerse the base in water and bend the
stakes flatwise upwards with a pair of flat pliers. Slant the stakes
backward a little and weave as in single weaving by going over one and
under one with a No. P weaver until you have woven 2% inches. Now
insert three weavers in three consecutive spaces and weave with the left
hand weaver in front of 2 stakes and back of one stake. Care should
always be taken to use the left hand weaver. This particular weave may
be called the "Wale." Do 2 rows of wale, leaving the ends on the
inside of the basket.
Now you are ready for the border. Take No. P stake and bring down
to right back of 2 stakes in front of 2 stakes and back of I stake, leaving
end outside. Take No. 2 stake, bring forward to right, back of ,2 stakes,
in front of 2 stakes, and back of one stake. Drop one outside and so on
until you have used the entire number of stakes. In finishing the border
great care should be taken to keep the stake started in the border.
MODEL NO. 3.—WORK BASKET.
Material needed-27 feet No. 5 reed, Poo feet No. 2 reed, 25 feet No.
I reed.
This basket is started with pp spokes cut 9 inches long of No. 4 or No.
5 reed. You should puncture your reeds and open the center exactly as
given in the mat (Model No. 1), weaving 614 inches for the base of the
basket. You have 19 spokes in the base, so you should now cut 19
pieces of No. 4 or No. 5 reed (whichever is used for your basket).
Cut these pieces 15 inches long. The stakes should be put into water
for a few minutes in order that they may become softened. Now cut
off the end of a spoke in the base and insert a new spoke beside each
spoke in the base of your basket. Cut only every other spoke in the base
until you have slipped in a new stake, as otherwise the weaving will
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.el / '/ (//,/- .:-•,;!:-.---
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INSTOK OF MODEL No. 3. Made by Mir M. L. McIntyre.
MODEL No. 4.
THE BASKET. 93
slip off. After the stakes are inserted for the sides of your basket, bend
the stakes flatwise upwards with a pair of flat pliers. Care should be
taken that the bend comes close to the weaving of the base, otherwise
your basket will not be firm on the base.
Here we would ask you to look at any basket which you may find
handy which is woven of rattan or willow, and if you notice the edge
carefully, you will notice a twist or roll which follows around the entire
basket. This is called the "upset" and is the next stitch to be used on
your basket where the sides are inserted from the base. This particular
stitch is used for strength and finish between the base and the sides of
the basket. To make this stitch, take 2 medium sized weavers, generally
No. 3 and double them, leaving one end of each weaver about i8 or 20
inches longer than the other end; then take any given stake of your
basket and slip the loop of one weaver over this stake and the other
loop of the second weaver around the third stake to the right. Now
take the first weaver to your left, bring it forward to the right over 3
stakes and out behind one stake. Take the second weaver, bring it
forward over 3 stakes and back of one. Continue this process until you
have worked 2 rows of upsetting. Cut off the left hand weaver not
too close and c;atinue with the remaining three weavers over 2 stakes
and back of one for 2 rows, which will complete your upset.
Now take a No. 2 weaver and do single weaving until you have
worked 1% inches, then insert 3 weavers in 3 consecutive places and
work four rows of wale, leaving the finishing ends on the outside of the
basket.
You are now ready for your border. Take any given stake and turn
down one back of one for 3 stakes. Take the left hand stake of the first
stake turned down and bring it forward in front of 2 and back of one
stake, turning down the next standing stake which is left standing to
the left. Care should be taken that the stake turned down should lay
parallel with the stake just brought in front of 2 and back of 1, other-
wise your border will be uneven. When pairs of reeds are reached
always use the right hand reed of the pairs. Repeat this process until
all the stakes have been turned down. Then clip off the ends of the
stakes left on the outside of the basket with a pair of cutting pliers.
MODEL NO. 4.—WORK BASKET.
Material needed-35 feet No. 5 reed, 52 feet No. 3 reed, 5Y2 yards
white rush, 10 feet No. i reed, 3o feet No. 2 reed.
Take 12 stakes 8Y2 feet long No. 5 reed. Pierce the reeds and weave
the base just as is done in the preceding models, weaving 63/4 inches.
Now cut 23 stakes No. 5 reed 13 inches long and insert these stakes as
MODEL No. 5. Made by Miss M. L. Mcfntyre.
MODEL No. 6. Made by Miss M. L. Mantyre.

THE BASKET. 95
before. After the stakes have been soaked in water a few minutes and
bent flatwise upward close to the base, you are then ready for the upset
as mentioned in Model No. 3. After working i row of upsetting by
going in front of three stakes and back of one stake with 4 weavers,
cut of your extreme left hand weaver and work 3 rows of weaving by
going in front of two stakes and back of one stake with your left hand
weaver. In this model we have introduced very fine braided rush
(which is probably "Cat of Nine Tails," commonly called), and you
should work 8 rows of single weaving, taking care that it is pressed
down firmly as you go along. Now insert 3 separate No. 3 weavers in
3 consecutive spaces and work with your left hand weaver in front of
2 stakes and back of one stake until you have been around your basket
with the exception of 2 stakes. We now wish to call your attention to
the reversing point. Notice carefully any straw hat which von may
have and you will see that the finishing side is always one coil wider.
We reverse in the stitch called wale to help overcome this climbing
effect. Now come back to our reversing point. Notice carefully and
you will see that the first stroke in your wale is a long stroke, and you
have now worked within two stakes of this long stroke. Take your
right hand weaver and work in front of two stakes and back of one
stake and you will notice that the weaver comes out in the space beyond
the long stroke. Then take the next right hand weaver and work the
same, then the next weaver. You have now reversed your wale and are
ready to work the second row by beginning with the left hand weaver.
You should work 3 rows of wale, but you must remember to reverse
in each row or every time you go around your basket, leaving your
ends on the inside of the basket.
If you find your basket is not quite even in height, take the awl or
pliers and rap the weaving lightly to make the weaving all of the same
height.
You are then ready for your border. Plunge your basket into water
for a few moments in order that the stakes may be bent more easily,
then bend the stakes flatwise. Turn down 4 consecutive stakes back of
one stake. Take the left hand stake turned down and bring it forward
to the right in front of 3 stakes and back of one stake. Then take No.
2 stake and bring it forward to the right in front of three and back of
one stake. You will notice that after you have brought 4 stakes
forward you have pairs of stakes rather than single ones. Always take
the right hand one of the pairs. Repeat this process until you have
used the entire number of stakes, taking care that your stroke always
keeps the same even direction. Clip the stakes left on the outside of the
basket with a pair of cutting pliers, and your basket is completed.
96 THE BASKET.
MODEL NO. 5.—OVAL BASKET.

Material needed-13 feet No. 5 reed, 16 feet No. I reed, 68 feet No.
2 reed, 53 feet No. 4 reed.
Take 5 stakes 12 inches long No. 5 reed for backbone. Take 12 stakes
7 inches long No. 5 reeds for ribs.
Piece the 12 ribs and push the 5 long reeds for backbone through the
short reeds which become the ribs of the base. Now you are ready for
weaving, after the 6 pairs of ribs have been separated so that the spaces
are equally divided by pushing the ribs along the backbone of the base,
MODEL No. 7. Made by Mr. Hollander.
making the extreme pairs 3Y2 inches from the ends of the backbone
stakes. Now take a No. l weaver and cut it nearly in the middle and
slip the 2 ends through the puncture of the first pair of left hand ribs
at one end of the basket. Then cross the double weaver to the right
obliquely over first pair of ribs and bring across the backbone beneath
to the right of the backbone and bring the pairs of weavers up to the
THE BASKET. 97
right obliquely over the first pair of ribs, crossing the first pair of
oblique weavers at right angles, then beneath the backbone again and
encircle the 5 reeds or backbone 4 times with the double weavers. Slip
two more ribs along and repeat the same process as before, and so on,
until you have used the 6 pairs of ribs, then fasten by slipping end under
other weaving.
Now take a long No. i weaver and double about 5 feet from the end,
this being the short weaver. Place the loop around the backbone on one
side and do paring as in the round base 3 times around the base. The
Mown. No. S. Made by Mr. Hollander.
fourth time separate backbone stakes by twos. The next time separate
backbone stakes individually, including two outside pairs of rib spokes,
which must be separated to form the shoulders.
The 4 pairs of center ribs or spokes are to be worked double all the
way along. This is done for strength. Now pairing continues for 3
or 4 rows or until you reach end of short weaver. Now continue the
work with one single weaver, working over two and under one until
98 THE BASKET.
you have worked 9 inches in length. Care should be taken that the
round comes sharp and only from the shoulder spokes.
Cut 35 stakes No. 4 reed 15 inches long and insert them so they will
be equally divided around the base. Before inserting stakes they should
all be pointed. Now work 4 rows of upset in the usual way with a
No. 3 weaver. Insert a by-stake at the right hand side of each stake.
These need not be more than 3 or 4 inches long. Take two No. 2
weavers and begin what is called "slewing," which is two or more
weavers used as one, thus going over one and under one. Repeat this
work until you have worked 2 inches. Now take 3 weavers No. 3 reed
and work 4 rows of wale over two and under one.
You are now ready for the border, which is a double border. First
immerse your basket in water for a moment, then cut off the right hand
by-stakes to the level of the wale and pinch your stakes sideways with
a pair of flat pliers. Now take any given stake numbering it No. i and
bring down back of No. 2 and 3 stakes, then take No. 2 stake and bring
down back of No. 3 and 4 stake, then No. 3, and bring down back of No.
4 and 5 stake, then No. 4 down back of No. 5 and 6 stake. You have
now 4 stakes down in succession which will form the 4 active parts
with which you are to border. For the second stroke go back to No.
i stake, which is down, and bring it in front of 3 stakes and back of one
stake and bring down No. 5 stake, which is standing, so that it will lay
parallel with No. I in the same space. Now take No. 2 stake and repeat
the same process, and so on until you have finished your border. When
you have reached pairs always use the right hand stake of the pairs.
Now clip the ends of the stakes left on the outside of the basket and
shape with your hands slightly, and your basket is complete.
THE BASKET
Owing to the pressure of many duties, the Frater Primus has been
unable to decide the basket weaving contest. We have decided to give
cuts and descriptions of the best of the competing baskets in the next
issue of THE BASKET and leave the final award to the vote of our
fraters. This will give an opportunity for an expression of opinion
from all of our members.
All the cuts of the Model Indian Basket Designs are now made and
will be sent by mail to those who have ordered them. We shall be glad
to send a set on approval to any of our fraters, who can then keep or
return them at their pleasure.
*
"If each would round his own door sweep,

The city would be clean."
100 THE BASKET.
Physical labor is man's greatest healer.

You learn to do things by doing them.
The man that never fails has never tried.
Courage increases as you accomplish something.
Do not be afraid to let people know you want to be better than you
are.
He who lives simply lives happily.
The gossip is a murderer without a murderer's courage.
There is nothing that we do that is small.
In every act of everyday life you are forming your life habits.
Never begin what you are not prepared to continue.
Every time you first do a thing you form an epoch in your life.
Real joy comes only to the one whose body, mind, and soul are in
health and harmony.
It is not so important : What you are, as : What are you trying to be ?
Value everything that compels you to work.
1VIATHIAS HOLLANDER,
MAKES A SPECIALTY OF TEACHING
ALL KINDS OF REED AND WILLOW WORK

Including Basketry Furniture and Rush Seating.
CORRESPONDENCE SOLICITED.
A FEW SPECIMEN DESIGNS FROM

GEORGE WHARTON JAMES'S BEADWORK BOOK.
Fig. 31. ChineFe Garden House with Swastika.

THE BASKET
4' THE ORGAN OF THE BASKET FRATERNITY 4-
Vol 2. JULY, 1904. No. 3.
THE SWASTIKA,
THE EA LIEST KNOWN SYMBOL, AND ITS MIGRATIONS.
By THOMAS WILSON,
Curator, Department of Prehistoric Anthropology, U. S. National Museum.
This is practically a large portion of Dr. Wilson's exhaustive monograph. The

complete paper occupies 248 pages equal in size to The Basket, hence it would be
impossible to give it in its entirety. The cuts are all from Dr. Wilson's paper and
are reproduced by the courtesy of the 1. S. National Museum.
I reprint these pages and illustrations in order to give to my readers the
opportunity of seeing what an endless field for research the subject of design is.
Here is one design alone, the Swastika, upon which this wonderful paper has
been written. What must the whole subject reveal if one had time to study it
thoroughly? With the assurance that the readers of The Basket will find much
of interest in this monograph I have ventured to give so much of it as will here
be found.—Editor Basket.
In his Preface Dr. Wilson shows that up to 1894 there was practically
nothing written upon the Swastika in English. He therefore decided
to gather together everything be could find on the subject and give it
for others to study. He says :
PREFACE.
An English gentleman, versed in prehistoric archeology, visited me
in the summer of 1894, and during our conversation asked if we had
the Swastika in America. I answered, "Yes," and showed him two
or three specimens of it. He demanded if we had any literature on the
subject. I cited him De Mortillet, De Morgan, and Zmigrodzki, and
he said, "No, I mean English or American." I began a search which
102 THE BASKET.
proved almost futile, as even the word Swastika did not appear in such
works as Worcester's or Webster's dictionaries, the Encyclopaedia Dic-
tionary, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Johnson's Universal Cyclopxdia,
the People's Cyclopmdia, nor Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Antiquities, his Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology,
or his Classical Dictionary. I also searched, with the same results,
Mollett's Dictionary of Art and Archaeology, Fairholt's Dictionary of
Terms in Art, "L'Art Gothique" by Gonza, Perrot and Chipiez's exten-
sive histories of Art in Egypt, in Chaldea and Assyria, and in Phe-
nicia ; also "The Cross, Ancient and Modern," by W. W. Blake, "The
History of the Cross," by John Ashton ; and a reprint of a Dutch work
by Wildener. In the American Encyclopaedia the description is errone-
ous, while all the Century Dictionary says is, "Same as fylfot," and
"Compare Crux Ansata and Gammadion." I thereupon concluded that
this would be a good subject for presentation to the Smithsonian Insti-
tution for "diffusion of knowledge among men."
The principal object of this paper has been to gather and put in a
compact form such information as is obtainable concerning the Swas-
tika, leaving to others the task of adjustment of these facts and their
arrangement into an harmonious theory. The only conclusion sought
to be deducted from the facts stated is as to the possible migration in
prehistoric times of the Swastika and similar objects.
No conclusion is attempted as to the time or place of origin, or the
primitive meaning of the Swastika, because these are considered to be
lost in antiquity. The straight line, the circle, the cross, the triangle,
are simple forms, easily made, and might have been invented and
re-invented in every age of primitive man and in every quarter of the
globe, each time being an independent invention, meaning much or
little, meaning different things among different people or at different
times among the same people ; or they may have had no settled or
definite meaning. But the Swastika was probably the first to be made
with a definite intention and a continuous or consecutive meaning, the
knowledge of which passed from person to person, from tribe to tribe,
from people to people, and from nation to nation, until, with possibly
changed meanings, it has finally circled the globe.
There are many disputable question broached in this paper. The
author is aware of the differences of opinion thereon among learned
men, and he has not attempted to dispose of these questions in the
few sentences employed in their announcement. He has been con-
servative and has sought to avoid dogmatic decisions of controverted
questions. The antiquity of man, the locality of his origin, the time
of his dispersion and the course of his migration, the origin of bronze
and the course of its migration, all of which may be more or less
involved in a discussion of the Swastika, are questions not to be
settled by the dogmatic assertions of any individual.
Much of the information in this paper is original, and relates to pre-
historic more than to modern times, and extends to nearly all the coun-
tries of the globe. It is evident that the author must depend on other
discoverers ; therefore, all books, travels, writers, and students have
been laid under contribution without scruple. Due acknowledgment
is hereby made for all quotations of text or figures wherever they occur.
THE BASKET. 103
Quotations have been freely made, instead of sifting the evidence and
giving the substance. The justification is that there has never been
any sufficient marshaling of the evidence on the subject, and that the
former deductions have been inconclusive ; therefore, quotations of
authors are given in their own words, to the end that the philosophers
who propose to deal with the origin, meaning, and cause of migration of
the Swastika will have all the evidence before them.
Assumptions may appear as to antiquity, origin, and migration of
the Swastika, but it is explained that many times these only reflect
the opinion of the writers who are quoted, or are put forth as working
hypotheses.
The indulgence of the reader is asked, and it is hoped that he will
endeavor to harmonize conflicting statements upon these disputed
questions rather than antagonize them.
I.—DEFINITIONS, DESCRIPTION, AND ORIGIN.
DIFFERENT FORMS OF THE CROSS.

The simple cross made with two sticks or marks belongs to prehistoric
times. Its first appearance among men is lost in antiquity. One may
theorize as to its origin, but there is no historical identification of it
either in speech or by country or people. The sign is itself so simple
that it might have originated among any people, however primitive, and
in any age, however remote. The meaning given to the earliest cross is
equally unknown. Everything concerning its beginning is in the realm
of speculation. But a differentiation grew up in early times among
nations by which certain forms of the cross have been known under cer-
tain names and with specific significations. Some of these, such as the
Maltese cross, are historic and can be well identified.
The principal forms of the cross, known as symbols or ornaments, can
be reduced to a few classes, though when combined with heraldry its use
extends to 385 varieties.'
It is not the purpose of this paper to give a history of the cross, but
Figs. I, 2, 3. Latin Cross (Crux immissa), Greek Cross, St. Andrew's Cross
(Crux decussata).
the principal forms are shown by way of introduction to a study of

the Swastika.
The Latin cross, Crux immissa, (fig. ) is found on coins, medals, and
ornaments anterior to the Christian era. It was on this cross that
'William Berry, Encyclopwdia Heraldica, 1828-1840.

All the cuts of this page are reprinted from the report of the U. S. National Museum,
by courtesy of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute.
104 THE BASKET.
Christ is said to have been crucified, and thus it became accepted as

the Christian cross.
The Greek cross (fig. 2) with arms of equal length crossing at right
angles, is found on Assyrian and Persian monuments and tablets,
Greek coins and statues.
The St. Andrew's cross, Crux decussata, (fig. 3) is the same as the
Greek cross, but turned to stand on two legs.
The Crux ansata (fig. 4) according to Egyptian mythology, was
Ankh, the emblem of Ka, the spiritual double of man. It was also said
Fig. 4. Egyptian Cross (Crux ansata). The Key of Life.

Fig. 8. Celtic Crosses.
to indicate a union of Osirir and Isis, and was regarded as a symbol of

the generative principle of nature.
The Tau cross (fig.5), so called from its resemblance to the Greek
letter of that name, is of uncertain, though ancient, origin. In Scandi-
navian mythology it passed under the name of "Thor's hammer," being
therein confounded with the Swastika. It was also called St. Anthony's
cross for the Egyptian hermit of that time, and was always colored
blue. Clarkson says this remark was received by the Mithracists on
their foreheads at the time of their initiation. C. W. King, in his work
entitled "Early Christian Numismatics,' (p. 214), expresses the opinion
Fig. 5. Tau Cross, Thor's Hammer, or St. Anthony's Cross.

Fig. 6. Monogram of Christ. Labarum of Constantine.
Fig. 7. Maltese Cross.
that the Tau cross was placed on the foreheads of men who cry after
abominations. (Ezekiel ix, 4.) It is spoken of as a phallic emblem.
Another variety of the cross appeared about the second century,
composed of a union of the St. Andrew's cross and the letter P (fig. 6),
THE BASKET. 105
being the first two letters of the Greek word for Christps. This,
with another variety containing all the foregoing letters, passed as the
Monogram of Christ (fig. 6).
As an instrument of execution, the cross, besides being the inter-
section of two beams with four projecting arms, was frequently of
compound forms as Y on which the convicted person was fastened by
the feet and hung head downward. Another form , whereon he was
fastened by one foot and one hand at each upper corner ; still another
form , whereon his body was suspended on the central upright with
his arms outstretched upon the cross beams.
Fig. 7 represents the sign of the military order of the Knights of
Malta. It is of medieval origin.
Fig. 8 (a and b) represents two styles of Celtic crosses. These belong
chiefly to Ireland and Scotland, are usually of stone, and frequently
set up at marked places on the road side.
Higgins, in his "Anacalypsis," a rare and costly work, almost an
encyclopedia of knowledge,* says, concerning the origin of the cross,
that the official name of the governor of Tibet, Lama, comes from the
ancient Tibetan word for the cross. The original spelling was L-a-m-h.
This is cited with approval in Davenport's "Aphrodisiacs" (p. 13).
Of the many forms of the cross, the Swastika is the most ancient.
Despite the theories and speculations of students, its origin is unknown.
It began before history, and is properly classed as prehistoric. Its de-
scription is as follows : The bars of the normal Swastika (frontispiece
and fig. 9) are straight, of equal thickness throughout, and cross each
Fig. 9. Normal Swastika.

Fig. to. Suavastika.
Fig. Ii. Swastika. Meander.
other at right angles, making four arms of equal size, length, and style.
Their peculiarity is that all the ends are bent at right angles and in the
same direction, right or left. Prof. Max Muller makes the symbol dif-
ferent according as the arms are bent to the right or to the left. That
bent to the right denominates the true Swastika, that bent to the left
he calls Suavastika (fig. 10), but he gives no authority for the state-
ment, and the author has been unable to find, except in Burnouf, any
justification for a difference of names. Prof. Goodyear gives the title
of "Meander," to that form of Swastika which bends two or more
times (fig. I I).
The Swastika is sometimes represented with dots or points in the
*Higgins, "Anacalypsis," London, 1836, I, p. 230.

AU the cuts of this page are reprinted from the report of the U. S National Museum,
Io6 THE BASKET.
corners of the intersections (fig. I2a), and occasionally the same

when without bent ends (fig. 1210, to which Zmigrodzki gives the name
• •.
•
±
Fig. 12. Croix Swasticale (Zmigrodski).
of Croix Swasticale. Some Swastikas have three dots placed equidistant

around each of the four ends (fig. 12c).
There are several varieties possibly related to the Swastika which
have been found in almost every part of the globe, and though the rela-
tion may appear slight, and at first sight difficult to trace, yet it will
appear more or less intimate as the examination is pursued through
its ramifications. As this paper is an investigation into and report
upon facts rather than conclusions to be drawn from them, it is deemed
wise to give those forms bearing even possible relations to the Swas-
tika. Certain of them have been accepted by the author as related
to the Swastika, while others have been rejected ; but this rejection
e7a
Fig. 130. Ogee and Spiral Swastikas. Tetraskelion (four-armed).
Fig. 13b. Spiral and Volute. Triskellion (three-armed).
Fig. 13c. Spiral and Volute. (Five or many armed).

Fig. 13d. Ogee Swastika, with Circle.
has been confined to cases where the known facts seemed to justify
another origin for the symbol. Speculation has been avoided.
NAMES AND DEFINITIONS OF THE SWASTIKA.

The Swastika has been called by different names in different coun-
tries, though nearly all countries have in later years accepted the ancient
Sanskrit name of Swastika ; and this name is recommended as the most
Idefinite and certain, being now the most general and, indeed, almost
universal. It was formerly spelled s-v-a-s-t-i-c-a and s-u-a-s-t-i-k-a, but
:the later spelling, both English and French, is s-w-a-s-t-i-k-a. The
definition and etymology of the word is thus given in Littre's French
.Dictionary :
All the cuts of this page are reprinted from the report of the I:. S National Museum,
by courtesy of the Secretary of the Smithsonion Institute.
THE BASKET. 107
Svastika, or Swastika, a mystic figure used by several East Indian

sects. It was equally well known to the Brahmins as to the Buddhists.
Most of the rock inscriptions in the Buddhist caverns in the west of
India are preceded or followed by the holy (sacramentelle) sign of
the Swastika. (Eug. Burnouf, "Le Lotus de la bonne loi." Paris,
1852, p. 625.) It was seen on the vases and pottery of Rhodes (Cyprus)
and Etruria. (F. Delauney, Jcar. Off., Nov. 18, 1873, p. 7024, 3d Col.)
Etymology : A Sanskrit word signifying happiness, pleasure, good
luck. It is composed of Su (equivalent of Greek ev), "good," and
asti, "being," "good being," with the suffix ka (Greek , Latin co).
In the "Revue d'Ethnographie" 1885, P. 329), Mr. Dumoutier
gives the following analysis of the Sanskrit swastika:
Su, radical, signifying good, well, excellent, prosperity.
Asti, third person, singular, indicative, present of the verb as, to be,
which is sum in Latin.
Ka, suffix forming the substantive.
Professor Whitney in the Century Dictionary says, Swastika—[ San-
skrit, lit., "of good fortune." Svasti (Su, well, asti, being), welfare.]
Same as fylfot. Compare Crux ansata and gammadion.
In "Ilios" (p. 347), Max Muller says :
Ethnologically, swastika is derived from svasti, and svasti from su,
"well," and as, "to be." Svasti occurs frequently in the Veda, both as
a noun in a sense of happiness, and as an adverb in the sense of "well"
or "hail !" It corresponds to the Greek . The derivation
Svasti-ka is of later date, and it always means an auspicious sign, such
as are found most frequently among Buddhists and Jainas.
M. Eugene Burnouf* defines the mark Swastika as follows :
A monogrammatic sign of four branches, of which the ,ends are
curved at right angles, the name signifying, literally, the sign of bene-
diction or good augury.
The foregoing explanations relate only to the present accepted name
"Swastika." The sign Swastika must have existed long before the
name was given to it. It must have been in existence long before the
Buddhist religion or the Sanskrit language.
In Great Britain the common name given to the Swastika from An-
glo-Saxon times by those who apparently had no knowledge whence it
came, or that it came from any other than their own country, was
Fylfot, said to have been derived from the Anglo-Saxon fower fot,
meaning four-footed, or many-footed.t
George Waring, in his work entitled "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages"
(p. 10), says :
The word (Fylfot) is Scandinavian and is compounded of Old Norse
feel, equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon fela, German veil, many, and fotr,
*"Des Sciences et Religion," p. 256.

tR. P. Greg, "The Fylfot and Swastika," Archologia, XLVIII., part 2, 1885.
p. 298; Goblet d'Alviella, "Migration des Symboles," p. 50.
o8 THE BASKET.
foot, the many-footed figure. * * * It is desirable to have some settled

name by which to describe it ; we will take the simplest and most
descriptive, the "Fylfot."
He thus transgresses one of the oldest and soundest rules of scien-
tific nomenclature, and ignores the fact that the name Swastika has been
employed for this sign in the Sanskrit language (the etymology of the
word naturally gave it the name Svastika, sv—good or well, anti—to
be or being, or it is) and that two thousand and more years of use in
Asia and Europe had sanctioned and sanctified that as its name. The
use of Fylfot is confined to comparatively few persons in Great Britain
and, possibly, Scandinavia. Outside of these countries it is scarcely
known, used, or understood.
SYMBOLISM AND INTERPRETATION.
Many theories have been presented concerning the symbolism of the

Swastika, its relation to ancient deities and its representation of certain
qualities. In the estimation of certain writers it has been respectively
the emblem of Zeus, of Baal, of the sun, of the sun-god, of the sun-
chariot of Agni the fire-god, of Indra the rain-god, of the sky, the sky-
god, and finally the deity of all deities, the great God, the Maker and
Ruler of the Universe. It has also been held to symbolize light or the
god of light, of the forked lightning, and of water. It is believed by
some to have been the oldest Aryan symbol. In the estimation of
others it represents Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, Creator, Preserver,
Destroyer. It appears in the footprints of Buddha, engraved upon the
solid rock on the mountains of India (fig. 32). It stood for the Jupiter
Tonans and Pluvius of the Latins, and the Thor of the Scandinavians.
In the latter case it has been considered—erroneously, however—a vari-
ety of the Thor hammer. In the opinion of at least one author it had
an intimate relation to the Lotus sign of Egypt and Persia. Some
authors have attributed a phallic meaning to it. Others have recog-
nized it as representing the generative principle of mankind, making
it the symbol of the female. Its appearance on the person of certain
goddesses, Artemis, Hera, Demeter, Astarte, and the Chaldean Nana,
the leaden goddess from Hissarlik (fig. 125), has caused it to be claimed
as a sign of fecundity.
In forming the foregoing theories their authors have been largely
controlled by the alleged fact of the substitution and permutation of
the Swastika sign on various objects with recognized symbols of
these different dieties. The claims of these theorists are somewhat
clouded in obscurity and lost in the antiquity of the subject. What
seems to have been at all times an attribute of the Swastika is its
character as a charm or amulet, as a sign of benediction, blessing, long
life, good fortune, good luck. This character has continued into mod-
ern times, and while the Swastika is recognized as a holy and sacred
symbol by at least one Buddhistic religious sect, it is still used by the
common people of India, China, and Japan as a sign of long life, good
wishes, and good fortune.
THE BASKET. 109
Whatever else the sign Swastika may have stood for, and however
many meanings it may have had, it was always ornamental. It may
have been used with any or all the above significations, but it was
always ornamental as well.
The Swastika sign had great extension and spread itself practically
over the world, largely, if not entirely, in prehistoric times, though its
use in some countries has continued into modern times.
The elaboration of the meanings of the Swastika indicated above
and its dispersion or migrations form the subject of this paper.
Dr. Schliemann found many specimens of Swastika in his excava-
tions at the site of ancient Troy on the hill of Hissarlik. They were
mostly on spindle whorls, and will be described in due course. He
appealed to Prof. Max Muller for an explanation, who, in reply, wrote
an elaborate description, which Dr. Schliemann published in "Ilios."*
He commences with a protest against the word Swastika being
applied generally to the sign Swastika, because it may prejudice the
reader or the public in favor of its Indian origin. He says :
"I do not like the use of the word svastika outside of India. It is a
word of Indian origin and has its history and definite meaning in India.
* * * The occurrence of such crosses in different parts of the world
may or may not point to a common origin, but if they are once called
Svastika the vulgus profanuni will at once jump to the conclusion
that they all came from India, and it will take some time to weed
out such prejudice.
Very little is known of Indian art before the third century B. C., the
period when the Buddhist sovereigns began their public buildings.
The name Svastika, however, can be traced (in India) a little farther
back. It occurs as the name of a particular sign in the old grammar
of Panani, about a century earlier. Certain compounds are mentioned
there in which the last word is karna, "ear." * * * One of the signs
for marking cattle was the Svastika (fig. 41), and what Panani teaches
in his grammar is that when the compound is formed, svastika-karna,
i. e., "having the ear marked with the sign of a Svastika," the final
a of Svastika is not to be lengthened, while it is lengthened in other
Fig. 14. Nandavartaya, a Third Sign of the Footprint of Buddha. Burnouf,

"Lotus de la Bonne Loi," Paris, 1852, p. 626.
compounds, such as datra-karna, i. e., "having the ear marked with the
sign of a sickle."
Mr. Eugene Burnouf speaks of a third sign of the footprint of Cakya,
called Nandavartaya, a good augury, the meaning being the "circle of
*Page 346, et seq.
110 THE BASKET.
fortune," which is the Swastika inclosed within a square with avenues

radiating from the corners (fig. 14). Burnouf says the above sign has
many significations. It is a sacred temple or edifice, a species of laby-
rinth, a garden of diamonds, a chain, a golden waist or shoulder belt,
and a conique with spires turning to the right.
Prof. W. H. Goodyear, of New York, has lately (1891) published an
elaborate quarto work entitled "The Grammar of the Lotus : A New
History of Classic Ornament as a Development of Sun Worship." It
comprises 408 pages, with 76 plates, and nearly a thousand figures. His
theory develops the sun symbol from the lotus by a series of ingenious
and complicated evolutions passing through the Ionic style of archi-
tecture, the volutes and spirals forming meanders or Greek frets, and
from this to the Swastika. The result is attained by the following line
of argument and illustrations :
The lotus was a "fetish of immemorial antiquity and has been wor-
shiped in many countries from Japan to the Straits of Gibraltar ;" it
was a symbol of "fecundity," "life," "immortality," and of "resurrec-
tion," and has a mortuary significance and use. But its elementary
and most important signification was as a solar symbol.*
He describes the Egyptian lotus and traces it through an innumer-
able number of specimens and with great variety of form. He men-
tions many of the sacred animals of Egypt and seeks to maintain their
relationship by or through the lotus, not only with each other but with
solar circles and the sun worship.t Direct association of the solar disk
and lotus are, according to him, common on the monuments and on
Phenician and Assyrian seals ; while the lotus and the sacred animals,
as in cases cited of the goose representing Seb (solar god, and father
of Osiris), also Osiris himself and Horus, the hawk and lotus, bull and
lotus, the asp and lotus, the lion and lotus, the sphinx and lotus, the
gryphon and lotus, the serpent and lotus, the ram and lotus—all of
which animals, and with them the lotus, have, in his opinion, some
related signification to the sun or some of his deities.' He is of the
opinion that the lotus motif was the foundation of the Egyptian style
of architecture, and that it appeared at an early date, say, the four-
teenth century B. C. By intercommunication with the Greeks it formed
the foundation of the Greek Ionic capital, which, he says, 2 "offers no
dated example of the earlier time than the sixth century B. C." He
supports this contention by authority, argument, and illustration.
He shows3 the transfer of the lotus motif to Greece, and its use as
an ornament on the painted vases and on those from Cyprus, Rhodes,
and Melos.
That the lotus had a foundation deep and wide in Egyptian myth-
ology is not to be denied ; that it was allied to and associated on the
*Goodyear, "The Grammar of the Lotus," pp. 4, 5.

fIbid, p. 6.
'Goodyear, "The Grammar of the Lotus," pp. 7, 8.
2 lbid., p. 71.
8 lbid., pp. 74, 77.

THE BASKET. 1I1
monuments and other objects with many sacred and mythologic char-
acters in Egypt and afterwards in Greece is accepted. How far it ex-
tends in the direction contended for by Professor Goodyear, is no part
of this investigation. It appears well established that in both countries
it became highly conventionalized, and it is quite sufficient for the
purpose of this argument that it became thus associated with the
Swastika. Figs. 18 and 19 represent details of Cyprian vases and
Fig. 19. Detail of Cyprian Amphora in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
City. Lotus with curling sepals and different Swastika. Goodyear,
"Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 47, figs. 2, 3.
amphora belonging to the Cesnola collection in the New York Metro-

politan Museum of Arts, showing the lotus with curling sepals among
which are interspersed Swastikas of different forms.
Professor Goodyear then goes on to show how the "bent sepals of
the lotus were exaggerated and finally became spirals, which, being
projected at a tangent, made volutes, and, continuing one after another,
formed bands of ornament."
Other paths of the evolution of the lotus formed concentric rings, the
Greek fret and the Swastika, as shown in figs. 25 and 26.
Professor Goodyear devotes an entire chapter to the Swastika. He
Fig. 25. Special Egyptian Meander. An illustration of the theory of derivation

from the spiral. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. to, fig. 9.
Fig. 28. Greek Geometric Vase. Swastika with solar geese. Goodyear, "Gram-
mar of the Lotus," p. 353, fig. 172.
says : There is no proposition in archaeology which can be so easily

demonstrated as the assertion that the Swastika was originally a
All the cuts of this page are reprinted from the report of the U S. National Museum,
112 THE BASKET.
fragment of the Egyptian meander, provided Greek geometric vases are

called in evidence. The connection between the meander and the Swas-
tika has been long since suggested by Prof. A. S. Murray.* Hindu
specialists have suggested that the Swastika produced the meander.
Birdwoodt says : "I believe the Swastika to be the origin of the key
pattern ornament of Greek and Chinese decorative art." Zmigrodzki,
in a recent publication,t has not only reproposed this derivation of the
meander, but has even connected the Mycenx spirals with this supposed
development, and has proposed to change the name of the spiral orna-
ment accordingly. ' * * The equivalence of the Swastika with the
meander pattern is suggested, in the first instance, by its appearance in
the shape of the meander on certain . Rhodian, Melian, archwic Greek,
and Greek geometric vases. The appearance in shape of the meander
may be verified in the British Museum on one geometric vase of the
oldest type, and it also occurs in the Louvre.
On page 354, Goodyear says :
The solar significance of the Swastika is proven by the Hindu coins
of the Jains. Its generative significance is proven by a leaden statuette
from Troy. It is an equivalent of the lotus, of the solar diagram, of
the rosette, of concentric rings, of the spiral scroll, of the geometric
boss, of the triangle, and of the anthemion. It appears with the solar
deer, with the solar antelope, with the symbol fish, with the ibex, with
the solar sphinx, with the solar lion, the solar ram, and the solar horse.
Its most emphatic and constant association is with the solar bird.
Count Goblet d'Alviella, following Ludwig Muller, Percy Gardner, S.
Beal, Edward Thomas, Max Muller, H. Gaidoz, and other authors,
Fig. 26. Detail of Greek Vase. Meander and Swastika. Goodyear, "Grammar
of the Lotus," fig. 174.
Fig. 27. Detail of Greek Geometric Vase in the British Museum. Swastika,
right, with solar geese. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," p. 353, fig. 173.
accept this thtory that the Swastika was a symbolic representation of

the sun or of a sun god, and argues it fully. He starts with the propo-
sition that most of the nations of the earth have represented the sun by
a circle, although some of them, notably the Assyrians, Hindus, Greeks,
*Cesnola, "Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs and, Temples," p. 410.

t"Industrial Arts of India," p. 107.
t"Zur Geschichte der Swastika."
rLa Migration des Symboles," chap. 2, pt. 3, p. 66.
THE BASKET. 113
and Celts, have represented it by signs more or less cruciform. Ex-

amining his fig. 2, wherein signs of the various people are set forth,
it is to be remarked that there is no similarity or apparent relationship
between the six symbols given, either with themselves or with the sun.
Only one of them, that of Assyria, pretends to be a circle ; and it may
or may not stand for the sun. It has no exterior rays. All the rest are
crosses of different kinds. Each of the six symbols is represented as
being from a single nation of people. They are prehistoric or of high
antiquity, and most of them appear to have no other evidence of their
representation of the still than is contained in the sign itself, so that the
first objection is to the premises, to wit, that while his symbols may have
sometimes represented the sun, it is far from certain that they are used
constantly or steadily as such. An objection is made to the theory or
hypothesis presented by Count d'Alviella that it is not the
cross part of the Swastika which represents the sun, but its bent
arms, which show the revolving motion, by which he says is evolved
the tetraskelion or what in this paper is named the "Ogee Swastika."
The author is more in accord with Dr. Brinton and others that the
Swastika is derived from the cross and not from the wheel, that the bent
arms do not represent rotary or gyratory motion, and that it had no
association with, or relation to, the circle. This, if true, relieves the
Swastika from all relation with the circle as a symbol of the sun.
Besides, it is not believed that the symbol of the sun is one which
required rotary or gyratory motion or was represented by it, but, as
will be explained, in speaking of the Assyrian sun-god Shamash
(p. 789), it is rather by a circle with pointed rays extending outward.
ORIGIN AND HABITAT.
Prehistoric archaeologists have found in Europe many specimens of

ornamental sculpture and engraving belonging to the Paleolithic age,
but the cross is not known in any form, Swastika or other. In the Neo-
lithic age, which spread itself over nearly the entire world, with many
geometric forms of decoration, no form of the cross appears in times
of high antiquity as a symbol or as indicating any other than an orna-
mental purpose. In the age of bronze, however, the Swastika appears,
intentionally used, as a symbol as well as an ornament. Whether its
first appearance was in the Orient, and its 'spread thence throughout
prehistoric Europe, or whether the reverse was true, may not now be
determined with certainty. It is believed by some to be involved in
that other warmly disputed and much-discussed question as to the local-
ity of origin and the mode and routes of dispersion of Aryan peoples.
There is evidence to show that it belongs to an earlier epoch than this,
and relates to the similar problem concerning the locality of origin and
the mode and routes of the dispersion of bronze. Was bronze discov-
ered in eastern Asia and was its migration westward through Europe,
or was it discovered on the Mediterranean, and it spread thence ? The
Swastika spread through the same countries as did the bronze, and
*La Migration des Symboles, p. 67.

11 4 THE BASKET.
there is every reason to believe them to have proceeded contempora-

neously—whether at their beginning or not, is undeterminable.
The first appearance of the Swastika was apparently in the Orient,
precisely in what country it is impossible to say, but probably in central
and southeastern Asia among the forerunners or predecessors of the
Bramins and Buddhists. At all events, a religious and symbolic sig-
nification was attributed to it by the earliest known peoples of these
localities.
Professor Sayce, in his preface to "Troja," says :*
The same symbol [the Swastika], as is well known, occurs on the
Archaic pottery of Cyprus * * * as well as upon the prehistoric antiqui-
ties of Athens and My-kenx [same, "Ilios," p. 353], but it was entirely
unknown to Babylonia, to Assyria, to Phoenicia, and to Egypt. It must
therefore either have originated in Europe and spread eastward through
Asia Minor or have been disseminated westward from the primitive
home of the Hittites. The latter alternative is the more probable; but
whether it is so or not, the presence of the symbol in the land of the
Aegean indicates a particular epoch and the influence of a pre-Phce-
nician culture.
Dr. Schliemannt reports that "Rev. W. Brown Keer observed the
Swastika innumerable times in the most ancient Hindu temples, espe-
cially those of the Jainas."
Max Muller cites the following paragraph by Professor Sayce :1--
It is evident to me that the sign found at Hissarlik is identical with
that found at Mycenx and Athens, as well as on the prehistoric pottery
of Cyprus (Di Cesnola, Cyprus, pls. 44 and 47), since the general
artistic character of the objects with which this sign is associated in
Cyprus and Greece agrees with that of the objects discovered in Troy.
The Cyprian vase [fig. 156, this paper] figured in Di Cesnola's
"Cyprus," pl. 45, which associates the Swastika with the figure of an
animal, is a striking analogue of the Trojan whorls, on which it is
associated with the figure of the stags. The fact that it is drawn within
the vulva of the leaden image on the Asiatic goddess shown in fig. 226
("Ilios," fig. 125, this paper) seems to show that it was a symbol of
generation.
Count Goblet d'Alviella, citing Albert DumontIr and Parrot and
Chipiez,11 says:
The Swastika appears in Greece, as well as in Cyprus and Rhodes,
first on the pottery, with geometric decorations, which form the second
period in Greek ceramics. From that it passes to a later period, where
the decoration is more artistic and the appearance of which coincides
*"Ilios.," p. XXI.
p. 352.
tIbid, p. 353.
§"La Migration des Symboles," p. 43.
¶"Peintures ceramiques de la Grece propre," 1, pl. XV., fig. 17.
II"Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquite," III, figs. 513, 515, 518.
THE BASKET. 115
with the development of the Phoenician influences on the coasts of

Greece.
Dr. Ohnefalsch-Richter, in a paper devoted to the consideration of
the Swastika in Cyprus,* expresses the opinion that the emigrant or
commercial Phenicians traveling in far eastern countries brought the
Swastika by the sea route of the Persian Gulf to Asia Minor and
Cyprus while, possibly, other people brought it by the overland route
from central Asia, Asia Minor, and Hissarlik, and afterwards by migra-
tion to Cyprus, Carthage, and the north of Africa.
Professor Goodyear says
"The true home of the Swastika is the Greek geometric style, as will
be immediately obvious to every expert who examines the question
through the study of that style. In seeking the home of a symbol, we
should consider where it appears in the largest dimension and where it
appears in the most formal and prominent way. The Greek geometric
vases are the only monuments on which the Swastika systematically
appears in panels exclusively assigned to it (pl. 6o, fig. 13 ; and pl. 56,
fig. 4). There are no other monuments on which the Swastika can
be found in a dimension taking up one-half the height of the entire
object (pl. 56, fig. 4). The ordinary size of the Swastika, in req
primitive times, is under a third of an inch in diameter. They are found
in Greek geometric pottery 2 or 3 inches in diameter, but they also
appear in the informal scattering way (pl. 61, fig. 4) which charac-
terizes the Swastika in other styles.
*
"The Swastika dates from the earliest diffusion of the Egyptian mean-
der in the basin of the Mediterranean, and it is a profound remark of
De Morgan (Mission Scientifique au Caucase) that the area of the
Swastika appears to be coextensive with the area of bronze. In
northern prehistoric Europe, where the Swastika has attracted con-
siderable attention, it is distinctly connected with the bronze culture
derived from the south. When found on prehistoric pottery of the
north, the southern home of its beginnings is equally clear.
"In seeking the home of a symbol, we should consider not only the
nature of its appearance, but also where it is found in the largest
amount, for this shows the center of vogue and power—that is to say,
the center of diffusion. The vogue of the Swastika at Troy is not as
great as its vogue in Cyprian Greek pottery (pl. 6o, fig. 15) and Rhodian
pottery (p1. 6o, fig. 2). * * * It is well known to 1\Ielian vases (pl. 6o,
fig. 8) and to archaic Greek vases (pl. 61, fig. 12), but its greatest
prominence is on the pottery of the Greek geometric style (pl. 6a, fig. 13;
pl. 56, fig. 4 ; pl. 61, figs. i and 4 ; and figs. 173 and 174). * * *
"Aside from the Greek geometric style, our earliest reference for the
Swastika, and very possibly an earlier reference than the first, is its
appearance on the 'hut urns' of Italy. On such it appears rather as a
fragment of the more complicated meander patterns, from which it is
*Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop., Paris, December 6, 1888, pp. 669, 679, 680.
t"Grammar of the Lotus," p. 348 et seq.
I16 THE BASKET.
derived. My precise view is that the earliest and, consequently, im-

perfect, forms of the Swastika are on the but urns of Italy, but that, as
an independent and definitely shaped pattern, it first belongs to the
Greek geometric style. I do not assert that the Swastika is very
common on but urns, which are often undecorated. * * * Our present
intermediate link with India for the Swastika lies in the Caucasus and
in the adjacent territory of Koban. This last ancient center of the
arts in metal has lately attracted attention through the publication of
Virchow (Das Graberfeld von Koban). In the original Coban bronzes
of the Prehistoric Museum of St. Germain there is abundant matter for
study (p. 531)."
Mr. R. P. Greg, in "Fret or Key Ornamentation in Mexico and
Peru,"* says :
Both the Greek fret and the fylfot appear to have been unknown to
the Semitic nations as an ornament or as a symbol.
In Egypt the fylfot does not occur. It is, I believe, generally admit-
ted or supposed that the fylfot is of early Aryan origin. Eastward to-
ward India, Tibet, and China it was adopted, in all probability, as a
sacred symbol of Buddha ; westward it may have spread in one form
or another to Greece, Asia Minor, and even to North Germany.
Dr. Brinton,t describing the normal Swastika, "with four arms of
equal length, the hook usually pointing from left to right," says : "In
this form it occurs in India and on very early (Neolithic) Grecian,
Italic, and Iberian remains." Dr. Brinton is the only author who,
writing at length or in a critical manner, attributes the Swastika to the
Neolithic period in Europe, and in this, more than likely, he is correct.
Professor Virchow's opinion as to the antiquity of the hill of Hissarlik,
wherein Dr. Schliemann found so many Swastikas, should be con-
sidered in this connection. Of course, its appearance among the
aborigines of America, we can imagine, must have been within the
Neolithic period.
II. DISPERSION OF THE SWASTIKA.
EXTREME ORIENT.
JAPAN.
The Swastika was in use in Japan in ancient as well as modern
times. Fig. 29 represents a bronze statue of Buddha, one-fifteenth
natural size, from Japan, in the collection of M. Cernuschi, Paris. It
has eight Swastikas on the pedestal, the ends all turned at right angles
to the right. This specimen is shown by De Mortillett because it re-
lates to prehistoric man. The image or statue holds a cane in the form
of a "tintinnabulum," with movable rings arranged to make a jingling
*Archxologia, XLVII., pt. I, p. 159.

f Proc. Amer. Philosoph. Soc., 1889, XXIX., p. 179.
t"Musee Prehistorique," fig. 123o; Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop., Paris, 1886, pp. 299,
313, 314.
THE BASKET. 117
noise, and De Mortillet inserted it in his volume to show the likeness

of this work in Japan with a number of similar objects found in the
Swiss lake dwellings in the prehistoric age of bronze (p. 8o6).
The Swastika mark was employed by the Japanese on their por-
celain. Sir Augustus W. Franks '1' shows one of these marks, a small
Fig. 29. Bronze Statue of Buddha, Japan. Eight Swastikas on pedestal. Cane
tintinnabulum with six movable rings or bells. One fifteenth natural size.
Fig. 33. Explanation of the Jain Swastika, According to Gandhi. (I) Archaic or
protoplasmic life; (2) plant and animal life; (3) human life;
(4) celestial life.
Swastika turned to the left and enclose in a circle (fig. 30). Fig 9
also represents a mark on Japanese bronzes;t
KOREA.
The U. S. National Museum has a ladies' sedan or carrying chair
Fig. 3o. Japanese Potter's Mark on Porcelain. De Mortillet, "Musee Pre-

historique," fig. 1248.
from Korea. It bears eight Swastika marks, cut by stencil in the
*"Catalogue of Oriental Porcelain and Pottery," pl. 11, fig. 139.
tDe Morgan, "Au Caucase," fig. i80.
I18 THE BASKET.
brass-bound corners, two on each corner, one looking each way. The
Swastika is normal, with arms crossing at right angles, the ends bent
at right angles and to the right. It is quite plain ; the lines are all
straight, heavy, of equal thickness, and the angles all at 90 degrees. In
appearance it resembles the Swastika in fig. 9.
CHINA.
In the Chinese language the sign of the Swastika is pronounced wan

(p. 8oi ), and stands for "many," "a great number," "ten thousand,"
"infinity," and by a synecdoche is construed to mean "long life, a multi-
tude of blessings, great happiness," etc.; as is said in French, "mille
pardons," mille remerciments," a thousand thanks, etc. During a
visit to the Chinese legation in the city of Washington, while this paper
was in process, the author met one of the attaches, Mr. Chung, dressed
in his robes of state; his outer garment was of moire silk. The pattern
woven in the fabric consisted of a large circle with certain marks there-
in, prominent among which were two Swastikas, one turned to the
right, the other to the left. The name given to the sign was as re-
ported above, wan, and the signification was "longevity," "long life,"
"many years." Thus was shown that in far as well as near countries,
in modern as well as in ancient times, this sign stood for blessing, good
wishes, and, by a slight extension, for good luck.
The author conferred with the Chinese minister, Yang Yu, with the
request that he should furnish any appropriate information concerning
the Swastika in China.
In due time the Chinese minister sent Dr. Wilson much valuable in-
formation and some interesting pictures, among them being Fig. 31 of
which he wrote:
Chu I-Tsu, in his work entitled Ming Shih Tsung, says Wu Tsung-
Chih, a learned man of Sin Shui, built a residence outside of the north
gate of that town, which he named "Wan-Chai," from the Swastika
decoration of the railings about the exterior of the house.
(To be continued in the October "Basket.")
THE BASKET. I19
THE BASKET PRIZE COMPETITION.

-•-••■•■■ •--
As announced in the April BASKET, I present in the following pages
the competing baskets deemed worthy of being submitted to a vote of
the Fraternity. In voting, members will please bear in mind the follow-
ing points which determine the perfection of a basket : I. Weave.
IL Form or shape. III. Stitch. IV. Material. V. Fineness of ma-
terial. VI. Design. VII. Color. VIII. Finish. IX. Size. X. General
effect.
If a basket is perfect, according to your judgment in all these points,
give it ten votes on each, making ioo in all. If you wish to express
less than perfect in any detail let your vote be 8 or 7 or 4 as the case
may be.
Hence, in making up your vote send it as follows :
Basket No page (fill in these blanks) I vote as
follows :
(Signed)
Address
I. Weave, 8 points. II. Form, io points. HI. Stitch, 4 points. IV
Material, 7 points. V. Fineness of material, io points. VII. Design,
To points. VII. Color, io points. VIII. Finish, 3 points. IX. Size, 9
points. X. General effect, 7 points. Total, 78.
This shows that you give 78 points out of a possible mo in favor of
the basket of your choice.
I. In determining how many points to give in regard to weave, ask
yourself whether the weave itself is suitable to this style of basket.
II. Form or shape. How do you like this form of basket? Is it
well formed? Is the form itself beautiful?
HI. Stitch. Is each stitch well made? After the weaver has de-
cided upon the style of weave to use has she used it well?
IV. Material. Is the material appropriate? Was it the best that
could be used? Is it harmoniously used? (That is, if there are different
materials in the same basket.)
V. Fineness of material. A good basket is often spoiled by the use
of coarse material.
VI. Design. Is the design suited to the shape of the basket? Is it
effective in itself ? Why ? Is it well worked out?
VII. Color. While the voter cannot see with the eye the colors
used, she can read what the weaver says of it and judge accordingly,
remembering always that the softer tones of the vegetable dyes are of
greater value than any other.
VIII. Finish. Is the basket well finished as to loose ends, edges or
borders, turning of corners, splicing, etc.?
IX. Size. Is the size of the basket pleasing and appropriate to the
work it is expected to perform ?
I20 THE BASKET.
X. General effect. This is to give one a fairly wide scope for final
decision. Is the basket harmonious and p leasing in its general effect ?
BASKET OF MIXED STITCHES.

RAFFIA SCRAP BASKET.
By Mrs. Alice M. Batchelder, Exeter, N. H.
Materials used. — One-half pound No. 4 reed, six ounces natural
raffia, two ounces old blue, one-half ounce black, the colors being vege-
table dye.
From start to finish there are one hundred and three rows of weav-
ing.
The center, which forms the bottom of the basket, is the starting point.
Wet a No. 4 reed, when pliable coil so the center or ring will be y4 of
an inch across. Take a piece of natural raffia, wind the ring, then sew
with the figure 8 stitch, going from one side to the other to fill in the
hole having four stitches on each side, hold the reed firm and sew four
stitches on opposite side of ring with coil between.
Coil raffia round the reed until it reaches the first four stitches ; sew
one stitch between each stitch and over the coil, making the stitches
even distance apart (coil the raffia once over the reed after every
stitch), increase the stitches as may be necessary to keep it flat until
the tenth row, make three stitches, then coil these three stitches, having
the coil same length as the three stitches (this is lazy stitch), continue
to end of row.
Eleventh row, two stitches above the three, coil between.
Twelfth row, one stitch over two, coil between.
Thirteenth row, two stitches over one, coil between.
Increase stitches on every row until they meet all round, then de-
crease same as you increased (forming diamonds).
We have now reached the twenty-fourth row. This is sewed in the
figure 8 stitch.
Sew these stitches very close together, sewing very tight on each,
four sides of the circle, gradually holding the outer reed a little farther
out as you near the four corners for we are beginning to make the
bottom square.
Cut four pieces of No. 4 reed four inches long; cut the end of each
tapering to a point. When the reed is sewed round the next time one
four-inch piece is sewed in between the two reeds, the outer reed is
very slightly cut on the outer edge to make it turn more square, the
reed being sewed in the corners. Then cut four more four-inch pieces
as before and put in the corners the next time round. When this row is
finished we have an 8%-inch square for bottom of basket.
We are now ready to make the sides. Hold the reed on top of the
preceding row and cut slightly on outer edge of reed every eight and
one- half inches and sew same as in the beginning of basket.
Third row, lazy stitch begins, making groups of three stitches with
coil over two stitches.
Fourth row, two stitches over three.
Fifth row, one over two.
THE BASKET. 121
Sixth row, two over one.

Seventh row, two between each two.
Eighth row, two between each, with one blue stitch between each two
stitches in preceding row excepting in the corners.
Ninth row, two blue stitches one each side of corner, one white
Fig. 47. Basket of Mixed Stitches, by Mrs. Batchelder, Exeter, N. H.
stitch, coil, make one blue stitch each side of every other blue one in
preceding row, coiling with blue between.
Tenth row, corner three over two of blue, coil white until you come
to the one blue stitch which you coiled over in preceding row, make
two blue stitches, coil with white to next one blue stitch over which
make two blue (repeat to end of row).
Eleventh row, corner, blue four over three, coil white until over first
blue stitch, then make a white stitch with a cross stitch over the stitch.
Make these stitches every half inch on sides of basket.
Twelfth row, corner blue five over four, coil white, make a stitch
with a cross stitch each side of one in preceding row.
122 THE BASKET.
Thirteenth row, corner blue six over five, coil white, make one white
stitch with cross stitch between each two in preceding row.
Fourteenth row, corner blue, seven over six coil white to second stitch
in preceding row, make one blue stitch with cross stitch each side, coil
white to next stitch in preceding row, make two white cross stitches
each side of stitch, coil white to next, make two blue, coil white to next,
make two white, coil to next, make two blue, coil to corner. This makes
three groups of two blue cross stitches, two groups of two white cross
stitches.
Fifteenth row, corner one white, one blue, one white, one blue.
(The first white is exactly in the corner.)
Coil white to center of two blue, make one blue cross stitch, coil white,
make one white between two white of preceding row (repeat).
Sixteenth row, corner one black, each side of the white, one blue in
same stitch, one white, one blue, coil white to center of preceding coil,
make a cross stitch, coil to one blue, make one white cross stitch each
side, coil to next, make two blue cross stitch, coil white to next, make
two white cross stitch (repeat).
Seventeenth row, this reed is not cut at corners but held firmly (wet
the reed before bending).
Corner five blue, coil white, two cross white stitches over one in pre-
ceding row, coil, one white cross stitch over two in preceding row, coil,
three blue cross stitches over two ( repeat).
The basket is gradually held in on each succeeding row and he de-
sign can now be followed from the photo ; the darkest stitches are black ;
the light, natural or white ; the medium shade old blue.
Measurements. —The basket measures twenty-six (26) inches half
way up ; twenty-four and a half inches just before beginning to widen.
The last row measures thirty-six inches. Height twelve inches.
Remarks. —The old blue in this basket I dyed last spring while ex-
perimenting with dyes of various colors.
I intended to have the bottom of basket photographed, for it is orig-
inal. I have never made or seen a basket like it. The shape and design
are both original. The design does not appear as handsome in the
photograph as it is in the original.
BASKET OF HOPI STITCH.

With illustrative basket by Mrs. Alice F. Rollins, 52o E. 14th St.,
Minneapolis, Minn.
Mrs. Rollins's basket is made entirely of raffia, and the following is
her own description of how to make it.
Material. — Raffia, white or uncolored, g
pound ; raffia, brown, A
pound ; 1 crewel needle, No. 2.
This basket is made by trimming the raffia weaver around a coil of
raffia and sewing into each stitch below the coil.
The beauty of the basket depends upon the uniform size of the coil,
the smoothness of the twining and the evenness of the stitches.
To start the basket select enough raffia to make the coil Y8 of an
inch in diameter, putting the large ends together. Dampen the raffia
THE BASKET. 123
and pull it through the hands to make it smooth. Hold the large ends
between the thumb and fingers of the left hand. Cut them even.
Thread a small strand of the brown raffia into the crewel needle. Place
the end of the brown raffia along the end of the coil and wind towards
you for about an inch from the end of the coil and fasten together into
as small a ring as possible. Coil to the left, twine around the coil once
and sew into the stitch below, putting the needle through the coil from
the front. Do not let the coil vary in size. Put more raffia into it as it
is needed to keep the coil uniform. Sew in this way until you have 3
coils or rows of the brown. Lay the brown raffia along the coil and take
up a white strand from the coil. Sew with the white raffia until you
have 5 rows of white, then change to the brown and sew i row, then sew
4 rows of the white.
This finishes the bottom of the basket, which should be perfectly
flat and about 8 inches in diameter. Now hold the coil perpendicular
to the bottom and sew t row of white beginning the side of the basket.
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Fig. 49. Hopi Stitch Basket, by Mrs. Alice F. Rollins, Minneapolis, Minn.
Divide this into 8 equal parts, marking the divisions plainly and begin
the pattern at any point of division as follows :—Sew 6 stitches of
the brown, then 7 stitches of the white, then 6 stitches of the brown,
then the white to the next point of division.
Repeat until you have the beginning of 8 figures. It is very impor-
tant to start the pattern correctly as upon this depends the beauty of
the basket. See Illustration.
Second row, sew with the white raffia until you have 3 stitches left
124 THE BASKET.
of the brown beginning the pattern, or first figure. Then lay down the
white and take up the brown raffia (passing the color not in use along
the top of the coil). Sew three stitches directly over the 3 brown
stitches below, then sew 7 white stitches, 3 brown stitches, then white
stitches until the next figure is reached. Repeat until all figures have
2 rows.
Third row, this is made the same as the second row only there are 4
stitches of the brown, the first beginning a little to the right of the
brown stitch below and ending a little to the left with 6 white stitches
in the middle.
Fourth row, this has 5 brown stitches, 5 white stitches, 5 brown
stitches, then white stitches to the next figure.
Fifth row, this has 6 brown stitches, 4 white stitches, then 6 brown
stitches with white stitches to the next figure.
Sixth row, this has 7 brown stitches, 2 white stitches, then 7 brown
stitches, then white stitches to the next pattern. Repeat until all
figures have 6 rows, then sew with the white to within 6 stitches of
the first.
Seventh row, figure started. Now sew 3 brown stitches, then 3 white
stitches, then 17 brown stitches, then 3 white stitches, then 3 brown
stitches, then white stitches to within 6 stitches of the next figure.
Repeat.
Eighth row, this has 3 brown stitches, 3 white stitches, i6 brown
stitches, 3 white stitches, 3 brown stitches, then white stitches to the
next figure.
Ninth row, this has 3 brown stitches, 4 white stitches 15 brown
stitches, 4 white stitches 3 brown stitches, with white stitches to the
next pattern.
Tenth row, same as ninth row, with 3 brown stitches, 5 white stitches,
14 brown stitches, 5 white stitches, 3 brown stitches.
Eleventh row, 3 brown stitches, 4 white stitches, 15 brown stitches,
4 white stitches, 3 brown stitches.
Twelfth row, same as the eleventh row.
Thirteenth row, beginning with the brown, sew 29 stitches, the last
one coming over the last one of the brown stitches in the row below.
Fourteenth row, sew 12 white stitches over the 12 brown stitches,
Fig. 53. The Herring Bone Finishing Stitch.
then 5 brown stitches over 5 brown stitches, then white stitches to the
next figure. Repeat on all figures.
Fifteenth row, sew 15 stitches of the brown, having 5 stitches in the
middle of the 15 stitches directly over the 5 brown stitches sewed in
the fourteenth row. Repeat upon all figures having white stitches
between the figures.
Sixteenth row, sew 5 brown stitches directly above the middle of
THE BASKET. 125
the 15 brown stitches in the fifteenth row. Repeat until all figures
are finished.
Now sew 2 rows of white raffia. When within 2 inches of the
point to end coil cut it to a point and join it, as shown in the illustration.
(The side of the basket flares a very little. The one in the illustration
being 8 inches in diameter at the bottom and io inches at the top.)
Finish the top with the "herring bone" border of brown, which is
made as follows : Thread the needle with brown raffia (not too fine).
Hold the outside of the basket towards you and sew through the top
of the coil, from the inside to the outside, bring the raffia backwards
and sew through the coil Yi of an inch back from the starting point.
Now put the needle upward and sew through the coil of an inch
in advance of the starting point. By sewing backward and forward in
this way we get the braided effect, as shown in Fig. 53.
The Herring Bone Finish.—The story of this stitch is fully told in

Indian Basketry, pages 109 and Ilo. It is made by a single splint
which is passed under the sewing of the last coil and then drawn over
it and backward. It is then passed under again, upward and forward,
first in advance of the starting point. Thus by sewing backward and
forward, as one coils a kite string, this beautiful braided finishing stitch
is produced. It is not only beautiful: its usefulness is manifest when
it is known that a basket finished off this way will stand several
years more of hard work than if finished in the ordinary method.
SCRAP BASKET OF RATTAN, WITH BAND OF BRAIDED

RAFFIA AND COLORED RATTAN
Made by Miss Belle Robinson, Teacher of Basketry in the Indian-

apolis Young Women's Christian Association.
Dimensions.—ti inches high ; 6/ inches across the bottom ; 7 inches
across the mouth ; 9/ inches high to the turn where it is 34 inches in
circumference.
Materials.—About 5 rattans—No. 5 ; 22 weavers—No. 3 (white) ;
3 weavers—No. 3 (dull purple) ; 3 weavers—No. 3 (yellow brown) ;
(for coloring which directions are given elsewhere) : pp yards braided
raffia (natural color), 5-16-inch wide ; eight 46-inch spokes—No.5;
one 24-inch spoke—No. 5; sixteen 22-inch spokes—No. 5.
A split center is made of the eight 46-inch, the one 24-inch spokes
and twilled weave with No. 3 rattan. When four inches in diameter,
insert the sixteen remaining spokes. Weave (twilled) until 6Y2 inches
in diameter, then soak thoroughly and turn the spokes rather sharply
with three rows of triple twist. The spokes are flared very slightly,
and when once secured at the proper angle, need not be soaked again
until inches have been woven.
This consists of two rows of paired weaving, plain weave until it is
I% inches high. Then three ribbons of quadruple weave and six rows
plain weave—all so far of natural rattan ; six rows plain weave-
I26 THE BASKET.
yellow brown rattan ; five rows plain weave—dull purple rattan ; nin
rows plain weave—braided raffia ; five rows plain weave—dull purple
rattan ; eight rows plain weave—yellow brown rattan ; four rows plain
weave—natural rattan ; three ribbons of quadruple weave; two rows of
paired weaving when it should measure 9%2 inches high and 34 inches
in circumference.
Soak the spokes thoroughly, if the basket has been kept a good shape
Fig. 32. Scrap Basket by Miss Belle Robinson, Indianapolis, Ind.
so far, it may be turned upside down in a large bucket of hot water

and soaked only to the last weaving.
Crush the spokes over as nearly flat as possible and weave five rounds
more of paired weaving, making seven in all. Eight rounds of plain
weave, keeping the spokes still flat, when it should measure eight inches
across.
Border.—First row—each spoke back of next spoke to the right, and
out ; second row—under two spokes to the right ; third row—over
two spokes and inside.
THE BASKET. 127
BASKET, BY FRED S. BOUGHTON, PITTSFORD, N. Y.

This basket is made of the Figure 8 stitch.
Materials required.—Red raffia, i% skeins; natural raffia, 2 skeins;
gray raffia, nearly I skein; No. 2 rattan, 5 cents' worth.
The star in the bottom of the basket is of a blue gray color, the rest
Fig. 37. Basket Made by Fred S. Boughton, Pittsford, N. Y.
of the bottom -being of the red of the winter berry. The ground work
of the sides is of natural clored raffia with figures of the red.
Sizes.—The bottom is seven and one-half inches across (772) and
the top eleven and one-half inches (i '72). The basket is three inches
high.
The centre of the bottom up to where the red begins is ten coils.
From that point to the ends of the points is thirteen coils.
The color between the points of the star begins with one stitch of
red up to about thirty-eight stitches between the extreme points.
128 THE BASKET.
There are eighteen stitches of gray between the first stitches of red,
decreasing gradually to one stitch. In putting in the figures in the sides
the branching figure begins first, the first part a stem beginning with
two stitches of red and continuing up five coils, when the branching
begins.
The first stitches of the large points are put in on the next coil at equal
distances between the first color and gradually increases from one
stitch up to thirty. The stem of the branching figure is two stitches
wide and extends up to the top of the figure, but does not show except
where the squares of white are put in on each side of it. The first
The Celebrated Rattlesnake Basket.
branch is one inch across, two coils broad and at equal distances on
each side of the stem. Above this branch are two squares of white, two
coils up and six stitches wide. The next branches begin at the upper
points of the first branch on each side, and are three quarters of an
inch across, two coils up, meeting and with the next branch enclosing
the squares of white in the centre. The next branch is an inch broad
(including stem) and two coils up, with two squares of white above
that the size of the lower ones. The next branches are two inches
across two coils up, meeting the squares of white.
Between the last squares of white and the border is a coil of red one
inch wide, meeting a coil of white extending to the red point. The
whole is finished with a border two coils up of red.
THE BASKET. 129
THE REINDEER BASKET.
(Made by Mrs. E. A. Hayes, 33 Alton Place, Brookline, Mass.)
Though the photographer has made it appear like a plaque, it is

really a work basket 9 inches high, 35 inches around the top, 17 inches
around the bottom.
The stitch used is the figure 8, made over No. 4 reeds.
Materials used.—One lb. natural raffia, M. lb. dark brown, Xi lb.
black.
Fig. 38. The Reindeer Basket, made by Mrs. E. A. Hayes, Brookline, Mass.
130 THE BASKET.
LAZY STITCH.
With illustrative basket made by Mrs. J. H. White, 411 Broadway,
Somerville, Mass.
This is a popular stitch and received its name from Mr. E. E. Mc-
Leod, of Bakersfield, Cal., in describing one of the baskets of his fine
collection of Kern County weaves.
It is very doubtful whether this name for this stitch was ever heard
by an Indian. The Kern County and other Indian weavers (Monos,
Fig. 39. Waste Basket, made by Mrs. J. H. White, Somerville, Mass.
Paiutis and Yokuts) say it is used because of its beauty. When a

basket is not required to hold liquids it is quite common, especially when
a woman needs it speedily, to make it this way.
Starting the Basket. — Begin exactly as described in General Direc-
tions. As soon as the start of the tiny coil for the bottom is made we
are ready for the lazy stitch. This is simply a long and a short stitch.
THE BASKET. 131

The long stitch goes over two coils, the short over but one. It is a
rapid method of weaving. It is utterly immaterial whether the stitches
are taken towards you or from you. Some Indians work one way,
some the other. Follow whichever method you find to be most prac-
tical.
Dimensions of the Basket.
Inches.
Diameter of bottom 7
Diameter at largest part about 954
Circumference at the same point 32
The circumference of the upper rim is 29
Height of the basket 11/
Material Required.—This is approximately as follows :
/4 lb. No. 6 reed. Y4. lb. Brown raffia.
72 lb. Natural raffia. Y4 lb. Dark Indian red raffia.
Y,4 lb. Black raffia. Y4 lb. Light Indian red raffia.
Y4 lb. Olive raffia. y4 lb. Light blue raffia.
The colored raffia was dyed with vegetable dyes and was procured
from the Arts and Crafts rooms, Hingham, Mass.
Design.—To make the design on your basket, cut out a piece of
paper the size and shape of the basket. Then outline upon it the
design required. This will then act as a guide as you weave.
The Lazy Stitch.—This is best made by seeing that when the second
coil is reached the long stitches are placed over the corresponding short
ones except where it is necessary to add stitches for the purpose of
widening as the coil grows larger, and, therfore, requires a larger
number of stitches to cover it.
Widening.—This is done by placing two long stitches over one short
one. I find it best to work always from the right to the left. Continue
thus until the flat disk has been produced of the size desired for the
bottom, viz., 7 inches.
The Sides.—The sides of the basket are made by placing the
reed directly above and outside of the last coil. To make the sides per-
pendicular the reed should be held exactly above the last row of stitches ;
to increase the diameter or produce a flaring shape the reed should be
held above and a little outside of the row last made, and to diminish the
circle or to shape the basket inward the reed should be held above and
a little inside of the last row.
Introducing the Color.—Place the colored raffia under the inside of
the reed and take at least one short stitch over it to hold it in place.
The colored raffia should be carried inside the stitches lengthwise of the
reed except at the places where it is desired that the color should ap-
pear, then as many stitches should be taken with it as the design re-
quires.
In this way many colors can be used at one time, the colors not used
in any stitch being concealed under it.
Finishing Off.—Put the edge on the basket as given in General
Directions, but as soon as possible begin to experiment on different
colors and styles of finish.
132 THE BASKET.
THE MAIDEN-HAIR FERN BASKET, LAZY STITCH.

The basket here pictured was made by one of the best weavers of
New England, Mrs. M. G. Jones, 15 Landseer St., West Roxbury,
Mass. At my request Mrs. Jones has written full instructions for the
making of this basket. She writes : "The following description may
seem to many as needlessly minute, but when one meets a lady who has
picked out her instruction from books, and thus taught herself to do
left hand work with her right hand, it seems time to be very explicit."
It will be well for weavers to compare these instructions with what I
have written in the General Directions.
Materials required. — Reeds No. 2, 3 oz.; Raffia, Natural, 2 oz.;
raffia, green, i oz.; raffia, seal brown, 12 strands.
Size of basket. — Diameter of bottom, 6 inches ; height, 372 inches ;
circumference of largest part, 2672 inches ; diameter of top, 64 inches.
Fig. 4o. Maiden Hair Fern Basket, made by Mrs. M. G. Jones, West Roxbury,
Mass.
Select a pliable reed—try it two or three inches from the end, to find
if it bends easily without breaking. Soak it a few moments in warm
water—longer in cold water. Hold it firmly in left hand about ten
inches from working end, and draw it several times between thumb
and finger of right hand, to make it yet more pliable.
Reeds coil naturally in one direction ; take advantage of that in pre-
paring the point of the reed, by taking from the thickness on both sides,
beginning about an inch back from the end, cutting it to slant gradu-
ally to a thin shaving. Take nothing from the width.
Divide the raffia into two strands. Thread a No. 20 blunt tapestry
needle with one of the strands. Take the prepared reed in the left
THE BASKET. 1 33
hand, with the prepared point toward the right hand. Place the knot-
end of the raffia (though there must be no knots in raffia) about two
inches from the end—hold it firmly with left hand thumb and finger.
Now wrap the shaving inch of reed smoothly, over and over—from you
—to within one-eighth or less of an inch from the end. This wrapping
is to keep the reed from breaking or splintering. Now turn back just
the unwrapped bit of reed, towards the left hand, and over the wrapped
part of the reed. Turn it again and again until the shaved part has
been rolled to meet the full size part of the reed. We will call this the
button part of the coil. The rolling of the thin part of the reed makes
a button of right proportion to the reed. Keep it in smallest space
possible, by pressure of left hand thumb and finger, while sewing over
and over (bringing the needle up from below) two or three times until
sure the obstinate little point is securely fastened. Now begin to cover
the button with the regular figure 8 stitch, thus :—Wrap the raffia over
the button-reed, from you, taking it down between the button-coil and
upper reed—up over the upper reed—toward you,—back again, from
you between the button and upper reed. This time, bring the needle
up through the center of the button, and wrap again the button reed
as at first. Continue thus, until you have worked around the button to
where it was commenced. Then instead of coming up through the
button, take one stitch ahead between the two reeds, and you are started
on the continuous coil.
Be careful to draw each stitch firmly to its place, by hand, not from
the needle's eye, as that wears and breaks the raffia too much. Be sure
and cut off fraying raffia as soon as it appears. • If left without cutting,
it may be drawn into the next stitch, giving a rough look to the work.
In taking the first regular stitches in the button, coil the reed, a little
bit, that when you draw the raffia firmly into place it may fit smoothly
to the coil. Do this for every stitch while the coil is small, and work
it smoothly all through the basket. In working the button around to
where it was commenced, it is better to take one stitch less, to fill it,
than one too many, as that gives a long stitch which looks quite out of
place. If the raffia has not filled the center of the button, and if by
pressure of thumb nails the raffia cannot be pressed to fill the space,
better cut it off and try again.
'hen a new thread of raffia is required, be sure that the last stitch
of the old raffia is left off on the lower half of the figure 8 stitch, the
needle from you, between the . upper and lower reed ; unthread the
needle, thread again with new. Take up the basket ready to sew.
Draw the old thread of raffia closely over the tip of the first finger of
the left hand, place the end of the new raffia over the old—hold them
both firmly, between the tips of the first and second fingers of the left
hand. Now take the new raffia, and wrap the upper reed, toward you
—twice, the second wrapping to come close up to the last stitch of the
old raffia. This wrapping makes the upper part of the 8 stitch. Work
two stitches, before loosening the firm hold on the raffia ends—then
carry the ends close to the upper reed, towards the left hand. Fasten
stronger by sewing over them several regular stitches, then cut them
off.
To introduce color. start the same as new piece of raffia. Carry the
natural raffia along the upper reed, under the colored raffia, until it is
134 THE BASKET.
needed again, when, put under the color, and bring out the other ; al-
ways leave off stitches on the lower part of the figure 8 stitch as new
color is added. Notice how nicely, as the raffia is wrapped towards you
( for the upper part of the figure 8 stitch) it brings into and keeps in
place the raffia just left off.
To shape the basket always start along the line up from where the
coil was commenced, and for this reason, after working an inch or two
in diameter on the bottom of the basket, mark the place by sewing in
a basting of colored raffia, to readily locate the place where colors
should begin, the sides turned up and the basket finished.
The worker is to hold the outside of the basket toward her. This
basket is to flare. Sew a few inches along the reed as usual—then
Fig. 41. Baskets by Miss Nelly Sutton, Detroit, Mich.
press the reed upward, to flare very slightly—and so on, every few
inches. This gives a more symmetrical shape for a beginner than to
trust to holding the reed in place. When the proper flare has been
reached, begin, at the right place (along the line up where the coil
was commenced), to press the reed—after it has been worked a few
inches—slightly straighter up—the next time around, straighter still—
the third time quite straight up, the next time begin to press the reed
slightly inward and so on for several times around, when you can press
it inward almost flat, if it will conform to proportion and symmetry.
Doing this by inches, is to make sure the reed is not sewed half way
around the basket, when it would not so readily yield to pressure.
To finish off a basket, slant the upper part of the last reed for two or
Fig. 42. Jewel Basket, with Cover, by Miss Ballou, Rutland, Vt. Fig. 43. Inside of Jewel Basket, by Miss Ballou.
136 THE BASKET.
three inches, down to a point, making sure that the point is in line with
the beginning of the coil. The last few stitches can be sewed over and
over. Take the last stitch backward and cut close.
The design on this basket was taken from nature. A leaf of maiden-
hair fern was pressed, a section sewed on paper, and placed before the
worker to do the best she could with it.
LAZY STITCH BASKETS.

By Miss Nelly Sutton, 415 Woodward Ave., Detroit, Mich.
The accompanying photograph of baskets represents a bowl-shaped
basket made of No. 2 reed and raffia in natural color and dark brown.
The stitch is the "lazy stitch." The basket is 4Y2 inches deep and 9
inches diameter at top.
The other basket is done in the same colors on a No. 4 reed in plaque
stitch. I sewed some twine in with the reed to sew to.
JEWEL BASKET.
Made by Miss Ella M. Ballou, Quinn Building, Rutland, Vermont.
Sire of basket.—Diameter, 4 inches ; height, 2 inches.

Material used.—No. 2 reed, raffia, natural, olive green and seal brown.
The bottom of the basket is a simple coil of reed woven in "lazy
stitch," with natural raffia, which is split twice (more if the pieces
were very large), twenty-one coils completing the bottom ; for the last
coil, green is used. The green is continued after the upward turn for
the side is made, for one coil, when the diamond design is commenced.
For the design the stitches are divided as follows :
1st coil : 4 stitches of green, i of brown.
2nd coil : 2 stitches green, 3 of brown.
3rd coil : i stitch of green, 4 of brown.
4th coil : 1 stitch of natural, 4 of brown.
5th coil : 2 stitches natural, 3 of brown.
6th coil : 1 stitch of natural, 4 of brown.
7th coil : all natural.
Then five coils "knot stitch," and eight coils "lazy stitch" completes
side of basket.
The cover is commenced with a spider's web in green ; then two coils
lazy stitch in green ; six coils lazy stitch in natural ; four coils knot
stitch in natural ; three coils lazy stitch in natural ; four coils knot stitch,
natural with green knot; six coils lazy squaw stitch in green. This
completes top of cover, and the overlapping edge or rim of cover is a
repetition of the diamond pattern employed in bottom of basket, the
finish being one coil of knot stitch with natural raffia.
Lining of green silk shade lighter than raffia.
THE BASKET. 137

LAZY STITCH BASKET.
Made by Mrs. F. A. Marigold, 914 E. loth Ave., Denver, Colo.
Dimensions.—Bottom diameter, 5 inches ; top diameter, inches ;
middle diameter, io inches (at 6Y2 inches high) ; height, 9/ inches ;
weight, pound.
Materials used.—to lengths of No. 4 reed ; 4 bunches of raffia, nat-
ural ; 2 bunches of raffia, red ; 1 bunch of raffia, black.
Fig. 35. Lazy Stitch Basket by Mrs. F. A. Mangold, Denver, Colo.
Make bottom as in General Directions, using the lazy stitch. When

it is of the required size begin pattern where you begin to turn basket
up. Mark off seven divisions and take first two stitches in black, then
two in natural raffia, four in red, two natural, two black, fill in with
natural raffia to next division, and proceed as before. When four
rounds like this have been made, move forward two stitches, thus
forming the spiral. Stitch off top in black.
138 THE BASKET.
LAZY STITCH WORK BASKET.

Made by Mr. A. A. Dodds, 325 Lenox Ave., New York.
Dimensions. — It is 6 inches in diameter at the base and nine at the

top, and 5 inches high.
Materials. — No. 3 reed, one pound of natural raffia, gt pound of
brown, and y, pound of green.
Make the bottom as in General Directions until you have 25 coils,
or a base of 6 inches in diameter.
After turning up the sides continue until you have five reeds up
from the base. Then thread the needle with green and sew around
Fig. 44. Dance Basket, by Mr. A. A. Dodds, New York.
twice. Then use brown for four, natural for three, brown for four and
natural for eleven for twice around till you form the feet of six men.
Then use two stitches for each leg and go around five times for the legs.
The width of the body is eight stitches of brown. The third time for
the body the hands are begun by making one brown stitch half way
between each body. After first time take one stitch on right and one
on the left of the joining of hands for arms and continue this until the
arms meet the body 13 rounds farther up.
For the neck 3 stitches of brown for two rounds, 5 for the head 2
rounds. Then work three times around with green, and 2 with the
natural, and the basket is complete.
THE BASKET. 139
LAZY STITCH WITH SOFT INNER COIL.

With illustrative basket made by Mrs. Charlotte Wilkinson, 86 E. 4th
St., Corning, N. Y.
In the Lazy Stitch baskets before described the material of the inner
coil has been reed—a hard substance. The Indians used a large variety
of substances ; generally whatever is most convenient and best adapted
to their purpose. White weavers use raffia, or wild grasses or straws.
•••
110t..airs
Fig. 45. Lazy Stitch Basket, with Soft Inner Coil, by Mrs. Charlotte Wilkinson,
Corning, N. Y.
There is no difference in the method of making the stitch. It only

requires a little different manipulation owing to the soft nature of the
coil. Also the weaver must see that as the material decreases the size
of the coil it is replenished. The coil must be kept of uniform size.
Size of Basket.—Top, 6 inches in diameter ; bottom, 5 inches in di-
ameter; coils, 5-16 inch in diameter ; circumference of largest part 30
140 THE BASKET.
inches ; height, 15 inches ; diameter of neck, smallest part, 4Y2 inches ;

it is ten inches high before commencing to draw in for the neck.
Starting the Basket.—Take five or six threads of natural raffia, hold
firmly, wind the end with raffia for about an inch. Then make the but-
ton coil as tightly as possible. Now wind the coil, say five times, then
fasten to the button with the long stitch.
(It will be noticed that Mrs. Wilkinson does not make one short and
one long stitch, but five short and one long. See the photograph for
the result.)
Four coils from the center, divide the basket into four parts and begin
by using two threads of orange and two blue, the next row make blue
the width of orange and blue together, putting orange on each edge.
The third row make blue the size of first row, with orange the same as
first row. This makes a neat little figure for the bottom.
For the Sides.—Follow General Directions. In making the turn to
shape the bottom it should be done so gradually that it won't make the
basket one-sided. After weaving eight coils from center commence to
shape for the sides. Three coils plain weaving will make it ready for
the next figure.
Divide the circumference into seven equal parts, beginning seven
half diamonds. The center is all blue bordered, with two threads of
orange. This half diamond is drawn to a point by six coils.
On top of this figure, make a whole row of blue, then a row of orange.
The whole diamonds are bordered with first two threads of orange,
then two blue, two green, widening the figure with red, and black in
center row, for three rows, making a little figure of black in center of
diamond. Again border this row of diamonds with orange and blue.
The top diamond looks very different from the lower one, using the
same arrangement of color only making the blue the most prominent
instead of the red.
Narrowing for the Neck.—This is done by following the reverse
process of enlarging. Place the new top coil a little inside the coil
beneath, sewing it firmly into place. The next coil press in still further
until the basket is narrowed to the required shape.
The Neck.—This is made by keeping three coils about even, one
exactly above the other, before flaring again for the top. The neck is
in natural color, divided in sections by two stitches, each of orange,
blue, green and red.
The Top.—The top is finished with four complete coils of color.
First, red, then orange, then green, then blue, flaring as described.
The color scheme for the lower part of the neck, or really the
shoulder, as will be seen from the illustration, consists of four com-
plete coils. The first is blue, next orange, next green, next red.
Finishing the Top.—Taper the inside of the coil down to a point,
then finish as per General Directions. I have given Mrs. Wilkinson's
color scheme as she describes it, but cannot commend it.
THE BASKET. 14
PRIMITIVE ARTS CLUB, BROOKLYN, N. Y.

ITS FIRST ANNUAL EXHIBITION OPENED.
For the first time since its organizaticn, about a year agO, the Primitive Arts
Club, of Brooklyn, has invited its friends and those interested in the work it is
doing to come and view the handiwork of some of its members. The first
annual exhibition of the club was opened at its headquarters, 221 Washington
avenue, recently.
The club's name implies its purpose. Its organization and growth is but an
indication of the general revival of primitive art that has swept over the entire
country and that is evidenced in the size and quality of the primitive art
collections that form such a prominent feature of the St. Louis Exhibition. To
go out into the fields of nature, there to gather her lowly products and to spin
and weave them or to work them up in any way into objects both useful and
ornamental—these, crudely stated, are the objects of the club. Original ideas
as opposed to those that are conventional ; the work of the hands, as opposed
to work done by machines ; the return to first principles in the world of art, are
some of the things for which the club stands.
The exhibition typifies them all, and although modest in scope and size, it
represents a feature of educational and artistic wtirk that is destined to grow in
importance.
The Misses Griswold of the Griswold studios, that form the club's head-
quarters ; Miss Marie M. Perrin of the Ethical Culture School of Manhattan,
and Mrs. Luther H. Gulick, comprising the exhibition committee, have suc-
ceeded in collecting a great deal of original work done by friends and mem-
bers of the club. They have disposed it in graceful arrangement in the limited
space afforded by the exhibition rooms.
Baskets woven from original materials, rugs and mattings, handsome in color
and design produced from various hemp products, and a number of interesting
displays not directly related to the work of the club are the principal features
of this first exhibition. Miss Helene V. Johnson, of Providence, R. I., whose
baskets used to illustrate her recent lecture delivered at the Brooklyn Institute
were on view, shows an interesting little basket woven of ground pine, and
another made of sweet grass, with some very pretty streaks of color. A grape
vine basket, the handiwork of Miss Griswold, is a revelation as to the beautiful
colors to be found in the material she has used. She has also made a little
basket of pine needles that will excite much interest. Miss Mary White, author
of several standard works on weaving and beading, has contributed a number of
interesting things, as has Miss Eppendorff, the club's president. The latter's
collections of grasses and teasles contain many beautiful things that will be
unfamiliar even to most Nature lovers.
The Industrial History Class of Pratt Institute—which, by the way, is the
only class of its kind in the country—has sent a clay modeling exhibit that
furnishes an excellent illustration of the work it is doing. Miss Romiett
Stevens, the teacher, belongs to the club, which includes a number of women
prominent in educational work in its membership.
The officers of the club are Miss L. Eppendorff, president ; Miss Mary White,
vice-president.
The above is a report sent to me without date, and is from some
New York or Brooklyn paper. The following is another report and
contains important suggestions worth reading by the basket lover.
Baskets woven out of the grapevine, bitter sweet, willow, ground
pine or heatherwood bark gathered by the weavers were an artistic
feature of the first annual exhibition of the Primitive Arts Club.
In basket weaving, which is the special forte of several of the mem-
bers, the thought has been to get away from conventional designs and
142 THE BASKET.
conventional materials. That the thought was a good one is proved

by the artistic results. An experiment with ground pine resulted in a
little basket of the most delicately shaded green. Even the cat brier
was called into use, and a loosely woven basket of these slender stalks,
set with thorns, has a "woodsy" atmosphere. One member of the club
has worked her whole family into a basket which was on exhibition.
In the bottom is a five-pointed green star. "This represents my five
children," she said. Outside of the star there are half a dozen rows of
white reeds. Then comes a line of green that curves half way around
the bottom. "That's I, protecting them, and the next green line is the
children's father. That line more nearly meets, you see, but still there's
a space, so the little ones can get out into the world. But outside of all
is another line encircling us and shutting us all in, and that's the
Father's protection."
THE WEAVING OF BASKETS.

GATHERING MATERIALS A FASCINATING PART OF THE WORK.
The breath of New England roadsides seemed to blow through

Miss Helene Johnson's lecture at Brooklyn Institute recently. The
weeds that grow tall and lush in the corners of gray old rail fences ;
the meadow grasses; the seaweed of the shores ; the twigs and roots
and bark of the forests ; the plants of the oldtime country gardens,
were all there—in baskets. Miss Johnson superintends the basketry in
the schools of four towns near Lowell, Mass., and her subject was
"Indian Basketry." Miss Johnson learned to make baskets among the
Indian women of Southern California and the native women of Hawaii.
Then she came home and proceeded to do just as the Indian women
do—gather her materials from wood and field.
Miss Johnson has carried the devotion of the art craft lover one
step further on its way. She not only makes the basket with her own
hands, but gathers the material from which she makes it. No raffia
from faraway Madagascar goes into her baskets, but willow splints
and cedar bark, ground pine and bittersweet—all the green growing
things of the New England hillsides and brook beds.
PRIMITIVE WEAVING.
"No one can enjoy the delicious sense of absolute ownership of the
basket she has made until she has gathered the material as well as
woven it," said Miss Johnson. "The derivation of the word 'woman'
is `weefman,' " she continued ; "that is, weaving man. Weaving was
so distinctively the occupation of the primitive woman that it actually
gave her her sex name. The newborn babe was laid on a plate of soft,
thin bark, and over him was spread a softly braided mat. Later he
swung in a basket from his mother's back or the bough of a tree.
His food was cooked in a basket. His water was brought from a
spring in a woven bottle.
"His own toys were imitations of his mother's utensils. Pottery was
a later invention, accidentally discovered by the baking of clay inside
the basket. Excepting in cold countries, where furs were used, all
THE BASKET. 1 43
furniture, all clothing and all utensils at first came as forms of basketry
from the women's deftly weaving fingers. The primitive woman put
into her basketry all that we put into house decoration, table service
and dress. It expressed herself, just as our surroundings express us.
And not till her basket also expresses something within herelf—works
out some original thought—will the modern woman make baskets in
the spirit of her primitive sister."
DELICIOUSLY WILD AND WOODY.
All Indian women use the materials close at hand, from the yucca
and fine grass of the Hopis to the cedar bark of the Northwestern tribes.
So the white woman, thinks Miss Johnson, should find her own ma-
terials in field and hedgerow, to make her baskets truly express-
ive. Varied indeed were these materials, as shown in the table
full of baskets, and the baskets were deliciously wild and woody.
One, made of princess pine, fairly smelt of the woods. Others of
sweet grass, used by the Indian women of Maine, Canada and Mich-
igan, were rich in their fragrance. A little brown cedar bark basket
breathed aromatically of Northern forests. The roots of young beech
trees, from four to sixteen feet in length, are one of the most satisfac-
tory of materials. A tiny green basket was made of a seaweed, which
clung so closely to the rocks that it had to be cut. A little boat basket.
meant to hold violets as a table centrepiece, was made of the leaves of
the old fashioned lemon lily of country gardens. A basket of bitter-
sweet had a subtle charm in its modest coloring, like ashes of roses
silk. There were others of cattail leaves, of wistaria fibre, of Indian
hemp and of common meadow grasses.
Miss Johnson has found the useful materials by experimenting. It
takes only a little bunch of grass or twigs to make a basket. So the
labor of gathering material is not great, and lends delightful interest to
country walks. Gathering this material makes the finest correlation
between basketry and nature study.
"I have known boys to become so interested in basketry that they
would rather gather materials for it than play ball," she said. "Bas-
ketry has been a woman's trade from the beginning of the world," she
continued ; "but in these later days we have admitted a few men into
our honorable guild."
She allows her pupils to keep a handful of material in their desks,
and when other lessons are prepared and there is a little time between
tasks, they can busy themselves in weaving.
One little basket was lined with pine needles. One was hung with
shells. Others were made of splints and sweet grass ; others, of dull
green, of Kentucky hemp, after it had lain in the fields all winter ;
others of Southern palm fibre.
The Indian woman's and the white woman's treatment of corn husk
made an interesting comparison. The white woman's basket was a
stiff, stout, serviceable, substantial little white receptacle. The Indian
woman's production was more of a bag than a basket, made of soft,
fine, pliable matting, with an eagle design running around it. Indian
artists in basketry are both realists and idealists. One of the former,
away up on the Fraser River, represented the coming of a great fish,
144 THE BASKET.
probably a whale. The great fish came, bringing a great wave of

green water with him, as could be seen from the water pouring from
his mouth. The men went out in a boat, as slowly and carefully as the
tortoise—there was the tortoise. They slew the monster, shown by
the blood pouring from his mouth, and then the boat returned. It was
all pictured in black on a white ground.
"Indian basket symbolism is most fascinating," said Miss Johnson.
"Did you know that the bowl for holding food was symbolical ? It
signifies the earth, from which man derives his food and drink."
Every basket had the fascination of the individual, hand made thing,
so enticing to those bred on a never ending factory diet..—New York
Tribune, May 2, 1904.
The following was kindly furnished to me by Miss Johnson and ad-
mirably supplements the above report :
PORTION OF LECTURE RECENTLY DELIVERED AT

BROOKLYN INSTITUTE.
BY HELENE VEEDER JOHNSON.
Basketry is one of the most ancient of industrial arts, dating back,
indeed, into Bible times. At a later period came the art of pottery,
discovered first by the accidental baking of clay inside a basket, but to
the first of our race and to each of their children as lived in regions
where the mineral kingdom offered no material for earthenware, bas-
ketry was called upon to supply shelter, clothing, furniture and food
vessels, except in the colder lands, where hides and skins served the
same purposes. Therefore, upon this one art our primitive sister ap-
plied all the energy which we spread upon house decoration, table ser-
vice and dress. Is it any wonder, then that, with such concentration,
it became a branch of true art worthy to bear that name for all time to
come? Could we put our hands into this craft with the motive which
inspired the master-pieces or "mistress-pieces" of our museums, we
might hope to add some contributions to the beauties of fine art, but,
no matter how many university degrees one of us may possess, no
matter what her scientific knowledge, esthetic taste and technical skill,
not until she feels within her soul such an impulse as urged the
woman of the wilds to her task, can she make a basket which shall be
a poem like one of those. First of all, the motive must be found, lit
upon, born, not sought. The article must respond to a need, and its
mould and ornament be produced not from a wish to please, but from
a desire to express a certain real pleasure in the conceiver's mind ; the
joy that has come to him in the vision or sudden perceiving of some
wonderful, lovely thing in nature ; the deep emotion with which he
has recognized the secret correspondence between the form of things
and the spirit of life. Only out of this deepened and quickened feeling,
seeking expression from within, can spring a concept worthy the effort
of execution, for equal to the intense joy of its first image in the mind
is the immense labor of working it out.
In California I once knew a young Indian girl whom death had
robbed of her beloved on the eve of their marriage day. To all out-
THE BASKET. 145
ward appearances no Stoic nor Spartan was harder than she, but one
afternoon I missed her from the pueblo and, riding home, I met her
coming down the mountain road with an armful of xerophyllum
(squaw-grass), whose long, ivory-white blades are to be found only
high up near the snow line of the Rocky peaks. My interest was
aroused, but I had learned early in my acquaintance with the Amerind
the futility of expecting to get information on her affairs by question-
ing, so I merely continued to visit my little friend frequently and at
unexpected hours. Thus I discovered some processes of dyeing, only
to be baffled by so long a period of inactivity that I had lost confidence
in my own surmises when late in the fall the mountain climbing was
resumed. Then I learned that not until November is this grass pure
white, and for three whole months this untiring child of nature had
been preparing for her basket. In a spot of moist ground one bunch of
the grasses had been buried till they had absorbed a soft black shade,
and with these for a center the weaving was commenced. From that
ran zigzags of purple, pink, purple again, and yellow toward a field
of white, bordered by another row of the same colors in like design
edged with black. Next year when I returned to that valley I sought
out my little weaver and her beautiful work. "On grave," was her
answer to my inquiry, and there I found it filled with offerings to the
good spirits that they might be impelled to watch zealously over her
loved one till they should be united in the other land beyond. The black
symbolized the night, the colors, the clouds of sunrise and sunset with
the white light between, and the whole was wrought to tell him that
her chosen one was faithful to him throughout the whole cycle of the
day. I thought as I looked upon that expression of silent grief how
near of kin after all was this poet of the red skin to him of the white
who wrote :
"Thine was the prophet's vision, thine
The exaltation, the divine
Insanity of noble minds
That never falters nor abates,
But labors and endures and waits
Till all that it foresees, it finds,
Or, what it cannot find, creates."
The student who is. familiar with the physiography and flora of our
country can readily locate the birthplace of a basket by the material
used in its construction. The nature of the soil and vegetation explains
why one tribe uses yucca, another fine grasses, some willow, and yet
other the bark of the cedar and the root of the spruce. That also
points, to us who have lately adopted the handicraft a lesson in utilizing
those twigs, filaments and grasses which are to be had at our own road-
sides and fields, instead of importing rattan from India or China and
raffia from Madagascar. Not until we learn this can we make anything
really characteristic, possessing the beauty of truth and the truth of
beauty. If you have found the manipulating of these foreign products
a fascinating task, I know you will be doubly happy when you have
tramped out into the country where "every prospect pleases and only
man is vile" (as the old hymn says), and with your own hands gath-
ered your materials.
146 THE BASKET.
Perchance as you stoop to cut this shoot or pull that root your eye
may light upon some bending interlaced branches which show you a
charming study of space relations, or some obscure mosscup may give
you a new thought of graceful form. Then, indeed, you may evolve
a basket of which sincerely to say, "This is mine"—and that sweet,
poignant sense of unalterable ownership will be yours.
Though our immediate ancestors were not weavers, we have in-
herited sufficiently trained fingers so that we may, by assiduous prac-
tic and with our improved tools, produce an object as perfect as these
which serve as standards—provided that we are not victims of Ameri-
canitis. No good basket can be made hurriedly.
Remember, too, that each squaw used but one or two kinds of
weaves in all her life-time, and do not ask to be made proficient in six-
teen by one term of lessons ! "Art is not a thing to be done, but the
best way of doing whatever is to be done."
Bailet made by Mrs. W. Williams, Rochester, N. Y.

THE BASKET
A Society of Lovers of Indian Baskets and Other Good Things,

Entered at the Pasad3na, Cal Post Office as Second Class Matter.
INDIAN BASKETRY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR.
Those who
who visit the World's Fair at St. Louis may find it interesting
to see a few Indian baskets frcm the home of The Basket in the Art
Department. Of course there will be others. Those we have sent in-
clude the beautiful basket pictured and described in The Basket for
July, 1903, pages 18, 21-25 ; a large basket, made especially to show
how well she could manipulate her materials in an extra sized basket,
made and designed by Kuchyeampsi, whose photograph is given in
Indian Basketry, page 1o9 ; a large Yokut gambling plaque ; a fine
Mono bottleneck ; a fine Yokut bottleneck ; several of different kinds
made by the Palatingwas who were evicted from Warner's Ranch, San
Diego County, California, and are now living at Pala ; two extra fine
Pimas, very few of which are made ; a couple of Apache plaques,
made by the woman pictured and described on page 45, October, 1903,
Basket; and a good Havasupai plaque, made by the daughter of
Waluthama, who is pictured in July, 1903, Basket.
There are also a few pieces of pottery made expressly for the Frater
Primus by Nampeo, the greatest moulder of clay of the Hopis.
I do not know whether the Smithsonian Institution will have a
basket collection at the World's Fair, but it is sincerely to be hoped so.
*
Mrs. C. A. Kelley, of Baldwinsville, N. Y., sends some pretty
shades of raffia which she makes from vegetable dyes. Correspond
with her and send 25c. for a sample package.
148 THE BASKET.
The work of the Primitive Arts Society cannot be too strongly com-
mended, especially in that phase which seeks to utilize all the native
grasses, etc., for basketry work. We wish our fraters would all
become imbued with this idea and do some original investigating on
their own account.
The April Basket was very late getting into the hands of the members
of the Basket Fraternity. The Frater Primus has all the work of it
to do, almost unaided, and for the past six months he has been more
than overworked. In addition to his already overnumerous duties a
series of twelve elaborate articles on the California Missions was de-
manded of him, requiring much extra traveling, photographing and
special study. He has also been in the surgeon's hands for nigh on to a
year and subject to several operations that have tried his patience and
nervous system. Being away from home so much he could not employ
his regular stenographer, and with a large correspondence this has
meant many hours each week of extra work.
He refers to these matters only that members may not grow unduly
impatient and write him harsh and unkind letters for his apparent want
of promptness and courtesy. There is no money in his position as
Frater Primus. It has been a work of love, not pay, and when he
is doing his best under'adverse conditions he hopes for the kindly fore-
bearance of fraters rather than contumely. It is with considerable
pleasure and gratification, however, that he records the fact that out of
the hundreds of fraters on the roll not a tenth part of one per cent.
are unkind or impatient, and that of those who are impatient nearly
all are so because they love the little bulletin and do not want to lose
a single number of it.
Continue to be kind and patient, fraters, and to the end of this
volume I will do the best I can ;" then I must ask to be relieved. An
ever-increasing pressure of important work demands it, however much
I regret it. If any one else feels disposed to take up the work he will
find me willing to help all that is in my power. My promise was but for
one year. I have done the work now for nearly two years, so I feel
my promise has been well kept, and that all fraters will release me
without any charges of shirking.
*
The Full Sized Working Designs.—As will be seen elsewhere the

full sized working designs are at ''last ready. Many sets have already
been sent out. We want every weaver in the country to own one of
these sets, and especially are we desirous that all Fraters who weave
should do so. Therefore we make you this special offer. Send us a
new subcriber's name, with $1.00 and we will send you by return mail
free any eight designs you may select provided you enclose ten cents
in postage stamps for postage. If you send $2.00 for two subscriptions
or $1.75 for the 1903 and 1904 BASKET (with 25 cents extra for pack-
ing and postage of the designs), we will send 16 designs free, which,
with the four given gratis with the four 1904 numbers of THE BASKET,
will make the complete set.
THE BASKET. 149
So that for merely getting us one new subscriber you may own half
of the designs, and for two new subscriptions, the whole of them.
We hope we shall hear from our members speedily, and, as the designs
are all ready for mailing—they will invariably be mailed the day the
order is received, or within a day or two after.
*
Special to Teachers.—To all Teachers who will send us One Dollar

we will send a full set (twenty) of the Full Size Model Indian Basket
Designs. We wish every teacher to know and use these designs, hence
this special offer. Basketry teachers must enclose their business card.
Teachers of schools will please state where they are so employed.
Delay in Sending to New Subscribers.—New subscribers must not

be impatient if they fail to receive THE BASKET immediately it is
ordered. Postage regulations do not permit the mailing of a small
number of a publication which goes through the mail at third-class
rates ; hence we mail about every other week, or as soon as there is a
sufficient number to make a respectable appearing bundle.
In promulgating your esorteric cogitations, or articulating super-

ficial sentimentalities and philosophical or psychological observations,
beware of platitudinous ponderosity. Let your conversation possess a
clarified conciseness, compacted comprehensibleness, coalescent con-
sistency and a concatenated cogency. Eschew all conglomerations of
flatulent garrulity, jejune babblement and asinine affectations. Let
your extemporaneous descantings and unpremeditated expatiations
have intelligibility and veracious vivacity, without rhodomontade or
thrasonical bombast. Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic profundity,
pompous prolixity, psittaceous vacuity, ventriloquial verbosity and
vaniloquent vapidity. Shun double entendres, prurient jocosity and
pestiferous profanity, obscurant or apparent. In other words, talk
plainly, naturally, sensibly, truthfully, purely and don't use big words..
Can any Frater give a detailed description of the "Chain Stitch ?"
It is said to be very ornamental for heavy coils.
I would also like to have a full description of the "Hem Stitch,"
which is as perfect on one side as the other. It is said to be the most
ornamental of all the stitches.
150 THE BASKET.
OUR BOOK TABLE.
The largest and the best book on Aboriginal American Basketry,

ever written or likely to be written in our lifetime, is the wonderful
volume just issued by the Smithsonian Institution, under the above
title, written by the kindly hearted, well informed and•genial curator
of the Ethnology Division of the United States Museum, Otis Tupton
Mason,. Though Professor Mason writes from the desk, not having
been able to work in the field, he has drawn as a powerful magnet
from all over the American world, the very best a large number of
conscientious observers had to give. The mere list of names of those
who have aided would fill pages, and all have poured out freely of
the best they had or could obtain. To me this fact is as remarkable as
the book itself, and perhaps more so. I have read many voluminous
public documents where scientists have appealed to others to help
them, but never before have I seen so large, interested and joyous a
body of contributors as has come to Professor Mason's assistance in
the compiling of the material facts that go to make up his book.
Surely, there must be something beyond mere love of science in such
an outpouring. Professor Mason's sweet and gentle life, the noble
helpfulness of all he has written, the recognition of all that was worthy
(even in the most unworthy) of all others who have worked in his
chosen field, indeed, the perfect spiritedness of the man, are the qual-
ities that have called forth such a marvellous demonstration. To have
had this one experience of an affection that can truly be called "uni-
versal" was worth the having lived. Truly Professor Mason may feel
from now on, if never before, that, as Joaquin Miller says of Father
Damien :
"I'd rather be he than Napoleon."
is not such a unanimous tribute of affection more to be desired than
the fame of Napoleon ? This book, to me, will ever stand as the mon-
ument made by a thousand co-workers to one who had no jealousy, no
narrowness, no unkindness, no superciliousness for his inferiors (who
are numerous), no contempt for those who erred, but who gave full
meed of credit to the worthy and who sought to bring out the good
rather than the evil in the unworthy.
So to the book ! Here is a list of its Chapters : I. Definition of
Basketry, in which all the known kinds of woven and coiled basketry
are treated in Professor Mason's lucid and graphic style. II. Materials
for Basketry, with a monograph by F. V. Colville on Plants used in
Basketry...III. Basket-Making, which includes harvesting and pre-
paring of materials, processes of manufacture, woven, coiled and water-
tight basketry and the borders on basketry. IV. Ornamentations on
Basketry, viz., form and structure, shapes of baskets as a whole, mo-
saic elements in decoration, designs in decoration and ornamentation
through color.. V. Symbolism... VI. Uses of Basketry, which com-
pletely covers the field. VII. Ethnic Varieties of Basketry. VIII.
Collectors and Collections, and IX. Bibliography.
What a list and what a treat for a basket lover. How it makes his
mind's mouth water merely to look over such a banquet menu when
Otis T. Mason is the chef. And the list of illustrations takes up nine
THE BASKET. 151
pages alone, and what illustrations some of them are ! In natural

colors, drawn and painted from the originals, then printed in the
three-color and other processes, the results are exquisite. The book
itself is 2 1-4 inches thick in paper binding, and each page is as large
as those of The Basket. Hence, to attempt to review it here is im-
possible. I can only urge every member of The Basket Fraternity to
hunt it up in the local public library and keep it going until its contents
are well known and well digested.
Through the kind courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution and Pro-
fessor Mason, two copies of this great work have been placed at my
disposal for the use of the members of the Basket Fraternity. I shall
be glad to send it for two weeks to any frater who will send 4o cents
for packing and postage and a guarantee that it will be returned safely
and in good condition two weeks after its receipt. This is a privilege
to be highly esteemed, and on behalf of the Basket Fraternity I hereby
extend grateful thanks to the Smithsonian Institution and to Pro-
fessor Mason for the joy the perusal of this book is destined to give
many fraters.
The Waters Above the Firmament, by Isaac N. Vail, Ferris & Leach,
Philadelphia. Under the above title a most interesting and fascinating
book of science has been prepared by Professor Vail. It is a book de-
voted to an explanation of the theory that the earth once had an an-
nular system similar to that now seen on Saturn, and that many of
the statements of the Hebrew Scriptures, and other sacred books,
hitherto regarded as poetic, are statements of the purest fact. Basing
his argument upon the accepted facts or theories of eminent scientists—
physicists and astronomers—the author shows that when the earth was
in an igneous condition all watery vapors belonging to it must have
been in a gaseous condition, revolving around the earth at its own rate
of speed. Not only this but that much of the so-called aqueous crust
of the earth was also similarly gaseous and revolving, as the intense
heat of the earth would necessarily cause the sublimation of the earthy
matters. The necessary consequence of this reasoning is that, if we
accept the oceans of the earth as formed by the condensation of the
vapors which once, in annular form, surrounded the earth, the sedimen-
tary beds of the ocean which now form the stratified or aqueous crust
of the earth were likewise formed by the condensation of their sublimed
particles.
Fortifying his argument by scientific deduction, by legend, by new
presentation of accepted geologic data, Professor Vail makes out a
strong case. I have not the time nor the ability to either defend or con-
fute his theory. His enthusiasm and evidently well considered state-
ments are worthy of full and careful investigation and to the student
or learned who wishes to look at history and geology from a new angle
of vision, I can heartily commend this book.
* * * * * *
The North . Americans of Yesterday and The Romance of the Colo-
rado River, by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, Titiblished by G. P. Putnam's
Sons. These are two books worthy highest praise. They are written
by one who knowns. As a traveler in the field, and a close and careful
152 THE BASKET.
student at home, Mr. Dellenbaugh has earned the right to tell many
things to those who desire to learn. As one of Major Powell's party
who made the second trip through the thousand miles of Canyons of
the Colorado River system he demonstrated his fearless and deathless
interest in his subject. Thus early brought under the influence of one
of the world's greatest thinkers and workers, Major J. W. Powell,
(who was equally at home with geologic explorers and theorists as
with Indians and trained ethnologists), there is no wonder that the
impressionable artist had imbibed his leader's love for both these sub-
jects. Then, too, how could any observant soul go through the expe-
riences that Dellenbaugh did and not feel absolutely carried away with
the interest and fascination of them. Keeping up his interest and
study for thirty years or more, enlarging his horizon of knowledge,
comparing it with that of other reliable travelers and observers, he
at last has given to the world the two volumes above. They are both
handsomely gotten up, with an abundance of superior illustrations and
most vividly present a clear survey of the subject. There is no better
book, and indeed, none near as good, for popular use, on the Indians
of the past in North America as is this book of Mr. Dellenbaugh's,
and as far as the work on the Colorado River is concerned, as one who
has spent twenty years (more or less) in visiting it and its canyons,
reading about it, exploring and photographing its wonders and mys-
teries, I feel that I have earned the right to claim a more than ordi-
nary knowledge of it, and, therefore, dare to say that no one can know
the Colorado River and its history and romance who has not read this
book. Much of the material of the book is new, and that which is
compiled, is presented with such interesting comment and side light
as to make it almost new and altogether invaluable. The errors are
few and are only a proof that the author is yet entitled to live on earth
a little longer. There is only one perfect writer left on earth and he
lives in Southern California, and his name is not James.
The Gate Beautiful, by John Ward Stinson, published by Albert

Brandt. Trenton, N. J. Criticism is generally nothing but the expres-
sion of the personal opinion of the critic. One has but to read con-
temporaneous criticisms upon the work of any great artist, or author,
or poet, or philosopher, or orator, or statesman, to know that, as a
rule, criticism isn't worth the paper it is written on. Galleo's critics
would have crucified him, yet he lives and they are forgotten. Many
a man has died tormented and persecuted, to have his works, that
were abused while he lived, made famous and esteemed. Herbert
Spencer's greatest works, in the earlier day, were a great expense to
him ; none thought enough of them or him to buy copies to pay for
printing them. When the English Millais first established his Christ
in the Home of His Parents his critics were merciless in their denun-
ciations. It is now recognized as one of his masterpieces. When the
French Millet first sold his Angelus Domini Nuntiavit he received
for it about $400, and his critics said it was a frightful price to pay
for such a wretched picture. When M. Chauchard bought it he paid
$150p00 for it. Savonarola was burned at the stake and his critics
would have pilloried, hanged, drawn and quartered him. Christ's
critics were the most learned, most religious and most honored men
THE BASKET. 153

of the Jewish capital of his day, yet they hanged him on the cross,
crowned him with thorns, scourged him and pierced his side with a
spear. To-day He is worshipped as divine, and even the Jewish race
revere and honor Him though rejecting His divinity.
It is self evident, therefore, that critics are not always right (sic !)
nor the criticised always wrong. The question, therefore, that natural-
ly arises is : What are the right and just standards of criticism ? Pro-
fessor Stimson's book comes opportunely here to answer this question as
far as artistic beauty is concerned. He deals in neither science, religion,
or morals. His theme is beauty and he gives the student and artist
alike that elemental and basic food for reflection that alone, digested,
eaables one to become a true critic and know the truly from the
pseudo-beautiful. I have merely glanced the book over cursorily, I
have not even read it through once yet. But I here declare my in-
tention to read it through at least once a year so long as I live, if on
careful first reading, it justifies my preliminary thought of it. Its very
appearance appeals to my highest reason. What is the first, last and
only standard of artist beauty ? To me there seems to be but one
answer : Nature seen through the spiritual eyes of the highest type of
man. Nature, then, is the object. The power that reads and inter-
prets is the soul of man. In this book Professor Stimson shows what
Nature presents. For years and years he has studied Nature, loved
her so abundantly that she has admitted him to her secret places and
taught him abundantly. He tells us, therefore, of all the beautiful
forms Nature wears, in her simplicity, in her complexity, in lowest
forms, in highest forms, and thus does for us all that mortal man can
do to show us what to look at, and how. The discerning soul it is not
his to give. This is for the looker himself to supply.
The book has been highly praised by eminent men, and is worthy
all that has been said. Only by a thorough study of it can one fully
know its value, and that thorough study at least one humble reader
expects to give. To have written such a book is to have made life
well worth living.
Interest in the republics of Columbia and Venezuela has grown

apace since the Isthmian Canal question has been taken in hand so
forcefully by President Roosevelt. In a book devoted to these re-
publics, William L. Scruggs, formerly Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Columbia and Vene-
zuela, gives a careful and interesting survey of these countries and their
people.
He describes their climatic conditions, the magnificent mountain
scenery of the Magdalena Valley and the gorgeous tropical scenery
and luxuriant vegetable life. The great difficulties of transportation
are dwelt upon ; and he points out the need of better conditions,
which would lead to the development of the magnificent resources of
the countries. The volume contains chapters on the Agricultural Pro-
ducts of Venezuela, on the Guayana boundary question, the Isthmus
of Panama, the Panama Canal projects, the rights and duties of
foreign residents in South America, the Monroe doctrine, the Vene-
zuela arbitration award of 1899„ etc.
It is published by Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Mass.
1 54 THE BASKET.
MODEL INDIAN BASKET DESIGNS.
The following give particulars so that any intelligent weaver, who is

reasonably familiar with the various weaves can copy them. It is not
necessary to weave with the same stitch as the original ; nor is it
necessary that the same stitch should be used throughout. The stitches
may be various, as are those used by Mrs. Batchelder in her basket pic-
tured in this issue.
No. 1. Mono Burial Basket.—This basket is fully described in the
July, 1903, BASKET, pages 21, 22, 23. It is 20 inches across the top,
8 inches across the bottom, is bowl shaped, and stands 12 inches high.
It was so large that it was impracticable to make the cut full size, so
the engraver reduced the plate exactly one half. The weaver, therefore,
who desire to reproduce it, same size as the original must make it
double the size. Fig. 1 shows the basket when seen sidewise, and
Fig. 2 is the view when looking down into the bowl. It will be ob-
served that only one-third of the design is shown in Fig. 2. The two
other sections consist of exactly the same design. The color scheme
is as follows : Body in natural creamy white ; two outer of the three
upright poles, black, as is also the part around the diamonds ; the
middle poles, the diamonds and the three men are of the dark red of
the redbud. The steps near the bottom are black. To enjoy making
this basket the weaver should read its history and learn the full mean-
ing of the design.
No. 2. Alaska Treasure Basket with Cover.—This is a round bas-
ket, with perpendicular sides, same diameter at top as at the bottom.
The lid is a trifle larger than the basket, in order to allow the flange to
fit over the sides of the basket. It is 9 inches in diameter and 33A
inches high. The Indian weave is that described in "How to Make
Indian and Other Baskets," pages 13o and 131, but it can be made in
very fine figure 8 or lazy stitch if desired. The colors are indicated
by the shading. The black and white are plainly shown. The color
shaded to the left is a light red, while that shaded to the right is a
brownish shade.
No. 3. Palatingwa Milk-pan Basket.—This is in two colors ; the
black in the design is the brown of the tule root ; the white is the nat-
ural color of the willow splint. This may be made in any of the coil
weaves—figure 8, lazy, Hopi, or Havasupai. The size is exactly the
same as the diagram, viz., 2% inches high and 14/ inches in diameter.
No. 4. Fine Yokut Bottle-neck Basket.—This is in three colors,
black and natural, the latter shown by the white, and red of the red-
bud where shaded. The feathers are quail plumes and are inserted
during the weaving. The basket is 4 inches in diameter at the bottom,
beautifully rounded when shaped up for the sides, enlarging to 24
inches in circumference and then gradually decreasing in size until
the mouth is 33A inches in diameter.
THE BASKET. 155
No. 5. Thompson River Carrying Basket.—This figure is half the

size of the original basket, which is a small Thompson River carrying
basket. The design is made of the Klikitat imbricated work, fully ex-
plained on page 133, "How to Make Indian and Other Baskets." The
white weaver, however, can imitate the design without the use of this
stitch. The original basket has an almost square bottom, 5% inches
across one way and 4 inches the other. This proportion is not quite
observed all the way up, for at the top the widths are respectively 15
inches and 13 inches. The basket is to inches high.
The design is the same on the ends as on the sides, except that there
are two rows of diamonds only at the ends, while there are three on
the sides. The body of the basket is the native color shown by upright
lines of the figure. The design is in white, black and red, the red
being designated (in the design only) by the shaded lines from left to
right.
No. 6. Poma Shi-Bu Basket.—This beautiful, ornamental Shi-bu
Poma is worthy the best endeavors of the white weaver. It is a per-
fect specimen of the art. The features are the tiny plumes of the red-
headed woodpecker. The round disks are the wampum, made of white
pieces of shell. The basket is oval in shape (see instructions how to
make the oval base in "Practical Basket-Making" and "How to Make
Indian and Other Baskets"). The design is in black and white. The
illustration is exact size, the length of the basket being 5% inches and
the width across the top 4 inches.
No. 7. Apache Water 01la.—It can well be understood that, to hold
water, this must be a firmly woven piece of basket work. It is in
-white, black, and reddish brown, the horse only being in the latter color.
It was made in the Havasupai weave, but can be imitated in any of the
coil weaves desired. The bottom is 6 inches in diameter, the top 8
inches. It is a trifle over 31% inches in circumference at its largest
part and then decreases in the neck until it is but 24 inches in diameter
at the mouth.
No. 8. Pima Swastika Design Basket.—This is one of the common-
est of all Pima shapes and designs. From Fig. 1 it will be observed
that the bowl is narrow at bottom and widens rapidly to an exceeding-
ly wide top. The bottom is but 3% inches in diameter, while the top
is 14% inches in diameter. The colors are white and black, both being
natural colors, the one of the willow, the other of the martynia.
No. 9. Pima Greek Fret Design, Basket.—This is a bowl shaped
basket with a circular base 3% inches in diameter. At the top it is 16
inches in diameter, and being but 6 inches deep, the bowl flares rapidly.
The colors are white and black, the former the natural willow splint
and the latter the larga, or black of the martynia.
No. 1o. Y okut Bottle-neck Basket.—This is a beautiful basket in
white, black and red. The white and black are indicated in the design,
the red is shaded. Any other colored weavers, may be substituted for
'these, but the wise weaver will keep as near to the simple, artistic and
true color conceptions of the Indian weaver as possible. This is a
bottle-necked basket without a neck. That is, the flange or shoulder
156 THE BASKET.
of the basket terminates without any upright continuation, just as

shown in the design ; yet it is beautiful and perfect. The ornamenta-
tion around the edge where the sides and flange or shoulder meet is
red wool and quail plumes. The white weaver may substitute what she
chooses for these, or leave them out entirely. The bottom of the basket
is 33/2 inches across and consists of thirteen coils. It then gradually
bellies to its top which is 33 inches in circumference. The shoulder is
23/4 inches wide, and the aperture at top is 6 inches across, thus making
the complete diameter of the top 33 inches.
No. i i. Ranzona's Star Basket.—Perhaps no basket ever made in
the history of the world has excited as much profound interest as has
this simple but beautiful basket. Its full history is given in "Indian
Basketry," pages 220, 221, 222, and "The Philistine" for November,
1993. It is an almost flat plaque, but has a side about 3/4 of an inch
high, shown where the three coils are shaded close together, and then
a top flange consisting of four coils of weaving. The shape will better
be understood from the profile view of Fig. 2. The colors are the nat-
ural white of the willow and the brown root of the tule. It is 12Y2
inches in diameter, inside measure, and 14% inches outside measure.
No. 12. Mono Rattlesnake Design Basket.
The basket is 63A inches high, 6Y4 inches across the bottom, and 123/2
inches across the top. Its shape, therefore, is a perfect one. After
part of the diamonds are woven in the red of the red bud ; the diamond
coil, eight black, four white ; third coil, six black, two white, two red.
two white ; fourth coil, four black, two white, four red, two white;
white, eight red, two white. It now diminishes in the s'me proportion,
taking the same stitches as the fifth, fourth, third, etc., in reverse order;
No. 13. Shoshone Chief's Basket.—This dainty and beautful basket
is 23/4 inches across the bottom, which is plain weaving without de-
sign, and consists of nine coils. Then it gradually "bellies" out until
4 inches high, when its circumference is 23y2 inches, after which it
rapidly slopes to the neck, which is 43/2 inches in diameter at the top
and 14% inches in circumference. The body of the basket is in
white. The small design around the neck is in black. The black part
of the design throughout is the same as in the basket, viz., black. The
shaded parts of the design are of redbud, and the weaver may make use
of a dull reddish brown, or any color she may desire that is harmonious.
There are two illustrations for this basket, Figs. I and 2. Fig. 1 shows
THE BASKET. 157
one side and Fig. 2 the other. A little thought will make clear how
to connect the two parts.
No. 14. Palatingwa Loving Bird Basket.—This basket is a fine
specimen of the Palatingwa imitative art ; leaves at the bottom, with
the loving birds at the four openings. The basket is slightly oval, as
shown in the larger design. The oval bottom is made as is fully ex-
plained in "How to Make Indian and Other Baskets" and "Practical
Basket Weaving." The basket is in two colors, white and the brown
of the tule root. In weaving any color may be substituted for the
brown, which is printed black in the design. The large figure is drawn
looking upon the basket from the bottom, hence the birds are fore-
shortened. The smaller figure gives a more correct outline of the
love birds. The white oval of the bottom is 3y2 inches long, and the
basket stands 4 inches high. It is 5 inches across at its longer axis
and 13% at its shorter. The border is of white and brown splints alter-
nated.
No. 15. Palatingwa Oblong Basket.—This basket is of unusual and
yet very useful shape, and is therefore given as a suggestion to white
weavers. It is most useful to place on a desk for pens or pencils, etc.,
and if the size is altered the general idea suggests how a basket may
be made to hold loose papers, etc.
It is in three colors, black, white and the brown of the tule root. It
is a parallelogram, 9% inches long and 4% inches wide. The sides and
ends are perpendicular, so that it is as high at the top as at the bottom.
No. i6.—Ancient Chuc-Chan-ce Basket.—This is one of the most
interesting old baskets in my collection. I secured it from the great
great granddaughter of its maker, and it shows clearly the steps of her
Sierra Nevada mountain home, with the streams of water flowing
down between them, and the many quails present, indicated by the
quail plume extending from every step. The basket is in two colors,
black and natural white, and is of the Havasupai coil weave. It is
4% inches across the bottom, 10 inches across the top, and 4% inches
high.
No. 17. Havasupai Plaque.—As its name implies this is an almost
flat plaque or plate, though it is very slightly rounded as all the plaques
of this tribe are. It is an easy design to copy in natural black and
white, and is exceedingly decorative. The size is exact., viz., 16 inches
in diameter. The edge is finished off with the herring-bone stitch,
described in "Practical Basket Making."
No. 18. Palatingwa Oval Basket.—This is a beautifully shaped bas-
ket, and very attractive in color and design. The colors are all nat-
ural, viz., the black of the martynia, the brown of the tule root, and the
white of the willow. The oval base is 9% inches long and four inches
wide. At the top the long axis is 18 inches, and the short one 14
inches. It will be seen, therefore, that the sides widen out a little as
they approach the top. The weave is the Havasupai, with a soft coil
made of fine stems.
No. 19. Mesa Grande Basket.—This is an attractive circular bas-
ket, 4% inches high, 6% inches across the bottom, 7% inches across
158 THE BASKET.
the top, and bellied out about an inch from the bottom. It is in black,
brown of the tule root, and white, as indicated.
No. 20. Hoopa Carrying Basket.—This design is half the natural
size. The color is white and the design a light grayish brown. It is
a fine shape for a waste basket. The shaded part of the illustration
at the bottom is made by alternate weavers of brown and white. The
black of the illustration in the circular lines and the design is the
brown of the basket. The original is 5% inches across the bottom and
15% inches across the top. The height is 14% inches.
MATHIAS HOLLANDER,
MAKES A SPECIALTY OF TEAOHINO

%imple life 113iographies.

GEORGE WHARTON JAMES will begin . . .
IN THE OCTOBER CRAFTSMAN

a series of biographies of men
and women who have lived
THE SIMPLE LIFE.

He expects to devote all his time and literary energies in future to
The Craftsman. If members of the Basket Fraternity wish to keep in
touch with him and his work they should subscribe for The Craftsman.
It is a monthly magazine " devoted to those who seek greater simplicity
in art and life and who believe in the dignity of labor." Three Dollars
a year. Matters pertaining to The Indians and their Basketry and
other Handicrafts will receive careful attention. Fraters will find it to
their advantage to communicate directly with GEORGE WHARTON JAMES,
care of The Craftsman, Syracuse, N. Y.
THE BASKET
THE ORGAN OF THE BASKET FRATERNITY 4'
Vol 2. OCTOBER, 1904. No 4.
THE SWASTIKA,
THE EARLIEST KNOWN SYMBOL, AND ITS MIGRATIONS.
By THOMAS WILSON.
Curator, Department of Prehistoric Anthropology, U. S. National Museum.
--•-•141•1
This is practically a large portion of Dr. Wilson's exhaustive monograph. The

complete paper occupies 248 pages equal in size to The Basket, hence it would be
impossible to give it in its entirety. The cuts are all from Dr. Wilson's paper and
are reproduced by the courtesy of the U. S. National Museum.
I reprint these pages and illustrations in order to give to my readers the
opportunity of seeing what an endless field for research the subject of design is.
Here is one design alone, the Swastika, upon which this wonderful paper has
been written. What must the whole subject reveal if one had time to study it
thoroughly? With the assurance that the readers of The Basket will find much
of interest in this monograph I have ventured to give so much of it as will here
be found.—Editor Basket.
TIBET,
Mr. William Woodville Rockhill,* speaking of tile fair at Kumbum,
says :
"I found there a number of Lh'asa Tibetans (they call them Gopa
here) selling pulo, beads of various colors, saffron, medicines, peacock
feathers, incense sticks, etc. I had a talk with these traders, several of
whom I had met here before in 1889, * * * One of them had a
Swastika (yung-drung) tattooed on his hand, and I learned from this
man that this is not an uncommon mode of ormentation in his country."
Count D'Alviella says that the Swastika is continued among the
*"Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet in 1891-92," p. 67.
Spindle Whorls, showing method of using the Carved Stones.

160 THE BASKET.
Buddhists of Tibet ; that the women ornament their petticoats with it,
and that it is also placed upon the breasts of their dead.t
He also reportst a Buddhist statue at the Musee Guimet with Swas-
tikas about the base. He does not state to what country it belongs, so
the author has no means of determining if it is the same statue as is
represented in fig. 29.
INDIA.
Burnout§ says approvingly of the Swastika :

"Christian archaeologists ,believe this was the most ancient sign of the
cross. * * * It was used among the Brahmins from all antiquity.
(Voyez mot 'Swastika' dans notre dictionaire sanskrit.) Swastika,
or Swasta, in India corresponds to 'benediction' among Christians."
The same author, in his translation of the "Lotus de la Bonne Loi,"
one of the nine Dharmas or Canonical books of the Buddhists of the
North, of 28o pages, adds an appendix of his own writing of 583 pages ;
and in one (No. 8) devoted to an enumeration and description of the
sixty-five figures traced on the footprint of Cakya (fig. 32) commences
as follows :
"1. Svastikaya : This is the familiar mystic figure of many Indian
sects, and whose name signifies, literally, 'sign of benediction or of
good augury.' (Rgya tch'er rol pa, Vol. 11, p. Iio.)
* * * "The sign of the Swastika was not less known to the Brah-
mins than to the Buddhists. `Ramayana,' Vol. II , p. 348, ed. Gor.,
Chap. XCVII, st. 17, tells of vessels on the sea bearing this sign of
fortune. This mark, of which the name and usage are certainly ancient,
because it is found on the oldest Buddhist medals, may have been used
as frequently among the Brahmins as among the Buddhists. Most of
the inscriptions on the Buddhist caverns in western India are either
preceded or followed by the holy (sacramentelle) sign of the Swastika.
It appears less common on the Brahmin monuments."
Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi, a Hindu and Jain disciple from Bombay,
India, a delegate to the World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago in
1893, remained for some time in Washington, D. C., proselyting among
the Christians. He is a cultivated gentleman, devoted to the spread
of his religion. I asked his advice and assistance, which he kindly
gave, supervising my manuscript for the Swastika in the extreme
Orient, and furnishing me the following additional information relative
to the Swastika in India, and especially among the Jains :
"The Swastika is misinterpreted by so-called Western expounders of
our ancient Jain philosophy. The original idea was very high, but later
on some persons thought the cross represented only the combination of
the male and the female principles. While we are on the physical plane
f"La Migration des Symboles," p. 55, citing note I., Journ. Asiatique, 2e serie,
IV., p. 245. and Pallas, "Sammlungen historischer Nachrichten iiber die mango-
lischen Volkerschaften," I., p. 277.
tIbid., p. 55.
§"Des Sciences et Religion," p. 256.
THE BASKET: 161
and our propensities on the material line, we think it necessary to unite

these (sexual) principles for our spiritual growth. On the higher
plane the soul is sexless, and those who wish to rise higher than the
physical plane must eliminate the idea of sex.
"I explain the Jain Swastika by the following illustration (fig. 33)
The horizontal and vertical lines crossing each other at right angles
form the Greek cross. They represent spirit and matter. We add four
other lines by bending to the right each arm of the cross, then three
circles and the crescent, and a circle within the crescent. The idea
thus symbolized is that there are four grades of existence of souls in
the material universe. The first is the lowest state—Archaic or proto-
plasmic life. The soul evolves from that state to the next—the earth
with its plant and animal life. Then follows the third stage—the
human ; then the fourth stage—the celestial. The word 'celestial' is
here held to mean life in other worlds than our own. All these gradu-
ations are combinations of matter and soul on different scales. The
spiritual plane is that in which the soul is entirely freed from the bonds
of matter. In order to reach that plane, one must strive to possess
the three jewels (represented by the three circles), right belief, right
Fig. 34a. The Formation of the Jain Swastika—first stage. Handful of rice or
meal, in circular form, thinner in center.
Fig. 34b. The Formation of the Jain Swastika—second stage. Rice or meal, as
shown in preceding figure, with finger marks, indicated at I, 2, 3, 4.
knowledge, right conduct. When a person has these, he will cer-

tainly go higher until he reaches the state of liberation, which is rep-
resented by the crescent. The crescent has the form of the rising moon
and is always growing larger. The circle in the crescent represents
the omniscient state of the soul when it has attained full consciousness,
is liberated, and lives apart from matter.
"The interpretation, according to the Jain view of the cross, has
nothing to do with the combination of the male and female principle.
Worship of the male and female principles, ideas based upon sex,
162 THE BASKET.
lowest even of the emotional plane, can never rise higher than the male
and female.
"The Jains make the Swastika sign when we enter our temple of
worship. This sign reminds us of the great principles represented by
the three jewels and by which we are to reach the ultimate good.
Those symbols intensify our thoughts and make them more per-
manent."
Mr. Gandhi says the Jains make the sign of the Swastika as fre-
quently and deftly as the Roman Catholics make the sign of the cross.
It is not confined to the temple nor to the priests or monks. When-
ever or wherever a benediction or blessing is given, the Swastika is .
used. Figs. 34a, b, c form a series showing how it is made. A hand-
ful of rice, meal, flour, sugar, salt, or any similar substance, is spread
over a circular space, say, 3 inches in diameter and one-eighth of an
inch deep (fig. 34a), then commence at the outside of the circle (fig.
34b), on its upper or farther left-hand corner, and draw the finger
through the meal just to the left of the centre, halfway or more to the
Fig. 34c.
Fig. 35. Bronze Pin-head from Cheithan-Thaugh. De Morgan, "Au Caucase,"
fig. 177.
opposite or near edge of the circle (I), then again to the right (2),
then upward (3), finally to the left where it joins with the first mark
(4.) The ends are swept outward, the dots and crescent put in above,
and the sign is complete (fig. 34c).
CLASSICAL ORIENT.
BABYLONIA, ASSYRIA, CHALDEA, AND PERSIA.
Waring says, "In Babylonian and Assyrian remains we search for it
(the Swastika) in vain." Max Muller and Count Goblet d'Alviella
are of the same opinion.
TIIE BASKET. 163
ARMENIA.
M. J. de Morgan (the present director of the Gizeh Museum at
Cairo), under the direction of the French Government, made exten-
sive excavations and studies into the prehistoric antiquities and archx-
ology of Russian Armenia. His report is entitled "Le Premier Age de
Metaux dans l'Armenie Russe."* He excavated a number of pre-
historic cemeteries, and found therein various forms of crosses en-
graved on ceintures, vases, and medallions. The Swastika, though
present, was more rare. He found it on the heads of two large bronze
pins (figs. 35 and 36) and on one piece of pottery (fig. 37) from the
prehistoric tombs. The bent arms are all turned to the left, and would
be the Suavastika of Prof. Max Muller.
CAUCASUS.
In Caucasus, M. E. Chantre* found the Swastika in great purity of

form. Fig 38 represents portions of a bronze plaque from that coun-
try, used on a ceinture or belt. Another of slightly different style, but
Fig. 36. Bronze Pin-Head from Akthala. De Morgan, "Au Caucase," fig. 178.
Fig. 37. Swastika Mark on Black Pottery. Cheithan-thagh. De Morgan, "Au
Caucase," fig. 179.
with square cross and arms bent at right angles, is represented in his
p1. 8, fig. 5. These belonged to the first age of iron, and much of the
art was intricate.t It represented animals as well as all geometric
forms, crosses, circles (concentric and otherwise), spirals, meanders,
chevrons, herring bone, lozenges, etc. These were sometimes cast in
the metal, at other times repousse, and again were engraved, and occa-
sionally these methods were employed together. Fig. 39 shows another
form, frequently employed and suggested as a possible evolution of
*"Mission Scientifique au Caucase."

*"Recherches Anthropologiques dans la Caucase," tome deuxieme, periode pro-
tohistorique, Atlas, pl. it, fig. 3.
tCount Goblet d'Alvielle, "La Migration des Symboles," p. 51.
All the cuts of this page are reprinted from the report of the U S. National Museum,
164 THE BASKET.
the Swastika, from the same locality and same plate. Fig. 4o repre-
sents signs reported by Waring$ as from Asia Minor, which he credits,
without explanation, to Ellis's "Antiquities of Heraldy."
The specimen shown in fig. 41 is reported by Waring,* quoting
Fig. 38. Fragment of Bronze Ceinture. Swastika repousse. Necropolis of

Koban, Caucasus. Chantre, "Le Caucase," pl. II, fig. 3.
Rzewusky,t as one of the several branding marks used on Circassian
horses for identification.
Mr. Frederick Remington, the celebrated artist and literateur, has
an article, "Cracker Cowboy in Florida,"I wherein he discourses of the
Fig. 39. Bronze Agrafe or Belt Plate. Triskelion in spiral. Koban, Caucasus.
Chantre, "Le Caucase," pl. II, fig. 4.
forgery of brands on cattle in that country. One of his genuine brands
is a circle with a small cross in the center. The forgery consists in
rCeramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 41, figs. 5 and 6.
*"Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 42, fig. zoc.
f"Mines de l'Orient," V.
tHarper's Magazine, August, 1895.
THE BASKET. 165

elongating each arm of the cross and turning it with a scroll, forming
an ogee Swastika (fig. 13d), which, curiously enough, is practically the
same brand used on Circassian horses (fig. 41). Max Ohnefalsch-
Richterif says that instruments of copper (audumbaroasih) are recom-
mended in the Atharva Veda to make the Swastika, which represents
Fig. 40. Swastika Signs from Asia Minor. Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote
Ages," pl. 41, figs. 5 and 6.
the figure 8; and thus he attempts to account for the use of that mark
branded on the cows in India (supra, p. 772), on the horses in Cir-
cassia (fig. 41), and said to have been used in Arabia.
ASIA MINOR—TROY (HISSARLIK).
Many specimens of the Swastika were found by Dr. Schliemann in

the ruins of Troy, principally on spindle whorls, vases, and bijoux of
precious metal. Zmigrodzki§ made from Dr. Schliemann's great atla9
the following classification of the objects found at Troy, ornamented
with the Swastika and its related forms :
Fifty-five of pure form ; 114 crosses with the four dots, points or
Fig. 41. Brand for Horses in Circassia. Ogee • Swastika, tetraskelion. Waring,
"Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," p1. 42, fig. 20c.
Fig. 42. Fragment of Lustrous Black Pottery. Swastika, right. Depth, 23 feet.
Schliemann, 'Ilios," fig. 247.
alleged nail holes (Croix swasticale); 102 with three branches or arms
(triskelion) ; 86 with five branches or arms ; 63 with six branches or
arms ; total, 42o.
Zmigrodzki continues his classification by adding those which have
relation to the Swastika thus : Eighty-two representing stars; 70 rep-
resenting suns ; 42 representing branches of trees or palms ; 15, animals
non-ferocious, deer, antelope, hare, swan, etc.; total, 209 objects. Many
.of these were spindle whorls.
Dr. Schliemann, in his works, "Troja" and "Ilios," describes at
§Bulletins de la Soc. d'Anthrop., 1888, II., p. 678.
1[Dixeme Congres International d'Anthropologie et d'Archeologie Prehistorique,
Paris, 1889, P. 474•
All the cuts of this page are reprinted from the report of the LT S National Museum,
166 THE BASKET.
length his excavations of these cities and his discoveries of the Swastika
on many objects. His reports are grouped under titles of the various
cities, first, second, third, etc., up to the seventh city, counting always
from the bottom, the first being deepest and oldest. The same system
will be here pursued. The first and second cities were 45 to 52 feet (13
to 16 meters) deep ; the third, 23 to 33 feet (7 to 10 meters) deep; the
fourth city, 13 to 17.6 feet (4 to 5Y2 meters) deep; the fifth city, 7 to 13
feet (2 to 4 meters) deep; the sixth was the Lydian city of Troy, and
the seventh city, the Greek Ilium, approached the surface.
First and Second Cities.—But few whorls were found in the first and
second cities* and none of these bore the Swastika mark, while thou-
sands were found in the third, fourth, and fifth cities, many of which
bore the Swastika mark. Those of the first city, if unornamented, have
a uniform lustrous black color and are the shape of a cone (fig. 55) or
of two cones joined at the base (figs. 52 and 71). Both kinds were
found at 33 feet and deeper. Others from the same city were orna-
mented in incised lines rubbed in with white chalk, in which case they
were flat.t In the second city the whorls were smaller than in the
first. They were all of a black color and their incised ornamentation
was practically the same as those from the upper cities.t
Zmigrodzki congratulated himself on having discovered among
Schliemann's finds what he believed to be the oldest representation of
the Swastika of which we had reliable knowledge. It was a frag-
ment of a vase (fig. 42) of the lustrous black pottery peculiar to the
whorls of the first and second cities. But Zmigrodzki was compelled
to recede, which he did regretfully, when Schliemann, in a later edi-
tion, inserted footnote (p 350) saying, that while he had found
this (with a companion piece) at a great depth in his excavations, and
had attributed them to the first city, yet, on subsequent examination,
he had become convinced that they belonged to the third city.
The Swastika, turned both ways was frequent in the third, fourth,
and fifth cities.
The following specimens bearing the Swastika mark are chosen, out
of the many specimens in Schliemann's great album, in order to make
a fair representation of the various kinds, both of whorls and of Swas-
tikas. They are arranged in the order of cities, the depth being indi-
cated in feet.
The Third, or Burnt, City (23 to 33 feet deep).—The spindle-whorl
shown in fig. 43 contains two Swastikas and two crosses.* Of the one
Swastika, two arms are bent to the right at right angles, while the
two bends, one at right angles, the other curved, both to the right. The
other two are bent to the right in curves. The other Swastika has but
specimen shown in fig. 44 has two Swastikas, in one of which the four
*"Ilios," pp. 229, 35o, note I.

tIbid, figs. 63-70, p. 229.
p. 303.
*All spindle-whorls from the hill of Hissarlik are represented one-half natural
size.
THE BASKET. 167
arms are bent at right angles to the left. The entire figure is traced in
double lines, one heavy and one light, as though to represent edges of
shadows. The second Swastika has its ends bent at an obtuse angle
to the left, and at the extremities the lines taper to a point. The whorl
shown in fig. 45 is nearly spherical, with two Swastikas in the upper
Fig. 43. Spindle-Whorl with Two Swastikas and Two Crosses. Depth, 23 feet.
Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1858.
Fig. 44. Spindle-Whorl with Two Swastikas. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann,
"Ilios," fig. 1874.
part. The ends of the four arms in both are bent at right angles, one
to the right, the other to the left. In fig. 47 the top is surrounded
by a line of zigzag or dog-tooth ornaments. Within this field, on the
upper part and equidistant from the central hole, are three Swastikas,
the ends of all of which turn to the left, and but one at right angles.
All three have one or more ends bent, not at any angle, but in a curve
Fig. 45. Spindle-Whorl with Two Swastikas. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann,

"Ilios," fig. 1919.
Fig. 47. Spindle-Whorl with three Swastikas. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann,
"Ilios," fig. 1851.
or hook, making an ogee. Fig. 48 shows a large whorl with two or

three Swastikas on its upper surface in connection with several indefin-
ite marks apparently without meaning. The dots are interspersed over
the field, the Swastikas all bent to the right, but with uncertain lines
and at indefinite angles. In one of them the main line forming the cross
is curved toward the central hole ; in another, the ends are both bent
in the same direction—that is, pointing to the periphery of the whorl.
Fig. 49 shows a sphere or globe (see figs. 75, 88) divided by longi-
tudinal lines into four segments, which are again divided by an equa-
torial line. These segments contain marks or dots and circles, while
I68 THE BASKET.
one segment contains a normal Swastika turned to the left. This terra-
cotta ball has figured in a peculiar degree in the symbolic representa-
tion of the Swastika. Greg says of it :*
"We see on one hemisphere the standing for Zeus (=Indra)
the sky god, and on the other side a rude representation of a sacred
(somma) tree ; a very interesting and curious western perpetuation of
Fig. 48. Spindle-Whorl, with Swastikas. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios,"

fig. 1982.
Fig. 49. Sphere Divided into Eight Segments, One of Which Contains a Swastika.
the original idea and a strong indirect proof of the standing for
the emblem of the sky god."
Fig. 5o represents one of the biconical spindle-whorls with various
decorations' on the two sides, longitudinal lines interspersed with dots,
arcs of concentric circles arranged in three parallels, etc. On one of
these sides is a normal Swastika, the arms crossing at right angles, the
ends bent at right angles to the left. The specimen shown in fig. 51
contains four perfect Swastikas and two inchoate and uncertain. Both
of the latter have been damaged by breaking the surface. The four
Fig. 5o. Biconical Spindle -Whorl with Swastika. Schliemann, "Dios," fig. 1949.
Swastikas all have their arms bent to the right ; some are greater than
at right angles, and one arm is curved. Several ends are tapered to a
point. Fig. 52 shows a whorl of biconical form. It contains two
Swastikas, the main arms of which are ogee forms, crossing each other
at the center at nearly right angles, the ogee ends curving to the right.
In fig. 53, the entire field of the upper surface is filled with, or occupied
by, a Greek cross, in the center of which is the central hole of the whorl,
while on each of the four arms is represented a Swastika, the main
*Archxologia, XLVIII., pt. 2, p. 322.

THE BASKET. 169
arms all crossing at right angles, the ends all bent to the right at a
slightly obtuse angle. Each of these bent ends tapers to a point, some
with slight curves and a small flourish. (See figs. 33 and 34 for refer-
ence to this flourish.) The specimen shown in fig. 54 has a center field
Fig. 51. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Six Swastikas. Depth, 33 feet. Schlie-
mann, "Ilios," fig. 1859.
Fig. 52. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Two Ogee Swastikas. Depth, 33 feet.
in its upper part, of which the decoration consists of incised parallel
lines forming segments of circles, repeated in each one of the four
quarters of the field. The center hole is surrounded by two concentric
rings of incised lines. In one of these spaces is a single Swastika ; its
Fig. 53. Spindle-Whorl with Four Swastikas. Depth, 33 feet. De Mortillet,

"Musee Prehistorique," fig. 1240.
Fig. 54. Spindle-Whorl with One Swastika. Depth, 33 feet. De Mortillet,
"Musee Prehistorique," fig. 1241.
Fig. 55. Conical Spindle-Whorl with Three Ogee Swastikas. Depth, 13% feet.
Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 185o.
main arms crossing at right angles, two of its ends bent to the left at
right angles, the other two in the same direction and curved.
The Fourth City (13.2 to 17.6 feet deep).—Schliemann says :*
"We find among the successors of the burnt city the same triangular
idols ; the same primitive bronze battle-axes ; the same terra-cotta vases,
with or without tripod feet ; the same double-handled goblets (
) ; the same battle-axes of jade, porphyry, and diorite; the same
rude stone hammers, and saddle querns of trachyte. * * * The
number of rude stone hammers and polished stone axes are fully thrice
as large as in the third city, while the masses of shells and cockles
*"Ilios," pp. 518, 571.

170 THE BASKET.
accumulated in the debris of the houses are so stupendous that they

baffle all description. The pottery is coarser and of a ruder fabric than
in the third city. * * * There were also found in the fourth city
many needles of bone for female handiwork, bear tusks, spit rests of
mica schist, whetstones of slate, porphyry, etc., of the usual form, hun-
dreds of small silex saws, and some knives of obsidian. Stone whorls,
which are so abundant at Mycenx, are but rarely found here; all of
those which occur are, according to Mr. Davis, of steatite. On the
other hand, terra-cotta whorls, with or without incised ornamentation,
are found by thousands; their forms hardly vary from those in the
third (the burnt) city, and the same may be generally said of their in-
cised ornamentation. * * * The same representation of specimens
of whorls are given as in the third city, and the same observations
apply."
Fig. 55 shows a simple cone, the upper surface being flat and without
other decoration than three Swastikas equidistant from the hole and
from each other, all made by the two crossed ogee lines with ends
curved to the right. This specimen is much like that of fig. 71
.(Madam Schliemann collection in the U. S. National Museum, Cat. No.
149704). Fig. 56 shows a remarkable spindle-whorl. Its marks
Fig. 56. Conical Spindle-Whorl with Four Swastikas of Various Kinds. Depth,
13/2 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1879.
Fig. 57. Conical Spindle-Whorl with Swastikas. Depth, 13,4 feet. "Schliemann,
-Bios," fig. 1894-
greatly excited the interest of Dr. Schliemann, and he devoted much
space to the discussion of these and similar characters. The whorl is
in the form of a cone. It bears upon its conical surface four Swastikas,
the ends of three of which bend to the right and one to the left. There
are but two of these ends which bend at right angles. Most of them
are at an obtuse angle, while the ends of two are curved. Some taper
to a point and finish with a slight flourish. The other marks which so
interested Dr. Schliemann were the chevron ornament (zigzag), drawn
in parallel lines, which, he strongly argued, and fortified with many
authorities, represented lightning. The second series of marks he
called a "burning altar." This assertion he also fortified with authori-
ties and with illustrations of a similar sign from different countries.
(See fig. mi.) The third series of marks represented an animal,
name and character unknown, with a head or tusks with two large
branching horns or ears, a straight back, a stiff but drooping tail, four
All the cuts of this page are reprinted from the report of the 17 S. National Museum,
THE BASKET. 12I
legs, and two rows of the remarkable dots—seven in one six

in the other—placed over the back of the animal. (See figs. 99
and 19o.) Fig. 57 represents another cone-shaped whorl, the flat
surface of which is engraved with one perfect Swastika, the two
arms crossing each other at right angles and the two ends bend-
ing at right angles to the right ; the other two are curved,
also to the right. Two of the other figures Dr. Schliemann calls Swas-
tikas, although they are uncertain in some of their angles. The fourth
character he imagined to be an inchoate or attempted Swastika. Fig.
58 shows a biconical whorl with curious and inexplicable characters.
Fig. 58. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with One Swastika. Depth, 131/2 feet. Schlie-
One of them forms a crude Swaskita, which, while the main arms cross
at right angles the ends are bent at uncertain angles, three to the left
and one to the right. These characters are so undetermined that it is
doubtful if they could have had any signification, either ornamental or
otherwise. Fig. 59 is almost conical, the flat surface thereof being only
slightly raised at the center. It is much the same form as the whorls
shown in figs. 55 and 71. The nearly flat surface is the top, and on it,
Fig. 59. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Three Ogee Swastikas. Depth, 131/2 feet.
Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. I99o.
equidistant from the center hole and from each other, are three ogee
Swastikas of double lines, with their ends all curved to the right. In
the alternate spaces are small incised circles, with dots in the centers.
In fig. 6o a biconical whorl is shown. It has three of the circle seg-
ments marked in equilateral positions, with three or four parallel lines,
after the style shown in fig. 54. In the spaces are two Swastikas, in
both of which the two main arms cross at right angles. Some of the
ends bend at a right, and others at an obtuse, angle. In one of the
All the cuts of this p.Age are reprinted from the report of the C. S National Museum,
172 THE BASKET.
Swastikas the bent ends turn toward each other, forming a rude figure
8. The specimen shown in fig. 61 is biconical, but much flattened; it
contains five ogee Swastikas, of which the ends of four bend to the right
and one to the left. In an interval between them is one of the burning
altars. Fig. 63 represents a spindle-whorl with a cup-shaped depres-
sion around the central hole, which is surrounded by three lines in con-
Fig. 6o. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Two Swastikas. Depth, I6T/2 feet. Schlie-
Fig. 61. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Fire Ogee Swastikas. Depth, 18 feet.
centric circles, while on the field, at 90 degrees from each other, are
right four ogee Swastikas (tetraskelions), the arms all turning to the
left and spirally each upon itself. The specimen shown in fig. 64 is bi-
conical, though, as usual, the upper cone is the smallest. There .are par-
allel lines, three in a set, forming the segments of three circles, in one
Fig. 63. Spindle-Whorl Having Four Ogee Swastikas with Spiral Volutes.
Depth, 18 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1868.
Fig. 64. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with One Swastika. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schlie-
mann, fig. 1865.
space of which appears a Swastika of a curious and unique form, similar
to that shown in fig. 6o. The two main arms cross each other at very
nearly right angles and the ends also bend at right angles toward and
approaching each other, so that if continued slightly farther they would
close and form a decorative figure 8. The specimen shown in fig. 65 is
decorated with parallel lines, three in number, arranged in segments of
three circles, the periphery of which is toward the center, as in figs. 6o
and 64. In one of the spaces is a Swastika of curious form; the main
THE BASKET. 173
arms cross each other at right angles, but the four ends represent dif-
erent styles—two are bent square to the left, one square to the right,
and the fourth curves to the left at no angle. Fig. 66 shows a biconical
whorl, and its top is decorated to represent three Swastikas and three
burning altars. The ends of the arms of the Swastikas all bend to the
Fig. 65. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with One Swastika. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schlie-
Fig. 66. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Three Swastikas and Three Burning
Altars. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1872.
left, some are at right angles and some at obtuse angles, while two or
three are curved ; two of them show corrections, the marks at the ends
having been changed in one case at a different angle and in another
from a straight line to a curve. Fig. 67 shows four specimens of Swas-
tika, the main arms of all of which cross at right angles. The ends all
bend to the right, at nearly right angles, tapering to a point and finish-
ing with the slight flourish noted in the Jain Swastika (fig. 34c). They
Fig. 67. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Four Swastikas. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schlie-
Fig. 68. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Three Swastikas of Different Styles,
Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1911.
are alternated with a chevron decoration. Fig. 68 shows three Swasti-

kas, the ends of the arms of which are all bent to the left. One Swas-
tika is composed of two ogee lines. The arms of another are curved,
but all others are bent at right angles, some of them tapering to points,
finishing with a little flourish (figs. 67 and 34c). One of these ends,
like that in fig. 66, has been corrected by the maker. Fig. 69 represents
one Swastika in which the main arms cross at nearly right angles.
Both ends of one arm turn to the left and those of the other arm turn
174 THE BASKET.
to the right in figure 8 style. One of the ends is curved, the others
bent at different angles. Fig. 70 shows the parallel lines representing
segments of a circle similar to figs. 6o, 64, 65, and 69, except that it has
Fig. (9. Bicenical Spindle-Whorl with One Swastika of the Figure 8 Style.
Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, "Bios," fig. 186i.
Fig. 70. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with One Swastika, Slightly Ogee. Depth, 19.8
feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1864.
four instead of three. It has one Swastika; the main arms (of double
lines) cross at right angles, the ends all curving to the left with a slight
ogee.
The U. S. National Museum was, during 1893, the fortunate re-
cipient of a collection of objects from Madame Schliemann, which her
husband, before his death, had signified should be given to the United
States as a token of his remembrance of and regard for his adopted
country. He never forgot that he was an American citizen, and, pre-
paring for death;. made his acknowledgments in the manner mentioned.
Fig. 71. Conical Spindle-Whorl with Three Ogee Swastikas. Depth, 13.5 feet.
Gift of Madame Schliemann. Cat. No. 149704, U. S. N. M.
Fig. 75. Terra-Cotta Sphere with Thirteen Swastikas. Third city. Depth, 26
feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," figs. 245, 246.
The collection consisted of 178 objects, all from ancient Troy, and they
made a fair representation of his general finds. This collection is in
the Department of Prehistoric Anthropology. In this collection is a
spindle-whorl, found at 13% feet (4 meters) depth and belonging to
the fourth city. It had three Swastikas upon its face, and is here
shown as fig. 71.*
*"Ilios," fig. 1852.
THE BASKET. 175
The Sixth and Seventh Cities.—The sixth city is described in "Ilios,"

page 587, and the seventh on pages 6o8 and 618. Both cities contained
occasional whorls of clay, all thoroughly baked, without incised or
painted ornamentation, and shed no further light on the Swastika.
Fig. 75 represents the opposite hemispheres of a terra-cotta ball,
found at a depth of 26 feet, divided by incised lines into fifteen zones, of
which two are ornamented with points and the middle zone, the largest
of all, with thirteen specimens of the Swastikas.
Zmigrodzki says* that there were found by Schliemann, at Hissarlik,
fifty-five specimens of the Swastika "pure and simple" (pp. 8o9, 826).
It will be perceived by examination that the Swastika "pure and sim-
ple" comprised Swastikas of several forms ; those in which the four
arms of the cross were at other angles besides right angles, those in
which the ends bent at square and other angles to the right ; then those
to the left (Burnouf and Max Miiller's Suavastika) ; those in which
the bends were, some to the right and some to the left, in the same de-
sign ; where the points tapered off and turned outward with a flourish :
where the arms bent at no angle, but were in spirals each upon itself,
and turned, some to the right, some to the left. We shall see other
related forms, as where the arms turn spirally upon each other instead
of upon themselves. These will sometimes have three, five, six, or
more arms, instead of four (p.768). The cross and the circle will also
appear in connection with the Swastika; and other designs, as zig-
zags (lightning), burning altars, men, animals, and similar representa-
tions will be found associated with the Swastika, and are only related
to it by the association of similar objects from the same locality. A
description of their patterns will include those already figured, together
with Schliemann's comments as to signification and frequency. They
become more important because these related forms will be found in
distant countries and among distant peoples, notably among the prehis-
toric peoples of America. Possibly these designs have a signification.
possibly not. Dr. Schliemann thought that in many cases they had.
Professor Sayce supported him, strongly inclining toward an alphabetic
or linguistic, perhaps ideographic, signification. No opinion is ad-
vanced by the author on these theories, but the designs are given in
considerable numbers, to the end that the evidence may be fully re-
ported, and future investigators, radical and conservative, imaginative
and unimaginative, theorists and agnostics, may have a fair knowledge
of this mysterious sign, and an opportunity to indulge their respective
talents at length. Possibly these associated designs may throw some
light upon the origin or history of the Swastika or of some of its re-
lated forms.
The specimen represented in fig. 76 is not a spindle-whorl, as shown
by the number and location of the holes. It bears a good representation
of a Swastika the form of which has been noticed several times. The
two main arms cross each other at nearly right angles. The ends of the
arms all bend to the right at a slightly obtuse angle and turn outward
with a flourish somewhat after the style of the Jain Swastika (fig. 34c).
Fig. 77 represents a spindle-whorl with a Swastika of the ogee style
curved to the right. The center hole of the whorl forms the center of
*Tenth Congr. Inter. d'Anthrop. et d'Archmol. Prehist., Paris, 1889, P. 474.
176 THE BASKET.
the sign. The figure is of double lines, and in the interspaces are four
dots, similar to those in figs. 96-98, and others which Dr. Schliemann
reports as common, and to which he attributes some special but un-
known meaning. Swastikas and crosses of irregular shape and style
Fig. 76. Terra-Cotta Lick whit 0.1e Swastika. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1849.
Fig. 77. Spindle-Whorl with Ogee Swastika. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schlie-
are shown in the field of fig. 78. Two fairly well formed Swastikas ap-
pear, both of the ogee style, with the ends curved to the right. One is
of the style resembling the figure 8 (see figs. 6o and 64). Two others
are crudely and irregularly formed, and would scarcely be recognized
as Swastikas except for their association. Fig. 79 represents uncertain
Fig. 78. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Irregular Swastikas and Crosses. Fourth
city. Depth, 13.6 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1871.
Fig. 79. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Uncertain and Malformed Swastikas,
Third city. Depth, 33 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1870.
and malformed Swastikas. The arms are bent in different directions
in the same line. Two of the main arms are not bent. The inexplica-
ble dots are present, and the field is more or less covered with unmean-
ing or, at least, unexplained marks. Fig. 8o also illustrates the indefin-
ite and inchoate style of decoration. One unfinished Swastika appears
which, unlike anything we have vet seen, has a circle with a dot in the
center for the body of the Swastikas at the crossing of the main arms.
Fig. 81 shows two Swastikas, both crossing their main arms' at right
angles and the ends bending also at right angles—one to the right, the
other to the left. This specimen is inserted here because of the numer-
ous decorations of apparently unmeaning, or at least, unexplained,
All the cuts of this page are reprinted from the report of the U. S National Museum,
THE BASKET. 177

lines. Fig. 82 shows four segmented circles with an indefinite Swastika
in one of the spaces. The ends are not well turned, only one being well
attached to the main arms. One of the ends is not joined, one over-
runs and forms a sort of cross ; the other has no bend. Fig 83 contains
an unmistakable Swastika, the main arms of which cross at right angles,
Fig. 80. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Irregular and Partly Formed Swastikas
Having Large Dot in Center. Fourth city. Depth, 23 feet.
Fig. 81. Biconical Spindle-Whorl, Flattened, with Two Swastikas and Indefinite
Decoration. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1947.
turning to the left with an ogee curve. The peculiarity of this specimen
is that the center of the sign is inclosed in a circle, thus showing the
indifference of the Swastika sign to other signs, whether cross or circle.
The outer parts of the field are occupied with the parallel lines of the
circle segment, as shown in many other specimens. The specimen
shown in fig. 84 is similar in style to the last. The bodies of six Swas-
tikas are formed by a circle and dot, while the arms of the Cross start
from the outside of the circle, extending themselves in curves, all of
Fig. 82. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with One Swastika and Four Segments of
Circles. Third city. Depth, 33 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1989.
Fig. 83. Biconical Spindle-Whorl, Flattened. Ogee Swastika with central circle.
them to the right. (See fig. 13d.) It has no other ornamentation.

The same remark is to be made about the indifferent use of the Swas-
tika in association with cross or circle. We have seen many Swastikas
composed of the crossed ogee lines or curves. Fig. 85 shows the same
ogee lines and curves not crossed; and thus, while it may be that it
is not a Swastika, yet it shows a relationship of form from which the
derivation of a Swastika would be easy.
178 THE BASKET.
Attention has been called to decorations comprising segments of the

circles incised in these whorls, the periphery of which is toward their
centers (figs. 6o, 64, 65, 69, 70, 82, and 83). Also to the mysterious
dots (figs. 46, 56, 75, 76, 77, 79, 84, 92, 96 and 97). Fig. 87 shows
Fig. 84. Biconical Spindle-Whorl with Six Ogee Swastikas Having Central Circle
and Dot. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1862.
Fig. 85. Spherical Spindle-Whorl with Flattened Top and Ogee Lines Which
Do Not Form Swastikas. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1890.
a combination of the segments of three circles, the dots within each,

and two Swastikas. Of the Swastikas, one is normal, turning to the
right ; the other turns to the right, but at an obtuse angle, with one
end straight and the other irregularly curved. Fig. 89 represents a
spindle-whorl of terra-cotta nearly spherical, with decoration of a large
central dot and lines springing thereout, almost like the spokes of a
Fig. 87. Spherical Spindle-Whorl, Flattened. Two Swastikas combined with

segments and dots. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1988.
Fig. 89. Spherical Spindle-Whorl. Large central dot with twelve arms, similar
in form to the ogee Swastika. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1946.
wheel, then all turning to the left as volutes. In some countries this
has been called the sun symbol, but there is nothing to indicate that it
had any signification at Hissarlik. One of the marks resembles the long-
backed four-legged animal (figs. 99 and ioo).* Figs. 9o, 91, 92, and 93
show a further adaptation of the ogee curve developed into Swastikas, in
which many arms start from the center circle around the central hole
*"Ilios," p. 418.
All the cats of this page are reprinted from the report of the U. S National Museum,
THE BASKET. 179
in the whorl, finally taking a spiral form. The relation of this to a

sun symbol is only mentioned and not specified or declared. The in-
explicable and constantly recurring dots are seen in fig. 9o.
It is not contended that these are necessary evolutions of the Swas-
tika. We will see farther on many lines and forms,of decoration by
incised lines on these Trojan whorls, which may have had no relation
to the Swastika, but are inserted here because persons rich in theories
Fig. go. Spindle-Whorl. Central dot with ogee arms radiating therefrom in dif-
ferent directions, but in the form of a Swastika. Third city. Depth,
29 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 183o.
Fig. 92. Spindle-Whorl with Central Circle and Many Arms. Fourth city.
Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1837.
Fig. 93. Spindle-Whorl with Central Hole, Large Circle, and Many Curved Arms.
and brilliant in imagination have declared that they could see a resem-
blance, a relation, in this or some other decoration. As objects belong-
ing to the same culture, from the same locality, and intimately asso-
ciated with unmistakable Swastikas, they were part of the res gestae,
and as such entitled to admission as evidence in the case. The effect
of their evidence is a legitimate subject for discussion and argument.
To refuse these figures admission would be to decide the case against
this contention without giving the opposing party an opportunity to see
the evidence or to be heard in argument. Therefore, the objects are in-
serted.
Specimens of other crosses are presented because the Swastika is
considered to be a form of the cross. There may have been no evolu-
tion or relationship between them ; but no person is competent to de-
cide from a mere inspection or by reason of dissimilarity that there
was not. We have to plead ignoramus as to the growth and evolution
of both cross and Swastika, because the origin of both is lost in an-
tiquity. But all are fair objects for discussion. There certainly is
nothing improbable in the relationship and evolution between the Swas-
tika and the cross. It may be almost assumed.
Evidence leading to conviction may be found in associated con-
temporaneous specimens. M. Montelius, an archaeologist of repute in
the National Museum at Stckholm, discovered eight stages of culture
in the bronze age of that country, which discovery was based solely
upon the foregoing principle applied to the fibulae found in prehistoric
graves. In assorting his stock of fibulae, he was enabled to lay out a
series of eight styles, each different, but with many presentations. He
arranged them seriatim, according to certain differences in size, style,
by courtesy cf the Secretary of the Smithsonion Institute.
180 THE BASKET.
elegance of workmanship, etc., No. 1 being smallest, and No. 8 the

largest and most elaborate. They were then classified according to
locality and association, and he discovered that Nos. 1 and 2 belonged
together, on the same body or in the same grave, and the same with
Nos. 2 and 3, 3 mid 4, and so on to No. 8, but that there was no general
or indefinite intermixture; Nos. 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 were not found
together and were not associated, and so on. Nos. 7 and 8 were asso-
ciated, but not 6 and 8, nor 5 and 7, nor was there any association be-
yond adjoining numbers in the series. Thus Montelius was able to de-
termine that each one or each two of the series formed a stage in the
culture of these people. While the numbers of the series separated
Fig. 94. Large Biconical Spindle-Whorl. Four crosses with bifurcated arms.
from each other, as 1, 5, 8, were never found associated, yet it was con-
clusively shown that they were related, were the same object, all served
a similar purpose, and together formed an evolutionary series showing
their common origin, derivative growth and continuous improvement
in art, always by communication between their makers or owners.
Thus it may be with the other forms of crosses, and thus it appears
to be with the circle and spiral Swastikas and those with ends bent in
Fig. 95. Spindle-Whorl. Hole and large circle in center with broad arms of
Greek cross. Third city. Depth, 26.4 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1820.
Fig. 96. Spindle-Whorl. Hole and large circle in center. Extended parallel arms
with dots, forming a Greek cross. Third city. Depth,
23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1817.
opposite and different directions. Just what their relations are and at
which end of the series the evolution began, is not argued. This is
left for the theorists and iffiaginists, protesting, however, that they
must not run wild nor push their theories beyond bounds. Fig. 94
All the cuts of this page are reprinted from the report of the U. S. National MuSeum,
THE BASKET. 181

represents four crosses, the main arms of which are at right angles,
and each and all ends, instead of being turned at an angle-which would
make them Swastikas, are bifurcated and turn both ways, thus forming
a foliated cross similar to the Maya cross, the "Tree of life." Figs.
95, 96, and 97 show Greek crosses. The centers of the crosses are
occupied by the central hole of the whorl, while the arms extend to the
periphery. In the centres of the respective arms are the ubiquitous
dots. The question might here be asked whether these holes which
represented circles, stood for the sun, symbol or solar disk. The ques-
tion carries its own answer and is a refutation of those who fancy they
can see mythology in everything.
Leaden idol of Hissarlik.—Dr. Schliemann, in his explorations on
Fig. 125. Leaden Idol of Artemis Nana of Chaldea, with Swaskita.t Third city.
Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 126. VA natural size.
Fig. 129. Terra-Cotta Vase with Circle or Ring Inclosing Swastika. Schliemann,
"Troja," fig. mi. Two-fifths natural size.
the hill of Hissarlik, at a depth of 23 feet, in the third, the burnt city,
found a metal idol (fig. 125), which was determined on an analysis to
be lead.* It was submitted to Professor Sayce who made the following
report :t
*fflios," fig. 226, p. 337.
fIbid, p. 694.
182 THE BASKET.
"It is the Artemis Nana of Chaldea, who became the chief deity of
Carchemish, the Hittite capital, and passed through Asia Minor to the
shores and islands of the IEgean Sea. Characteristic figures of the
goddess have been discovered at Mycenx as well as in Cyprus."
The author then quotes Dr. Schliemann's description of the idol in
which he clearly connects the Swastika sign with the female generative
organs.
Professor Sayce was clearly of the opinion that the Swastika was,
among the Trojans, a symbol of the generative power in man.
Dr. Wilson then describes four vases obtained from the ruined city
of Hissarlik, one of them pictured in fig. 129. In this he calls at-
tention to the eyes, the rude nose, the mouth, and covering the genera-
tive organs the Swastika. Therefore he asserts :
"It appears to the author that this sign, in its peculiar position, has
an equal claim as a symbol of blessing, happiness, good fortune, as that
it represents the generative power.
"From the earliest time of which we have knowledge of the thoughts
or desires of man we know that the raising up 'heirs of his body'
constituted his greatest blessing and happiness, and their failure his
greatest misery. The first and greatest command of God to man, as
set forth in the Holy Bible, is to 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replen-
ish the earth.'* This was repeated after the Deluge,t and when He
pronounced the curse in the Garden, that upon the womant was, 'In
sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.' God's greatest blessing to
Abraham, when He gave to him and his seed the land as far as he could
see, was that his seed should be as the dust of the earth, 'so that if a
man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be
numbered.'* 'Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them * * *
so shall thy seed he. * * * As the father of many nations,' etc.
We all know the story of Sarai, how, when she and Abraham had all
riches and power on earth, it was as naught while they were childless,
and how their greatest blessing was the Divine promise of an heir, and
that their greatest happiness was over the birth of Isaac. This may
be no proof of the symbolism of the Swastika, but it shows how, in
high antiquity, man's happiness in his children was such as makes the
Swastika mark, in the position indicated, equally a symbol of good
fortune and blessing as it was when put on the spindle-whorls of
Hissarlik, the vases of Greece, or the fibulae of Euturia."
*Genesis i., 28.

(Genesis viii., 17; ix., 7.
Genesis iii., 16.
*Genesis xiii., 16; xv., 5.
THE BASKET. 183
A UNIQUE INDIAN BASKET.

WILLIAM CONWAY CURTIS.
(From The Southern Workman, April, 1904).
All who are observant of Indian customs, as well as those who are
specially interested in the basketry of the Indians, are familiar with
the various devices which the Indian mother has for carrying her
baby—the hood, or the seal-skin pouch of the Eskimo mother ; the
strips of board or bark upon which the woman of other tribes bind
their little ones—all of which are apt to be more or less decorated
with beads and wampum and color, according to the taste and oppor-
tunity of the mother.
As one travels from the Northwest down through Washington and
Oregon and south to California and the region of the Southwest, the
baby-packer takes almost universally the form of a basket, woven of
willow or cedar roots, or whatever is most convenient. Sometimes a
Courtesy of ' The Southern Workman."

Poma Cradle Basket.
little nest, shaped like the chrysalis of the butterfly or the home of the
young oriole, is fastened to a frame of wicker work. Others are so
fashioned that the frame itself constitutes the baby-nest. Some of them
are quite crude ; but often the Indian mother will put into the weaving
of her baby-basket no end of labor and patience and exquisite skill,
making it a thing of beauty measured by our own most artistic stand-
ards. Quite generally these baby-baskets are supplied with an awning,
woven of the same material, to protect the face of the little one from
the fierce rays of the sun. Sometimes they are decorated with patterns
184 THE BASKET.
wrought in the brilliant plumage of the oriole, the blue bird, or the
California wood duck, with feathers from the scalp or the throat of
the woodpecker and the tufts of the mountain quail. As I have re-
marked, these various forms of the baby-basket are always of interest
to the ethnologist and the lover of Indian basketry. They are quite
common, however. We are all familiar with them.
But some months since I came across a basket—in the possession of
Mr. E. N. Sipperly, of Westport, Connecticut—which is so unlike any.-
thing I ever saw, in basket or in picture, in description or any mention
whatever, that I feel warranted in giving pictures of it, with such
description as I can to those interested in Indian art. It is a Poma
cradle-basket, not a "baby-packer," but a cradle. It is, say, twenty-
four inches long by about ten inches high and twelve inches wide.
Courtesy of The Southern Workman "

Ponta Cradle Basket, Side View.
In general form it is oval. The bottom is constructed in the form of

a half turn of the spiral channel of an augur so that the basket rocks
easily and evenly on the threads, or edges, of the spiral groove. The
top of the basket does not show or suggest the spiral bottom. The
weave is excellent, and the decorative design is both elaborate and
attractive. I though at first that the basket might have been woven
canoe-shaped and twisted after its construction, but the compact even-
ness of the threads (weaving) forbids that, as does the fact that there
is no twist on the upper side of the basket. It is certainly a marvelous
example of mechanical construction in combination with other features
of fine basketry.
The basket is worn and neatly mended at the place where the
mother's foot pressed it in rocking the baby ; otherwise it is in perfect
condition, if indeed the woven repair be not an added touch to its
perfection.
I sent a description of the basket to the curators of our leading
museums ; and, so far as I have learned from them or from other
experts of my acquaintance, this cradle-basket is absolutely unique,
and worthy the acquaintance of all lovers of aboriginal Indian industry_
THE BASKET. 185
PINE NEEDLE BASKETS.

By Mrs. J. P. S. Neligh, Columbus, Ga., also an interview with
Mrs. McAfee, of West Point, Ga.
It may practically be said that Mrs. McAfee, of West Point, Ga., is the origi-
nator of Pine Needle Baskets. So I requested Mrs. Neligh to interview her and
tell exactly how she does the work that has made her so well known. The
introductory remarks by Mrs. Neligh are followed by the stenographic report
of her interview.
Something new are the pine needle baskets, so dainty, bewitchingly
beautiful and so woodsy. They are most unique, as the needles form
the beauty of the basket. They are just what they were meant to
Fig. 59. Pine Needle Baskets.
be ; they only claim to he pine needle baskets of modest brown, and

seem to say : "I am from the pine woods—simple and unpretentious.
I modestly stand for what I am—a Pine Needle Basket. No decorative
border haunts me—no pinky-blue or violet gray dyes can enhance
the beauty of my self toned brown that Mother Nature knows so well
how to bring about. I was browned by glints of sunlight, blown about
by midnight winds, moistened by summer dews and polished by
wandering swain who gathered violets along the wooded trails scat-
tered deep with fallen straws."
The good resiny odored receptacles are sure to win a way into the
hearts of all, for they bring to mind the good old days among the pines.
And he who would make pine needle baskets should go to the deep
dark forest in whose sombre depths lie these long straws, being
colored ready for use, and gather them herself. They make far
prettier baskets than do those cured a natural green. In our work we
procure the extra long sixteen or eighteen inch straws and lay them on
papers in a shady place, on the north side of the building, turning them
over several times until they are well cured.
To make one of these pretty and useful baskets, take three straws,
just as they are picked from the tree or ground. You will find a sort
of sheath holding the three needles—slip this off and clip the ends so
the tip of lighter color will not be used and proceed as in any coiled
basket.
To those less experienced in basket making I might add : Take the
three straws in your left hand, then with a linen carpet thread—same
186 THE BASKET.
color as the needles—begin to wind around the straws back an inch

or so from the end; wind three times then pass the end of the thread
over the wound stitches and wind toward the end, binding in this end
as you wind. Now cross the ends of the straws, make your first sewed
stitch, and bind the loop just made. Sew the coil to this center by
placing the needle under each thread in center, having the needle point
come out at the left side of the thread below each stitch.
As the center enlarges insert more straws, hiding the ends in the
coil. By examining the needles you will find a right and wrong side—
or a polished and rough side. Insert the needles so the polished
side is outermost.
The beauty of your basket depends largely upon making it right
side out, as well as the exactness of stitch and evenness of the size
of the coil. The most experienced pine needle basket maker I know
told me she considered it necessary for a beginner to make nine baskets
before expecting to make one good one.
The following is the result of the stenographic interview with
Mrs. McAfee:
Will you kindly tell how you first began to use the pine needles?
"The necessity, during the war, when we had to make everything.
The wagoners brought up long-leaf pine needles and that suggested
making hats, because we had to make our own hats, and I went to
work and made a hat. That was the first thing I made with pine
needles. Before that I had made them of coiled rush. The material,
or pine needles, coming to hand suggested the work. Then I made
all my friends fancy baskets, pin trays, etc., of pine needles.
`.`The first thing I made with pine needles was a hat for my father,
using three needles or straws to the coil. I sewed it with the last spool
of Coats' thread (No. 5o) that we had. That was the last spool of
bought thread on the plantation. After that we spun it there from
the raw material."
How long did you continue making these pine needle hats?
"I made hats for my father, my brother and one for myself—just
a hack hat, for I never would wear a sunbonnet. I was solicited to
make them for other people, and was offered ten dollars for a hat,
but did not have to do it. I was working for the love of it."
How long did you keep up this pine needle work?
"Not long. I really don't remember, but not longer than a year ;
perhaps one season."
Just fancy work for the season?
"Occasionally some neighbor or friend would want a little basket,
and I did it along that way, a little at a time, all during the war, after
I found out about it. Then I didn't do any more until about five years
ago, when I took it up again."
You might say the art had passed from you, or was discontinued until five
or six years ago?
"Yes, and then it was suggested as a pastime for my grandchildren."
It was revived by having some pine needles sent to you?
"Yes, the needles were sent to me for soft pillows and then the
children br—ight me some long-leaf needles, and that suggested making
baskets. I began by telling the children stories about how a lady
THE BASKET. 187
made hats of the pine needles during the war, and they asked if they
couldn't make some. I told them we would try, and I got a needle and
thread and we began making little souvenir baskets."
How did you get into the basket circle again; that is, making baskets your-
self again as an art?
"That was through the Woman's Club. Mrs. Johnson became very
much interested. She wanted me to make some to display at a fair of
Fig. 6o. Pine Needle Basket with Cone for Handle of Cover.
tke Woman's Club of Georgia, and I sat up night after night and
made some and sent up. I had only about five or six days to make
them."
She accidentally saw the little baskets and admired them, and gave you inspi-
ration to make more?
"Yes, on short time. Soon I received another enthusiastic request
for the Arts and Crafts Bazaar. I made up then about two dozen."
Were these sold?
"Nearly all of them were sold—all but one or two. I really made
them as a pastime, because I enjoyed it. I had the material, used a
good deal of Georgia wire grass and pine needles together. I would
just think of a shape and work it out because I enjoyed it, with no
view of selling them at all. I have scattered them around among my
friends and family. Then I had quite a number on hand last Christmas
Navaho Memorial Sand Painting with Swastika.

190 THE BASKET.
and sent them to the Christian Woman's Exchange in New Orleans,

thinking I could make more of them. From that I have been filling
orders all along. I have sold this summer, since July, about fifty
baskets."
They vary in size and shape, ranging in price?
"Yes ! All shapes and sizes. I have never sold even a small basket
below 75 cents, usually $1.00. The highest I have obtained is $5.00,
then along down, $3.00, $2.75, $2.50, etc., according to size and finish.
Will you describe the basket you sent to your son?
"That was made of dark pine needles and the decoration was husk
of millet. The lid has a pine cone for handle or center finish." (See
engraving.)
Describe those two little baskets in the picture.
"The smaller one the straws were just broken for curing in the sun.
Fig. 6i. Pine Needle Baskets by Mrs. McAfee.
It was an exceptionally odd freak of nature ; I suppose they were in a

certain stage of condition. Some cured light, some a little browner and
others a dark brown. I suppose the dark brown were nearer matured.
The beauty of the whole basket is in the shades of coloring. This
freakish curing gave the effect of rockwood coloring."
Is it possible. by subjecting the basket to lights and shadows, putting paper
over a part of it and leaving a part exposed, to bleach or fade the pine needles
so as to get this decoration; is it possible to bleach them white?
"Yes, I have been told so, but have not tried it myself. I mean to
try it the next fresh needles I get. An old negro told me that by pour-
THE BASKET. 191

ing boiling water over the needles every day and leaving them out in
the sun and dew, then repeating the process day after day, that they
would bleach. She said she saw someone do it during the war. You
know we used to bleach palmetto. The curing of the pine needles
makes the greatest difference in the general appearance of the basket." .
What do you think is the best process?
"The best I have fallen upon, when you want them green, is to gather
them when green and pull them from the limb, cut the shuck end
off and spread them on newspapers in the shade—not much light.
I usually cure mine under the bed, under the lounge or in a closet—
wherever I can find room. When I want the brown I leave the
Fig. 62. Pine Needle Baskets.
needles on the limbs and cut up the limbs and place them in the sun.
They won't get brown after they are pulled off from the limb."
Then, when they are cured on the branch that way it gives them a brown
color?
"Yes, but it is a slow process. They don't cure quickly. I leave
the limbs out all the time, day and night, rain and shine, turning them
over until they seem to have taken on the color they are going to take."
Then when you want something real brown you have to take to the woods?
"Yes, I take to the woods, and get the needles that have fallen from
the trees and lain on the ground a long time. Those not satisfied to
leave well enough alone, may find that a cloth dampened with ammonia
will deepen the tones, but I am a firm believer in the natural color."
Now, please tell us the necessary things to begin a basket—what thread to
use, size of needle, etc.
"I think mercerized cotton is best for experienced hands, or 'Aunt
Lydia's Linen Finish.' I have used the common thread from the mill.
I use the color that seems to harmonize best with the coloring in the
pine needles. I wax my thread. I think a little wax on the thread
gives a polish to the needles. Rub the basket and the little wax that
is on the thread gives it a polish.
"Another way to polish a completed basket is to take linseed oil and
sponge the needles lightly, then rub vigorously with a cloth, taking
care not to disturb the symmetry of the radiating stitches nor break the
delicate fronds.
"Before beginning a basket I plunge the needles in scalding water
and then wipe off the resinous matter that adheres to them. Dampen
again if inclined to break when sewing them.
192 THE BASKET.
"If I am going to work at once I soak some of the needles in the

hot water long enough to soften them, as well as remove the resin. In
sewing I use an ordinary needle—as small as possible—because a large
one is apt to cut the straws. I moisten the needles until I have worked
about one inch of the basket, and after that use them dry, thus making
the basket much firmer."
Tell how these needles must be inserted?
"I take the shuck end of the pine needle and insert that into the
coil, putting it from the center of the coil, always keeping the polished
side of the needle to the front. There is a great difference in the
appearance of the basket if you do not keep the polished side of the
needle to the outside or decorative part of the basket."
Now about the stitch; speak of the radiation.
"From the center I make the stitches just as close as I can to show
any of the needle between the stitches, then let them radiate. When
they get too wide apart you have to put in an extra stitch. That
spoils the looks, but it is necessary to make a firm basket. The extra
stitches must be put in in the bottom or hidden surfaces ; never in the
wall of the basket".
How about taking stitches when you want to insert a new thread?
"When my thread gives out in the needle I draw it tight, put it
under the coil and then pass it through the next lower stitch to the
right side, then back across that thread around the stitch, letting the
drawn thread lie parallel with the stitch inside. To start a new thread
I pass the needle through the last stitch made and pull it under the
coil, so as to conceal it under the needle, starting from the inside, the
loose end of the thread being hidden under the coil.
"The requisitions to a good basket are symmetrical beginning, the
space between the stitches equal, and the coil of equal thickness. The
symmetry of the stitches is more easily gotten by passing the needle
through at the left of the preceding stitch."
Of course, a basket maker must always have an ideal form in mind before
beginning the basket?
"Yes, no mere basket abstractions are permissible to good basketry.
I always make a drawing and follow that."
How do you finish the basket?
"I let the coil run out rather than to cut it off.
"As a final word, draw your stitches tight, letting the thread pass be-
tween the finger and thumb, and compel yourself to see that each coil is
well made and in perfect harmony with all that has gone before."
THE BASKET. 193
PALM LEAF BASKETS.

MODEL I.
BY MRS. MAUD H. B. HUNT.
Materials.-1 ounce palm leaf, 21 standards 10 inches long. Weave
around basket Io or 12 times, according to height of model.
Take a piece of straw board No. 46, six inches square, measure off
at each of the four corners a two-inch square, drawing line through
paper, then draw dotted line through half of other square. Measure
off half inch on dotted line for lap. Cut out and cut on STRAIGHT lines
all around the square.
Score with a sharp knife in dotted lines. Put a bit of glue on laps
and fasten to body of box. Select smooth pieces of palm, cut off
both ends so that the strip will be exactly the same width the entire
length, put it into water (warm is the best), and let it soak for five
or six minutes, then take one piece, lay it on the extreme right edge of
Fig. 79. Palm Leaf Models.
the bottom of the model, bending the end so it will come up over the
side of the box, and pin at the top, leaving two or three inches to
extend upward. Take the other end of the palm and do the same
thing to the other side. If the palm is coarse it will not take as many
pieces, but finely woven baskets are the prettiest. After the base of
the model has been filled (it takes about II pieces) cut some more
strips the same length, point one end by cutting crosswise with the
scissors, take a hat pin and run it under, over, under, over until the
piece is carried across the eleven strips. Do this until the whole bottom
of the model has been woven. Take each end and fasten it at the
194 THE BASKET.
top of the box as you did the first pieces. This will cover the four
sides. A piece of the same material, or a finer one, can be used to
weave the sides.
Insert the hat pin, running it in and out just as the bottom weaving
was done, only go round the four sides. To fasten the ends, slip the
weavers into the same places you started, cutting off the remainder
close to the side of the perpendicular strip. Repeat this weaving until
you have reached the top of the model. The pins will have to be care-
fully removed for the last two rows as the weaving grows tighter as
it nears the top. Wet the tips of your fingers, moisten the pieces of
palm that stand perpendicular, point edges and turn the piece down over
the weave that goes on the outside of the perpendicular piece of
palm, running it under the weavers. Cut off close at the edge. Do
this round the four sides then slip the form out of the basket.
Take two pieces of wide palm (always wet the material unless it
has been kept in a very damp place), laying one on the outside, the
other inside the basket, and a fine strip to bind off the top. Fasten
the fine piece under the broad piece that goes around the outside of
the basket by inserting it under one of the weavers, bring the long
strip towards you, up and over the wide piece on the outside, and
down and pull out through the space that is left at the right hand
side of the standard (or perpendicular piece) and the • weavers that
form the basket. Repeat this all around the basket. Finish ends by
inserting them under the broad piece that goes around the top of
the basket.
MODEL II.
Take piece of straw board No. 46, 9 x 7 inches. Measure off two
inches at each of the four corners and proceed as in model 1.
Color can be introduced according to the taste of the individual.
Amount of material, I ounce ; 20 strips, 10 inches long; 11 strips,
12 inches long. Weave around the basket 12 or 14 times.
MODEL III.
The form the same as model No. 2 and proceed in the same manner
as model No. 1.
FOR COVER.
Make the same as for the model, only allow 3A of an inch for the
width of the sides.
The top the same as the bottom of the basket.
The braid is made with four strands. (See Mary White's book,
"More Baskets and How to Make Them," pages 93-97). Sew braid on
with fine thread, hiding stitches under the broad pieces of palm that
finish off the cover.
Amount of material, i5' ounces palm leaf; 20 strips io inches long;
II strips 12 inches long.
Weave around the sides of basket 5 times. Bind off like top of
basket and then sew on braid.
List and cost of the articles needed for the three models.--I lb. palm
leaf, 6o cents ; 1 ounce for binding off, VA cents ; ruler, 5 cents ; I
sheet No. 46 straw board, To cents ; 1 paper pins, 10 cents ; glue, 5
cents ; lead pencil, 1 cent ; hat pin, I cent.
THE BASKET. 195
INDIAN SPLINT BASKET WEAVING.

DESCRIPTIVE NOTES.
In every dime the basket weaver has adapted for her purpose what-
ever nature has provided. In Eastern Canada and along the Atlantic
coast region the ash and maple trees have been the most available.
These with the sweet smelling grass of the marshes have been woven
into many useful and attractive baskets.
Indian splint is made in several widths. Stakes or standards, In-
dian name, are the stiff splints, Y2 inch or more in width. Weavers
vary from inch or less to two or more in width. The ordinary
widths are, fine, inch ; medium, inch, and broad, 72 inch. The
splint is put up in coils varying in length. The stiff splint, 72 inch
wide, should be used for stakes and the limber for weavers.
Sweet grass is used to give odor and variety in the weave. It is
used in various sizes of braids as weavers.
Fig. 85. Carrying Weaver Over Two Spokes.
MODEL I.—SMALL CARRYING BASKET.

Materials. — io 14-inch stakes ; 3 broad weavers ; 7 or 8 fine weavers ;
I 20-inch stiff stake (handle).
General directions for all splint basket weaving. — Cut the stakes and
straighten them by stripping them through the fingers against the curve
of the splint. There is a rough and smooth side to all splints. The
Fig. 82. Splint Model No. 3. Fig. 83. Splint Model No. 4.
Rn Cnlint Mn.uiel Nn T 1 Fin Cni;of MAA Al, \TA. A ),
THE BASKET. 197
smooth face has a better finish in color and does not show the grain of
the wood as plainly as the rough face does. In laying the stakes for
the bottom the rough face is kept uppermost so that it will come on
the inside of the basket. Fig. 84 shows how the stakes should be placed
in laying the bottom of any simple round basket.
Bottom.—Place stake i vertically on the table; place stake 2 at right
angles through the center ; place stake 3 at right of stake 2 ; place stake
4 at right of stake 1; place stake 5 at right of stake 21; place stake 6 at
right of stake 31 ; place stake 7 at right of stake ; place stake 8 at
Fig. 84 A.
Arrangement of Stakes,
for Model No. 4.
Fig. 84. How to place the Stakes for Bottom.
right of stake 41 ; place stake 9 at right of stake 2; place stake m at

right of stake 51.
The stakes should be held firmly with the left hand at the center
while being placed and until one row of weaving on the bottom is
completed. Insert a fine weaver under stake r, leaving a short end
which is held in place by the left hand. Take the free end of the
weaver in the right hand and proceed over and under the stakes, taking
care not to let the weaver twist, until again arriving at stake 61. Carry
the weaver over stakes 61 and I and proceed as before (see Fig. 85).
On arrival at stake I carry the weaver over stakes I and 71. Continue
in this way until six rows have been woven, passing the weaver over
two stakes once on each row.
When the six rows are completed cut the weaver to three or four
inches in length and push the end underneath the several rows of weav-
ing and towards the center. This holds the rows in place and the end
may now be trimmed off shorter still.
Sides.—Bend the stakes up (as shown in Fig. 86) and close to the
rows of weaving. Care must be taken in doing this not to let the stakes
break. Insert two fine weavers, one back of any stake and the other in
front of the same one. Weave over and under the stakes carrying both
weavers along together. See that the weavers do not cross or twist.
Continue for twelve rows of this weaving.
198 THE BASKET.

Splicing.—Should a weaver give out it will be necessary to renew or
splice it. Do this in the following manner : Leave the end of the old
weaver on the inside of the basket. Place the new weaver over the old
on the last stake crossed by the old weaver and push the end under the
preceding stake. Continue weaving as before.
When the rows of fine weaving are finished (and care must be taken
to notice that the ending is made on the same stake as the one on which
the weavers were started), insert a broad weaver and weave over and
under the stakes once around. Carry this weaver over the first two
stakes on which it was started. This is to hold it in place. Cut off
the weaver close to the last stake crossed. Start back three or four
Fig. 86. Spokes Turned up for Sides.
stakes and make another band of this weaving. Follow this with a
single row of fine weaver and overlap the ends as in the two preceding
rows. Make another row with the broad weaver. This should com-
plete the weaving. As the widths of stakes and weavers may vary, it
may be necessary to increase or diminish the number of rows of fine
weaving in order to keep the basket in good proportion.
THE BASKET. 199
Top.—The next step is to finish off the top of the basket. Select the
outside stakes. Those under which the upper broad weaver has passed
form the outside stakes. Cut these about two inches long and point.
(See Fig. 87). Bend these stakes over the top to the inside and insert
Fig. 87. Weaver Cut to a Point. Fig. 92. Wooden Staple for Handle.
the point under the fine weaving on the same stake. Cut off the alter-
nate stakes close to the top.
Handle. — Point both ends of the handle and insert them on the out-
side of opposite turned over stakes, and push them down under the out-
side rows of weaving to the bottom of the basket. The ends should
now be pulled down until the handle is of the required height to suit
the size of the basket. Turn the points back catching in two rows of
weaving and insert them under the next rows above. Some of the
handle may have to be cut off and the ends repointed before doing this.
The handle may be inserted in another way. Instead of cutting off
the ends of the handle at the bottom, push them over the bend and
under the weaving on the bottom until the ends are hidden at the center.
This is more difficult than the first way, but looks neater, if done nicely.
The trouble will lie in pushing the handle over the bend. To aid in
doing this, take a scrap of stiff broad weaver three or four inches
long, point it, and insert under the last two rows on the stake and the
rows on the same stake on the bottom. The handle can now be pushed
down back of this wedge. When the handle is passed over the bend
take out the wedge. If the ends of the handle should protrude at the
center of the bottom, they must be cut off close to the center and the
handle pulled up a little from the top. This will conceal the ends.
Care should be taken, when the handle is inserted in this way, not to
select the outside stake on the bottom, as the ends could not be caught
underneath at the center.
Knobs. — It will add greatly to the looks of the basket if a row of
fancy weaving or knobs be made over the two lower broad weavers.
Cut two feet of very pliable broad weaver. Point the ends. Insert one
end, with the rough or wrong side uppermost, under an outside stake
on the lowest broad band. Without twisting bring round the free end
and insert it under the next outside stake on the next upper row. Pull
it through and leave a twist or knob as large as taste requires in front
of the stake. Now insert the end of the weaver under the next stake
on the lower row. Form a knob as before and proceed around the
basket until the row of fancy weaving is completed. Keep the knobs
regular in size. Trim off any long or loose ends on the inside of the
basket.
This little basket may be varied in many ways, by changing the
position of the broad bands and also by changing the number of rows
of both kinds of weavers. Contrasting colors of weavers or of stakes
and weavers are effective.
200 THE BASKET.
General directions for weaving.—All Indian splint weaving, both

in round and square baskets, is similar in method to that described in
this simple basket. A single weaver is always used in weaving the bot-
tom of a round basket, and the weaver must pass over two stakes once
on each row. Two fine weavers are used on the sides with the simple
over and under weaving. One weaver could be used as on the bottom,
but the work would be slow and not quite so firm as the two. Broad
and medium weavers are always cut off on each round both on round
and square baskets.
Knobs may be made in other ways than that described. Insert a
broad weaver under an outside stake with right side of weaver outward.
Curve the free end around and insert the end under the next stake on
the same row. This will form a cone-shaped knob, which is a little
more difficult to make than the first described, as the splint is apt to
split unless a very pliable one is selected and care exercised in forming
the points. The knob should be worked into shape by the thumb and
finger of the left hand as the right draws the free end through.
Another knob is formed by inserting a broad or medium weaver un-
der a stake. Place a lead pencil under the weaver and pass the free
end under the next outside stake. Draw the weaver tight over the
pencil. Place a second pencil in front of the weaver. Insert it under
the next stake and draw tight over the second pencil. Remove the first
pencil and repeat around basket.
MODEL 2.—SMALL WORK BASKET.

Materials.-2o i8-inch stakes ; 12 fine weavers ; 6 broad weavers ;
3 broad pliable weavers ; i "stick," 3o inches, for top ; 72 dozen strands
of sweet grass ; 2 wooden handles.
Bottom.—Take ten stakes and weave a bottom similar to that in
Model 1. The other ten stakes should now be placed. Starting at any
stake place the new one beside it and througn the center. Continue
around the bottom, placing a new stake at the right of each stake.
They must be held in position at the center by the left hand and until
the first row of weaving is accomplished. Take a fine weaver and in-
sert it under one of the first ten stakes. Weave under, and over the
twenty stakes as in the first rows of weaving. Form six or seven rows
of weaving and finish off the bottom.
Sides. — Bend up the stakes, and weave as in Model i. Make fifteen
rows of fine weaving and five rows of broad. Finish off the basket as
in Model i.
Top. — Take the stick called for in the materials. These sticks are
for strengthening and shaping the basket. They are bound on the in-
side of baskets at the top. They come pointed at both ends and of uni-
form lengths. The stick may have to be shortened a little, but must be
kept pointed. To find the required length for any basket take three
times the diameter and allow for an overlap at the ends of four to five
inches. Usually the sticks have a flat and a rounded side. Place the
flat side next the basket. It will be necessary to tie this stick in tem-
porarily, as it will tend to spring out when bent to fit the basket. In-
sert one end of the stick under a stake on the upper band on the inside
THE BASKET. 201
of the basket. Pass an eight-inch piece of weaver through the basket

under the top and in front of the next stake. Tie the stick in place
with this piece of weaver. Proceed around the basket and tie in the
stick at intervals of three or four inches. The wedge-shaped ends of
the stick should overlap. When the stick is securely held in place the
basket is ready for binding. No special care need be taken with these
tyings except to make them hold, as they are to be removed later on.
Handles.—If wooden staples (see Fig. 92) are used for handles, push
the pointed ends down back of the stick and two of the broad bands.
The notches should be caught under the stick.
Binding.—Take the sweet grass which has been previously soaked in
lukewarm water for ten or twelve minutes. With the left hand hold
the grass, by the root ends, against the top of the basket, so as to cover
the upper band and edge. It is better to start binding in front of the
lapped ends of the stick, so that the finishing will not come in the
same place and cause a bulge. Pass a fine, tough and even weaver
under the upper band in front of a stake near the root ends of the
grass. Pull this through on the inside until about five inches remain
on the outside. Bend the short end over the top and push it down be-
tween the stick and the upper band and under the next lower band.
Now bring over the long end and insert it in front of the next stake
to the right. Pull the weaver through as tight as possible. Repeat
this at each stake around the basket.
Hints for binding.—The left hand should hold the basket firmly.
With the thumb and forefinger squeeze the stick, grass and top of the
basket as tight as possible. The grass should cover the edge neatly.
Great care must be taken not to twist the binder, as it will split and
break very easily. When the binding is nearly completed cut off the
roots of the grass and overlap the ends neatly. The tyings should be
pulled out when reached during the binding. Should any strands of the
grass give out while binding, lay in new ones as needed, by pushing
the end under the grass on the basket. End off the weaver in the
same way as it was started. Should the weaver break while binding,
fasten the end and make a fresh start as neatly as possible.
Rings.—If staples cannot be procured, rings or braided grass may
be used for handles. To make a ring, take the end of a fine weaver
between the thumb and first two fingers of the left hand. Wind the
weaver four times over the two fingers, with the right hand, keeping
one wind over the other. Pass the weaver over and over, closely, all
around the coil and pull the end through the last turn. This will hold
the binding firmly. With the end which remains, tie the ring to the top
of the basket. Make a similar ring for the opposite handle. Finish
with any of the knob designs.
MODEL III.
CYLINDRICAL BASKET.
Materials.-12 18-inch stakes 5-16 inches wide, or To i8-inch stakes
Y2-inch wide, 6 fine weavers, 16 medium weavers /-inch wide, 3 r8-
inch sticks not more than 3-16-inches in width, small bunch of sweet
grass.
202 THE BASKET.
Bottom. — Place the twelve stakes in the same manner as the ten
described for Model 1. Place stake II to right of stake 3, and stake 12
to right of stake 61. Weave enough rows to make the bottom three
and one-half inches in diameter.
Sides. — Turn up the stakes and weave four rows of fine weaving.
Next weave nineteen rows with medium weavers. These must be cut
off on each row of weaving. The stakes should be kept vertical. Four
rows of fine weaving will complete the basket. Turn down the stakes
as in Model 1.
Binding. — Bind the top as described in the work basket.
Knobs. — Above the fine weaving at the bottom there are three rows
of fancy knobs. Make them as described in the second model. There
are also five rows of knobs at the top just below the fine weaving.
Handles. —The handles for this basket are made as large in diameter
as the top of the basket. Carefully lend the stick into a good circle,
overlap the pointed ends and tie them firmly in place. Start two or
three inches back of the join and cover the hoop with grass. Bind
over and over with a fine weaver as in the small ring. Conceal the
starting end of the binder under the grass and bind over it for several
inches. This makes the binding very firm. Attach the handles to the
upper row of medium weaver and make the tying loosely enough to
allow the handle to move freely.
MODEL IV.
SQUARE BASKET.
Materials.-18 13-inch stakes, 6 broad weavers, 8 fine weavers, I
light stick 24 inches long, i stick 15 inches long for handle. (This
should be notched, see Fig. 92.)
Straighten the stakes and arrange them with the rough face upper-
most. Interlace nine stakes with nine others to form a square. Make
all the ends equidistant from the sqiere. Leave a slight space between
the stakes in the square similar to, but not so pronounced as in Fig. 84A.
Pass a weaver over and under the stakes entirely around the square
and as close as possible to it. This will hold the square in shape. Turn
up all the stakes at right angles to the bottom. Weave three rows of
broad weaving and ten rows with two fine weavers. Weave three rows
with broad weavers and finish off the top.
Handle.— Insert the handle the same as the staples in the work basket.
Top.—Fit in the stick. Start near one corner and tie in the stick as
in the round basket. Bend the stick to a right angle for each corner
and tie on both sides of the corner. This stick should rest on the notches
of the handle and hold it in place. Bind the top with sweet grass.
MODEL V.
SQUARE BASKET WITH COVER.
Materials.—Basket, 14 14-inch stakes, zo fine weavers, 12 broad weav-
ers, sweet grass. Cover, 7 or 8 7-inch stakes, 5 fine weavers, 2 broad
weavers, sweet grass.
Fig. 91. Model No. 8. Fig. 8g. Model No. 6.

Fig. 88. Model No. 5.
Fig. go. Model No. 7.
204 THE BASKET.
Arrange the stakes and form the bottom as in Model 4. Turn up

the stakes. Weave two rows of broad weaver, six rows of fine, two
rows of broad, and eight rows of fine. Finish and bind with grass.
Knobs. — Two rows of knobs are made on the broad bands. They are
made similar to those in Model i but the knob should be pressed or
flattened.
Note. —The tendency in weaving this basket will be to draw in the
stakes. Care must be taken each time in turning the corners not to pull
the weaver. With the fingers of the left hand, hold the two corner
stakes in a perpendicular position to the bottom while weaving over
them.
Cover. — Place the seven seven-inch stakes one way to cover the top
of the basket. (If these stakes should vary in width from those on the
bottom, it may be necessary to add another to the cover to make it fit.)
Interlace the stakes at the middle with four eight-inch pieces of the
broad weaver. The cover and basket should be four inches square.
With a fine weaver, weave over and under the stakes and close to one
of the broad weavers. When once across turn the cover and weave
back on the under side. Continue thus, turning the cover at each row
of weaving. Make all splicings on the under side. When twelve rows
of fine weaving are finished, remove the two furthest broad weavers and
place them over the twelve rows. This will bring the fine weaving in
the center with two rows of broad on either side. Pull the stakes
through until these rows are in the center. Now weave fourteen rows
of fine on each side. This should complete the weaving of the cover.
If it does not cover the top, increase or diminish the number of rows
of fine weaving as required. Trim off the broad weavers close to the
edge.
The cover should now be bound like the top of the basket. The
stakes are to be cut and turned down on two ends. When ready to
bind place sweet grass on the top and edge, and cut a broad weaver a
little narrow or use a quarter-inch weaver, which should be laid on the
under edge to cover the turned-in points. Bind with a fine weaver.
On two edges of the cover, holes must be bored at regular intervals
along the middle of the stake. This may be done with a fine awl or a
coarse needle.
The cover may be attached to the basket in either of two ways. Lay
the cover on the basket. Take a long, fine weaver and start at one
corner. Insert one end of the weaver from under side of corner in
front of the first stake. Insert the other end from inside of basket in
front of the corner back stake. Draw both ends through until the
ends are even. Cross the ends and insert them in front of the next
stakes from the outside. Continue this across the basket like the
lacing of a shoe and finish the ends on the inside of the basket. This
lacing should be loose enough to allow the cover to be raised easily.
The cover may also be attached by making two hinges near the
opposite corners. Pass the weaver through the edges of the cover
and basket two or three times in the same hole and knot the ends on
the inside of the ring.
Make two rings as described in Model 2, one large enough to pass
through the other. Attach them to the middle stake of the front edge
of the basket at the top, and to the edge of the cover directly over this.
THE BASKET. 205
MODEL VI.
WASTE BASKET.
Materials.-2o 32-inch stakes, Y2 pound /8-inch weavers, 20 fine
weavers, i heavy stick, 42 inches long, 2 bunches of sweet grass, 3Y2
yards braided grass (3 or 4 blades to a strand).
Interlace the stakes ten each way to form a seven-inch square for the
base. Pass a fine weaver around the square and turn up the stakes.
Weave six rows of broad weaver, ten rows of fine, seven rows of broad,
six rows of fine and ten rows of broad. This makes a basket ten and
one-quarter inches high when completed. Four inches from the bottom
begin to make the stakes flare at the corners. The basket is nine inches
square at the top.
Knobs. — Make cone-shaped knobs on the fifth and sixth bands of
broad weave from the bottom. Make three rows of these knobs on the
upper bands of the next broad set, and four rows of knobs on the fifth,
sixth, seventh, and eighth rows of the upper set of bands.
Top.—Bind the basket as before described at the top. Make two
thick braids of grass each seven and one-half inches long for handles.
Fasten the braids on the outside of the basket just above the knobs.
Use a piece of fine weaver and tie each end of the braid over twice on
a stake, and fasten the weaver on the inside.
Fasten the braided grass in a zigzag manner on the second and third
rows of the second set of broad bands. (See Fig. 93.) Attach the
braid with a broad weaver in the same way as first kind of knobs were
made in Model t. Draw the weaver tight over the grass. A second
twist of braided grass could be applied in the same manner just below
the upper knobs if desired.
Fig. 93. Zigzag of Braided Grass. Fig. 95. Shape of Stakes for Model No. 8.
MODEL VII.
HANDKERCHIEF CASE.
Materials.-28 t2-inch stakes, 7 5-inch stakes, 20 fine weavers, sweet
grass.
Interlace the stakes, fourteen each way, like the bottom of a square
basket. Arrange the ends evenly. Weave around the square once.
Now weave on each set of ends as on the square cover, for twenty-
two rows of fine weaving. Turn down every other stake on each set
of ends. Point the remaining stakes. Insert stake 8 under the weaving
on stake 7. Insert stake 6 under the weaving on stake 9. Insert stake
JO under the weaving on stake 5. Insert stake 4 under the weaving
on stake tt. Insert stake 12 under the weaving on stake 3. Insert
206 THE BASKET.
stake 2 under the weaving on stake 13. Insert stake 14 under the
weaving on stake 1. (See Fig. 94.) Repeat this on each set of ends.
Pull the stakes down until the two edges formed are brought close to-
gether. When the four sides are thus made an open square will be
formed at the center. Bind this with sweet grass. Make a cover, which
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
I
Fig. 94. Method of Inserting Stakes for Model No. 7.
should be large enough to rest on the top of the opening. A small ring
attached to the center or to the front edge of the cover is needed to com-
plete this handkerchief case. Finely braided sweet grass is very suita-
ble to use for part of the fine weaving.
MODEL VIII.
TWINE HOLDER.
Materials. Basket, 12 12-inch stakes, 10 fine weavers, I 14-inch
stake for top. Cover, 12 9-inch stakes, 4 fine weavers, 473 yards of
finely braided grass, I 14-inch stake, 6 strands of grass.
Cut the twelve stakes to one-eighth inch at the center. (See Fig. 95.)
Weave eight rows with a single weaver. The weaving should start one
inch from the center. When the eight rows are finished use two weav-
ers. Flare the stakes to shape the basket like an acorn. There are
forty-five more rows of fine weaving. It will be necessary to cut the
first weaver long ways as it will not come fine enough to weave up to
one inch of the center of the stakes. When the basket has been woven
about half way up, stop and cut the stakes at the center of the bottom.
Point and turn down every other stake as in the top of all round bas-
kets. Cut off the alternate ends. Bind, over and back again, with a
fine weaver. This finishes off the hole for the twine to pass through.
It is easier to do this before finishing the basket, as it is quite difficult
to work from the inside while turning in the stakes.
When ready to bind the top cut the fourteen-inch stake called for in
the materials lengthwise. Use one-half inside and the other outside in
place of sweet grass.
Cover. — Cut the twelve stakes the same as for the basket. (See Fig.
95.) Weave with a single weaver for sixteen rows. Then weave
eleven rows of the braided sweet grass. The stakes must be curved in
during the grass weaving to fit the top of the basket. Six rows of fine
weaver follow the sweet grass. The cover should fit down over about
seven rows of weaving on the basket to give the acorn effect. The cover
THE BASKET. 207
must fit snug. Bind the edge with grass and on the inside use one-half
lengthwise of the fourteen-inch stiff weaver.
Attach the cover to the basket at the back, and make two small rings
with a fine weaver for the front of the cover and the basket.
This basket should be suspended when in use. Therefore two rings
about one and one-half inches in diameter must be made and attached
on top of the cover on opposite sides. A large hoot) (see Fig. 82) three
and one-half inches in diameter must now be made. Pass the parts of
it through the two small rings on top of the cover. Then bind as in
directions for Fig. 82. Care must be taken while weaving the basket
that a ball of ordinary twine may be held inside with room to turn
easily. This basket is now completed.
Fig. 47. Basket of Mixed Stitches, by Mrs. Batchelder, Exeter, N. H.

208 THE BASKET.
OUR BOOK TABLE.
John H. Whitson is writer of interesting novels. His Barbara, a

woman of the West, had a large sale, and was well received every-
where. His latest novel, published by Little, Brown & Co., Boston,
Mass., is The Rainbow Chasers. It is already listed as among the ten
most popular books in many of the leading libraries of the country. It
tells the story in a vivid, moving, soul-stirring way of the land-booms in
Kansas. It is largely historical and contains undoubted personal rem-
iniscences.
Another book of Mr. Whitson's is well worthy a place in every
library and that is his "With Fremont Across the Plains."
Tiny Baskets of Poma Weave, made by Joseppa, the finest

basket-maker in the American world.
The two pictures above show five tiny Poma baskets in the collection
of Miss Grace Nicholson, of Pasadena, Cal. They are most beautiful
specimens of the weaver's art and are made by that well-known weaver
Joseppa, the best of Poma basket-makers. When one considers the
skill and cunning craftsmanship required to make such tiny baskets he
is compelled to wonder and to a new reverence for the aboriginal artist.
THE BASKET

Entered at the Pasadena. Cal. Post Odice as Second Class Matter.
With this number the Frater Primus reluctantly lays down the pleas-
ing burden of carrying along THE BASKET. It has been an easily-
fitting basket, and has proven itself a convenient receptacle for quite
a variety of things. Some people have ,spoken kindly words about it,
and others—well, they have said nothing. But to all who have been
at all interested in it we send out thoughts of thankfulness to those
who did speak, for what they said, and those who did not, for what
they left unsaid.
It does not necessarily follow that because THE BASKET is no longer
to be passed around that the Fraternity will cease to exist. As well
say the church ceases to exist when the..basket is not passed. No!
No! Most of the fraters are real living friends to me. I know their
handwriting the moment I see it, and have learned something of their
individual peculiarities therefrom. One lady is of quite a vigorous
mind, because she clearly says so ; another is gentle and kind ; another
quietly bored when things don't go just her way ; most of you are sweet-
spirited, kindly-hearted, hard-working and good. I expect you all be-
lieve you are, and that is good.
And now I want to tell you what I purpose doing in the future. Of
course I shall never lose my interest in Basketry. That is a part of
my life. The Indians, too, are my brothers and sisters and I can as
soon sever them from my life as I can the objects of Nature which I
love, and which daily greet me. But a larger field seems to open to
me in the opportunity to associate myself with one of the most active
minded and progressive men of America to-day, Mr. Gustav Stickley,
210 THE BASKET.
the proprietor of The Craftsman magazine. The editor of this maga-

zine, Miss Irene Sargent, is a lady of unusual and varied ability. She
is a writer of a high order, and her absolute familiarity with most of
the European languages makes her a cosmopolitan in her refined tastes
as rare to meet with as such ability is unusual in women. I feel it to
be an honor to cast in my lot with such workers. During the past year
I have written many pages for The Craftsman. In the future I expect
to write more. All the subjects I have treated in THE BASKET will
receive quite as full handling in The Craftsman. I am desirous, there-
fore, of keeping in touch with the members of The Basket Fraternity
in my new relationship if possible. One series of articles alone will
prove of joy and helpfulness to them. I believe thoroughly in "The
Simple Life" so beautifully portrayed by Charles Wagner, the great
French author and preacher. I also believe in "The Religion of Hard
Work," as enunciated by William Morris and John Ruskin. I am a
profound believer in "The Manliness of Man" and "The Womanliness
of Woman." Station, attainment, wealth, count with me simply for
what they are. I honor the man of station provided he worthily fills
that station ; I revere the man of attainment provided he use that at-
tainment for the public good ; I respect the man of wealth when that
wealth is gained by his own ability and used for good, not evil. But I
equally honor the man in the ditch-digger, provided he digs ditches
well and honorably. I want to be willing with Walt Whitman to say :
"To cotton-field drudge * * * * * I lean,
On his right cheek I put the family kiss,
And in my soul I swear I never will deny him."
I believe with all my heart that
A man's a man for a' that
provided he is a man. Hence I have begun the writing of a series of
"Simple Life Biographies," the first of which will be a presentation of
the life of Bishop Huntington, Bishop of Central New York. This will
appear in the October Craftsman. In November I shall tell of Charles
Wagner, whose stirring words have made "the simple life" a house-
hold word. He comes to lecture in The Craftsman Hall, in Syracuse,
on Tuesday evening, October II, and my sketch of him will be written
after meeting and hearing him.
But this is only one small feature of The Craftsman. magazine. I
have put it first as it is personal, not because it is the worthiest of first
place. The leading writers of the world on civic art, municipal im-
provement, the Dignity of Labor, the Building and Beautification of
Homes and such like t hemes are regular contributors to its pages and
there are a score of good, stimulating, and helpful things in every
number.
The price of The Craftsman is three dollars a year, and it is well
worth it. It has no clubbing offers and gives no premiums, hence the
offer I am now making is a purely personal one to the members of
The Basket Fraternity and their friends. I want you to know The
Craftsman. If you want it anyhow send the yearly subscription to the
office and for your faith in it and me I will send you as a gift any one
of the following :
THE BASKET. 211
1. A full set of the model Indian Basket Designs.

2. A copy of Practical Basket Making.
3. A copy in cloth of How to Make Indian and Other Baskets.
4. A copy of Travelers' Handbook to Southern California.
In all cases add io cents for postage of the gift.
Note also that all these special requests should be addressed to me
personally, care of The Craftsman, Syracuse, N. Y.
If you want to see only a sample copy send 20 cents in stamps and
the October number (which begins a new volume and is the anniver-
sary number) will be sent.
Each full subscription to The Craftsman entitles its holder to mem-
bership in The Home Builders' Club. The advantages of such mem-
bership are twofold. I. Each month The Craftsman publishes full and
detailed descriptions with illustrations and plans of a Craftsman House.
You can make your choice of any one of these houses and a full set of
working plans and specifications will be supplied. II. You are entitled
to ask any question, or number of questions, as to house decorations,
furnishings, color schemes, etc., and the experts of The Craftsman
workshops will answer them.
And now I have done. The hand of fraternal welcome will always
be ready to greet the members of The Basket Fraternity should they
call upon me and find me in my California home, 1098 N. Raymond
Ave., Pasadena, or at The Craftsman Building, Syracuse, N. Y.
OVER THE DYE POT.

A Frater thus writes ;
Take onion shells a pound ; of water, one gallon ; boil raffia or cane
in this and get a real good cinnamon brown ; just the thing for con-
ventional basket decoration.
Go out into the by-ways and gather the matted lichens from rocks or
fallen trees—steep these over a slow fire a day—two days—or may be
three. Then bring to a boil and put on the material you desire to
color.
Be happy in knowing that you are beginning to learn where you
can secure vegetable dyes.
They say beets will stain and I know blackberries do—try prunes,
coffee and tea for staining, but remember they are not fast colors.
Wonder how the blood root would work.
Sumach does—when fresh and not dried out. I had an amusing
experience. From my collecton of old brasses I selected a specimen
Russian Jew brass stew pan, put into same a quart of hot water, four
bobs of velvety red sumach, a raffia basket and a coil of rattan ; placed
it over the gas stove, turned on the gas and let it boil-and boil-and boil.
Then began to prepare for an illustration of the process of dyeing for
a report to dye pot, I am startled by the house servant announcing to
me that the house is on fire. I return to the dye pot, only to find my
raffia baskets, rattan, sumach-glowing coals. I intend to try it again but
not in a piece of brass collected from a Russian Jew on Mulberry Bend.
I console myself with my success for the stew pan took on a most
beautiful favrile glass tint a la Tiffany.
212 THE BASKET.
MODEL INDIAN BASKET DESIGNS.
The following give particulars so that any intelligent weaver, who is

reasonably familiar with the various weaves can copy them. It is not
necessary to weave with the same stitch as the original ; nor is it
necessary that the same stitch should be used throughout. The stitches
may be various, as are those used by Mrs. Batchelder in her basket pic-
tured in this issue.
No. 1. Mono Burial Basket.—This basket is fully described in the
July, 1903, BASKET, pages 21, 22, 23. It is 20 inches across the top,
8 inches across the bottom, is bowl shaped, and stands 12 inches high.
It was so large that it was impracticable to make the cut full size, so
the engraver reduced the plate exactly one half. The weaver, therefore,
who desire to reproduce it, same size as the original must make it
double the size. Fig. I shows the basket when seen sidewise, and
Fig. 2 is the view when looking down into the bowl. It will be ob-
served that only one-third of the design is shown in Fig. 2. The two
other sections consist of exactly the same design. The color scheme
is as follows : Body in natural creamy white ; two outer of the three
upright poles, black, as is also the part around the diamonds ; the
middle poles, the diamonds and the three men are of the dark red of
the redbud. The steps near the bottom are black. To enjoy making
this basket the weaver should read its history and learn the full mean-
ing of the design.
No. 2. Alaska Treasure Basket with Cover.—This is a round bas-
ket, with perpendicular sides, same diameter at top as at the bottom.
The lid is a trifle larger than the basket, in order to allow the flange to
fit over the sides of the basket. It is 9 inches in diameter and 33/4
inches high. The Indian weave is that described in "How to Make
Indian and Other Baskets," pages 13o and 131, but it can be made in
very fine figure 8 or lazy stitch if desired. The colors are indicated
by the shading. The black and white are plainly shown. The color
shaded to the left is a light red, while that shaded to the right is a
brownish shade.
No. 3. Palatingwa Milk-pan Basket.—This is in two colors ; the
black in the design is the brown of the tule root ; the white is the nat-
ural color of the willow splint. This may be made in any of the coil
weaves—figure 8, lazy, Hopi, or Havasupai. The size is exactly the
same as the diagram, viz., 2/ inches high and 143/4 inches in diameter.
No. 4. Fine Yokut Bottle-neck Basket.—This is in three colors,
black and natural, the latter shown by the white, and red of the red-
bud where shaded. The feathers are quail plumes and are inserted
during the weaving. The basket is 4 inches in diameter at the bottom,
beautifully rounded when shaped up for the sides, enlarging to 24
inches in circumference and then gradually decreasing in size until
the mouth is 33/4 inches in diameter.
THE BASKET. 213
No. 5. Thompson River Carrying Basket.—This figure is half the

size of the original basket, which is a small Thompson River carrying
basket. The design is made of the Klikitat imbricated work, fully ex-
plained on page 133, "How to Make Indian and Other Baskets." The
white weaver, however, can imitate the design without the use of this
stitch. The original basket has an almost square bottom, 5Y2 inches
across one way and 4 inches the other. This proportion is not quite
observed all the way up, for at the top the widths are respectively 15
inches and 13 inches. The basket is io inches high.
The design is the same on the ends as on the sides, except that there
are two rows of diamonds only at the ends, while there are three on
the sides. The body of the basket is the native color shown by upright
lines of the figure. The design is in white, black and red, the red
being designated (in the design only) by the shaded lines from left to
right.
No. 6. Poma Shi-Bu Basket.—This beautiful, ornamental Shi-bu
Poma is worthy the best endeavors of the white weaver. It is a per-
fect specimen of the art. The features are the tiny plumes of the red-
headed woodpecker. The round disks are the wampum, made of white
pieces of shell. The basket is oval in shape (see instructions how to
make the oval base in "Practical Basket-Making" and "How to Make
Indian and Other Baskets"). The design is in black and white. The.
illustration is exact size, the length of the basket being 5% inches and
the width across the top 4 inches. ,
No. 7. Apache Water 011a.—It can well be understood that, to hold
water, this must be a firmly woven piece of basket work. It is in
white, black, and reddish brown, the horse only being in the latter color.
It was made in the Havasupai weave, but can be imitated in any of the
coil weaves desired. The bottom is 6 inches in diameter, the top 8
inches. It is a trifle over 3172 inches in circumference at its largest
part and then decreases in the neck until it is but 24 inches in diameter
at the mouth.
No. 8. Pinta Swastika Design Basket.—This is one of the common-
est of all Pima shapes and designs. From Fig. 1 it will be observed
that the bowl is narrow at bottom and widens rapidly to an exceeding-
ly wide top. The bottom is but 3% inches in diameter, while the top
is 14% inches in diameter.. The colors are white and black, both being
natural colors, the one of the willow, the other of the niartynia.
No. 9. Pima Greek Fret Design Basket.—This is a bowl shaped
basket with a circular base 372 inches in diameter. At the top it is 16
inches in diameter, and being but 6 inches deep, the bowl flares rapidly.
The colors are white and black, the former the natural willow splint
and the latter the larga, or black of the martynia.
No. 1o. Y okut Bottle-neck Basket.—This is a beautiful basket in
white, black and red. The white and black are indicated in the design,
the red is shaded. Any other colored weavers may be substituted for
these, but the wise weaver will keep as near to the simple, artistic and
true color conceptions of the Indian weaver as possible. This is a
bottle-necked basket without a neck. That is, the flange or shoulder
214 THE BASKET.
of the basket terminates without any upright continuation, just as

shown in the design ; yet it is beautiful and perfect. The ornamenta-
tion around the edge where the sides and flange or shoulder meet is
red wool and quail plumes. The white weaver may substitute what she
chooses for these, or leave them out entirely. The bottom of the basket
is 3% inches across and consists of thirteen coils. It then gradually
bellies to its top which is 33 inches in circumference. The shoulder is
25 inches wide, and the aperture at top is 6 inches across, thus making
the complete diameter of the top 33 inches.
No. 11. Ramona's Star Basket.— Perhaps no basket ever made in
the history of the world has excited as much profound interest as has
this simple but beautiful basket. Its full history is given in "Indian
Basketry," pages 220, 221, 222, and "The Philistine" for November,
1903. It is an almost flat plaque, but has a side about 54 of an inch
high, shown where the three coils are shaded close together, and then
a top flange consisting of four coils of weaving. The shape will better
be understood from the profile view of Fig. 2. The colors are the nat-
ural white of the willow and the brown root of the tule. It is 1272
inches in diameter, inside measure, and 14% inches outside measure.
No. 12. Mono Rattlesnake Design Basket.
The basket is 6% inches high, 6/ inches across the bottom, and 123/2
Inches across the top. Its shape, therefore, is a perfect one. After
part of the diamonds are woven in the red of the red bud ; the diamond
coil, eight black, four white ; third coil, six black, two white, two red.
two white ; fourth coil, four black, two white, four red, two white ;
white, eight red, two white. It now diminishes in the same proportion,
taking the same stitches as the fifth, fourth, third, etc., in reverse order,
No. 13. Shoshone Chief's Basket. — This dainty and beautful basket
is 254 inches across the bottom, which is plain weaving without de-
sign, and consists of nine coils. Then it gradually "bellies" out until
4 inches high, when its circumference is 23% inches, after which it
rapidly slopes to the neck, which is 4% inches in diameter at the top
and 14% inches in circumference. The body of the basket is in
white. The small design around the neck is in black. The black part
of the design throughout is the same as in the basket, viz., black. The
shaded parts of the design are of redbud, and the weaver may make use
of a dull reddish brown, or any color she may desire that is harmonious.
There are two illustrations for this basket, Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 1 shows
THE BASKET. 215
one side and Fig. 2 the other. A little thought will make clear how
to connect the two parts.
No. 14. Palatingwa Loving Bird Basket.—This basket is a fine
specimen of the Palatingwa imitative art ; leaves at the bottom, with
the loving birds at the four openings. The basket is slightly oval, as
shown in the larger design. The oval bottom is made as is fully ex-
plained in "How to Make Indian and Other Baskets" and "Practical
Basket Weaving." The basket is in two colors, white and the brown
of the tule root. In weaving any color may be substituted for the
brown, which is printed black in the design. The large figure is drawn
looking upon the basket from the bottom, hence the birds are fore-
shortened. The smaller figure gives a more correct outline of the
love birds. The white oval of the bottom is 3% inches long, and the
basket stands 4 inches high. It is 15 inches across at its longer axis
and 13% at its shorter. The border is of white and brown splints alter-
nated.
No. 15. Palatingwa Oblong Basket.—This basket is of unusual and
yet very useful shape, and is therefore given as a suggestion to white
weavers. It is most useful to place on a desk for pens or pencils, etc.,
and if the size is altered the general idea suggests how a basket may
be made to hold loose papers, etc.
It is in three colors, black, white and the brown of the tule root. It
is a parallelogram, 9% inches long and 41/4 inches wide. The sides and
ends are perpendicular, so that it is as high at the top as at the bottom.
No. i6.—Ancient Chuc-Chan-ce Basket.—This is one of the most
interesting old baskets in my collection. I secured it from the great
great granddaughter of its maker, and it shows clearly the steps of her
Sierra Nevada mountain home, with the streams of water flowing
down between them, and the many quails present, indicated by the
quail plume extending from every step. The basket is in two colors,
black and natural white, and is of the Havasupai coil weave. It is
4Y2 inches across the bottom, To inches across the top, and 4% inches
high.
No. 17. Havasupai Plaque.—As its name implies this is an almost
flat plaque or plate, though it is very slightly rounded as all the plaques
of this tribe are. It is an easy design to copy in natural black and
white, and is exceedingly decorative. The size is exact., viz., 16 inches
in diameter. The edge is finished off with the herring-bone stitch,
described in "Practical Basket Making."
No. 18. Palatingwa Oval Basket.—This is a beautifully shaped bas-
ket, and very attractive in color and design. The colors are all nat-
ural, viz., the black of the martynia, the brown of the tule root, and the
white of the willow. The oval base is 9% inches long and four inches
wide. At the top the long axis is 18 inches, and the short one 14
inches. It will be seen, therefore, that the sides widen out a little as
they approach the top. The weave is the Havasupai, with a soft coil
made of fine stems.
No. 19. Mesa Grande Basket.—This is an attractive circular bas-
ket, 4% inches high, 6Y4 inches across the bottom, 7/ inches across
216 THE BASKET.
the top, and bellied out about an inch from the bottom. It is in black,
brown of the tule root, and white, as indicated.
No. 20. Hoopa Carrying Basket.—This design is half the natural
size. The color is white and the design a light grayish brown. It is
a fine shape for a waste basket. The shaded part of the illustration
at the bottom is made by alternate weavers of brown and white. The
black of the illustration in the circular lines and the design is the
brown of the basket. The original is 5% inches across the bottom and
15% inches across the top. The height is 14% inches.
MATHIAS HOLLANDER,
MAKES A SPECIALTY OF TEACHING

5impie life Viographies.

GEORGE WHARTON JAMES will begin . . .
the IN THE OCTOBER CRAFTSMAN

a series of biographies of men
and women who have lived
THE SIMPLE LIFE.

He expects to devote all his time and literary energies in future to
The Craftsman. If members of the Basket Fraternity wish to keep in
touch with him and his work they should subscribe for The Craftsman.
It is a monthly magazine devoted to those who seek greater simplicity
in art and life and who believe in the dignity of labor." Three Dollars
a year. Matters pertaining to The Indians and their Basketry and
other Handicrafts will receive careful attention. Fraters will find it to
their advantage to communicate directly with GEORGE WHARTON JAMES,
care of The Craftsman, Syracuse, N. Y.

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Vol 1. JULY. 1903 No 3.

THREE EXQUISITELY WOVEN

Reprinted from "SUNSET."

Basketry is a primitive art. It is found among all primitive peoples

FIG. 1. MARIA ANTONIA, ONE OF THE CAHUILL.A, CALIFORNIA, BASKET-MA..CERS.

FIG. 3. YOSEMITE INDIAN'S ACORN STOREHOUSE.

FIG. 4. MONO INDIAN'S ACORN CACHE, USUALLY ERECTED IN FRONT OF

FIG. 7. rULARE BASKET IN PLIMPTON COLLECTION, SAN DIEGO.

FIG. 5. MERCED N3LAC UEZ OF AGUA CALIENTE.

sufficient convincement to be successful. Thus, in a few years the

FIG. 6. STUDY OF A TYPICAL BASKET-MAKER OF CAHUILLA.

Other pictures show several fine "Tulare" baskets in the Plimpton

FIG. 8. MONO BASKET-MAKER IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY.

FIG. 9. PAIUTI EXPERT AT TULE RIVER RESERVATION.

FIG. 12. YOKUT WEAVER AND A FUTURE CHIEFTAIN.

FIG. 13. MARIA LUGO, POUNDING ACORNS AT CAHUILLA, SHOWING THE

FIG. 14. CAHUILLA BASKETS MAINLY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DR. C.

weave. There are no fanciful forms, impossible designs, glaring, in-

bowl ; drinking from a round basket ; grinding cornmeal or acorn flour

THE HAVASTJP A I INDIANS AND

In the article on "Indian Handicrafts" there are two pictures of Hav-

THE JUNCTION OF THE HAVASU CREEK

Hackataia. Some day he would take me! When Waluthama returned

FIG. 25. A GLIMPSE OF BRIDAL VEIL FALLS, HAVASU CANYON.

few mistakes. It was wofully monotonous work ; in and out of small

FIG. 26. MOONEY FALLS, HAVASU CANYON.

FIG. 28. HAVASU CANYON, NEAR BEAVER FALLS.

He was twenty years old and a Havasupai Indian. He was dull-

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY AT PASADENA, CAL.

Advertising Rates on application,

GEORGE WHARTON JAMES, Editor.

TO ALL LOVERS OF INDIAN BASKETRY

Beloved ! A mutual tie binds us together. We are as diverse in

It is my intention in each number of The Basket to present an

50 THE BASKET. '

In starting a new magazine like "The Basket" it was almost una-

I have long thought it would be interesting to have a collection

SHUT YOUR MOUTH.

USE YOUR BODY RATIONALLY.

While in the South recently I picked up The Life and Letters of

There is a great deal of selfishness in the world that is mainly based

PRIMITIVE ARTS SOCIETY.

A meeting of those interested in the formation of a Primitive Arts

THE FRATERNITY TRAVELING LIBRARY

The conditions on which this traveling library may be obtained are

THE FRATERNITY LIBRARY OF

THE FRATERNITY LIBBARY OF STERE-

THE QUESTION BASKET.

Where may the long Georgia Pine . Needles be obtained ?

Where can I get a model loom made by the Navaho Indians ?

Where can I obtain lessons in making baskets in New York city ?

On page 34, Indian Basketry, is pictured a sacred Navaho basket.

A number of letters have been received from Fraters asking where

How is the maiden-hair fern-stem prepared for use in basketry ?

THE FRATER PRUNUS AND FRA

There is no denying that we like other people to think well of us

SPECIAL PREMIUM FOR ONE NEW

We have just fifty copies left of "Nature Sermons," beautifully

FIG. 29. AN APACHE MAIDEN, WITH BASKET WATER OLLA.

Vol 1. OCTOBER, 1903. No 4.

initiative in the wholesale punishment and slaughter of the white men