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[11] Many of the handsomest baskets at the National Museum, as well as baskets from other great collections, are illustrated, partly in color, in “Indian Basketry,” by Otis T. Mason, curator of the ethnological department of the National Museum. The publishers are Doubleday, Page & Co., New York.

Bilhoola basket of woven cedar bast. “Basket work of North American Aborigines.” Otis T. Mason.

It is interesting to observe the limitation imposed upon a primitive designer by the qualities of the leaf, shell, or cane in his hands, the way in which these qualities point him to the forms in which he may excel. Of this we have capital examples in the basket-work of the North American aborigines as described by Mr. Otis T. Mason, in the report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883–84. He says: “Along the coast of British Columbia the great cedar (Thuja gigantea) grows in the greatest abundance, and its bast furnishes a textile material of the greatest value. Here in the use of this pliable material the savages seem for the first time to have thought of checker-weaving. Mats, wallets, and rectangular baskets are produced by the plainest crossing of alternate strands varying in width from a millimeter to an inch. Ornamentation is effected both by introducing different-colored strands and by varying the width of the warp or the woof threads. … It is not astonishing that a material so easily worked should have found its way so extensively in the industries of this stock of Indians. Neither should we wonder that the checker pattern in weaving should first appear on the west coast among the only peoples possessing a material adapted to this form of ornamentation.”

A square inch of the Bilhoola basket.

Referring to the water-bottles of the Pai Utes, Mr. Mason says: “This style can be made coarse or fine, according to the material and size of the coil and outer threads. If two twigs of uniform thickness are carried around, the stitch will be hatchy and open; but if one of the twigs is larger than the other, or if yucca or other fibre replace one of them and narrower sewing material be used, the texture will be much finer.” Baskets and rain-hats, as woven by Haidas and many other tribes, are waterproof when wet, owing to the closeness of their texture.

A free-hand scroll.

The same developed in a woven fabric.

“Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art.” W. H. Holmes.