Page 100 - TheHopiIndians

92 MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND

ter the third round the bone awl is plied, continuously
piercing through under the coil and taking in the
stitches beneath strips. As a hole is made the yucca
strip is threaded through and drawn tight on the
grass coil, and so the patient work goes on till the
basket is complete. The patterns which appear on the
baskets are stored up in the maker's brain and unfold
as the coil progresses with the same accuracy as is
evinced by the pottery decorator. The finish of the
end of the coil gives an interesting commentary on
Hopi beliefs. It is said that the woman who leaves the
coil end unfinished does not complete it because that
would close her life and no more children would bless
her.
At Oraibi one may see the women making wicker
tray-baskets. Three or four slender sumach twigs are
wickered together side by side at the middle and an
other similar bundle laid across the first at right
angles. Then dyed branches of a desert plant known
as "rabbit brush" are woven in and out between the
twigs, and as the basket progresses she adds other
radial rods until the basket is large enough. She fin
ishes the edge by bending over the sumach ribs, form
ing a core, around which she wraps strips of yucca.
One must admire the accuracy with which the de
signs are kept in mind and woven into the structure of
the basket with splints of various colors or strips of
tough yucca. The translation of a design into the
radiating sewing of the coiled basket or the horizontal