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MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND 93

filling of the wicker basket shows the necessity of the
different treatments, contrasting with the freedom
which it is the potter's privilege to display on the
smooth surface of her ware. So far as known the
Hopi women never fail in applying their designs,
however intricate. Frequently these designs repre
sent mythical birds, butterflies, clouds, etc.
Among the Hopi certain of the villages are noted for
their local manufactures. Thus Walpi and I lano are
practically the only towns where pottery is made, the
Middle Mesa towns are headquarters for coiled bas
kets, and Oraibi furnishes wicker baskets. Perhaps
the meaning of this is that these arts belong to clans,
who have preserved them and know the secrets, and
with the dying out of the workers or migration of the
clans the arts have disappeared or have been trans
formed. Another cause which will suggest itself is
the local abundance and quality of the materials re
quired to be found in the surrounding plains and
mountains.
Basketry has at least as many uses as pottery among
the Hopi, and a number of kinds besides the familiar
plaques with symbolical decoration have been eagerly
sought by collectors. The crops from the fields are
borne to the houses on the mesas in carrying baskets,
resembling a pannier, which are worked of wicker over
a frame of two bent sticks crossed at right angles. In
the house the coiled and wicker trays heaped high
with corn meal, the basket for parched corn and the