Page 102 - TheHopiIndians

94 MESA FOLK OF HOPILAND

sifting basket near the corn grinding stones, will be
found. In the bread-baking room is the coarse, though
effective, piki tray, and occasionally one may still see
a neatly made floor mat. The thin checker mat of
ancient days has long since gone out of use, but for
merly, the dead were wrapped in such mats before
they were placed in the earth.
Over the fireplace is a hood of basketry plastered
to prevent burning. The wicker cradle to which the
infant hopeful is bound must not be forgotten. Sev
eral small globular wicker baskets for various pur
poses may also be displayed among the household be
longings. The mat of grass stems in which the wed
ding blanket is folded is also a kind of basketry, as
are the twined mats for covering the hatchway of the
kiva and the twined fence around the fields.
With all their own resources, the Hopi are great
collectors of baskets from other tribes. One must not
be surprised to see in use in the Hopi houses the
water bottles coated with pitch and the well-made
basket>bowls from the Havasupai of Cataract Canyon,
the Pimas of southern Arizona, and other tribes
touched by Hopi commerce.
The vizors of old masks used in the ceremonies were
of basketry, generally a section cut from a Ute basket-
bowl, which shows one of the most interesting employ
ments of baskets among the Hopi. The highly dec
orated trays may also be said to have a sacred charac
ter from their frequent appearance in the ceremonies,