RARE TULARE AND POMO BASKETS
From photograph by C. C. Pierce & Co.
2. Domestic baskets, including the granaries, cooking utensils, water-bottles, and other baskets in general use about the house. In this line may be classed the baskets in which are cradled the infants.
3. Jewel baskets, which are used for holding articles of value and trinkets prized by the householder, and baskets used solely for ornamental purposes.
4. Ceremonial, embracing such as have sacred significance and historical import, and those used at feasts and festivals and at marriages and funerals.
It may seem strange to speak of using baskets in which to cook food, but this is a common practice with certain tribes. Vegetables are boiled and mush is cooked in baskets, by dropping into the basket with the food stones which have been heated on live coals. Certain foods are also cooked in shallow baskets, which have been lined with clay, by placing live coals beside the food, and then skilfully twirling the basket in such a manner as to keep the food and coals constantly changing places, but at the same time separate from each other. By occasionally blowing into the dish the mess is kept free from ashes and the coals are kept glowing.
The designs which appear in Indian baskets are not merely artistic conceptions of the weavers, but have significance. The sacred baskets are dedicated to certain purposes suggested by the designs woven in them. Thus the cobweb pattern in a Hopi basket signifies that it is to be used in conveying offerings to the "spider woman," as one of the deities or saints in the Hopi calendar is designated. Even the seeming miscalculation in the weaving of patterns is by design, as in the instance of patterns which apparently are calculated to run entirely around the basket but fail to join at the place of meeting. The opening is purposely left that the evil spirits may find a place of exit and pass out before they have opportunity to work harm to the possessor of the basket.