Sometimes they found bright-colored leaves and feathers and wove them with the splints and reeds.
Sometimes they stained the finished basket with the juices of fruits and berries.
“Then they began to weave each woof strand over one and under two”
Sometimes they painted patterns on it with paint that they made of colored earth.
Then they learned to dye the splints and reeds in a very simple way.
They soaked them in water before they used them, so as to make them pliable.
They found that willow stems that were soaked in water were colored light brown by the bark of the stem.
Splints buried in the leaf-mold of the brooks and marshes were colored a dark brown.