Fig. 4. Method of beginning hairnets and carrying nets.
Fig. 5. Detail of lower, fitted edge of hairnet.
Fig. 6. Detail of lower, gathered edge of carrying net.
Among the historic tribes the wearing of hairnets, both plain and decorated, was universal among the women of Baja California. Such usage among southern Californians was denied by all of Drucker’s informants (Drucker, 1937, p. 45). There appears to be no mention of them from the adjacent west coast of Mexico, but they are known archaeologically from the Great Basin. Loud and Harrington picture several from Lovelock Cave, but give no description of the knotting technique (1929, pl. 41). However, in their discussion of knots they mention that the “mesh knot” (weaver’s knot) was the most common, and the square knot was little used (ibid., pp. 83-87). Actually the nets, as they appear in Loud and Harrington’s plate, are very similar to the Baja California specimens in being knotted rather than being made by the more frequently found coil-without-foundation technique.