Page 9 - yukibasketry_kelly1930

•

1930,] Kelly: Yuki Basketry 425

There is a marked preference for the single rod with multiple
welts and for the three-rod foundation. When splints or welts occur
otherwise than in association with two rods, they usually lie vertically
a:c.d may entirely enclose the rod. In some poorly made baskets, the
principal foundation may be of welts with rods more or less sporadi-
cally introduced. These baskets are listed above as variable.
With the three-rod foundation, one of the rods is often split in the
sewing, automatically producing a two-rod, multiple-welt foundation.
It is usually possible to determine whether this latter structure has
been produced automatically or voluntarily. It seemed intentional
in 11 cases (14 per cent).

Fineness
None of the coiling is especially fine, at least as compared with
Pomo products. Ninety-five per cent of the baskets show five or six
coils to the inch, and 82 per cent run from eight to twelve stitches to
the linear inch. It is rare to find more than twelve stitches, but one
instance of sixteen stitches was noted. Some few baskets are exceed-
ingly coarse, averaging only three or four stitches to the inch
(pl. 124d). In these, of course, the foundation material is clearly
visible between stitches.

Rim Finish
One feature not in keeping with the mediocrity of Yuki coiling 1s
the neat manner in which the coil is finished at the rim of the basket.
An inch or so before the termination the coil is thinned and the over-
casting continued. When the end is reached, the sewing· is reversed,
running back on itself for a short distance. The result is a sort of
herringbone effect when viewed from above. Unfortunately this
feature does not show on any of the photographs. This method of
finishing the coil is not characteristic of the Pomo nor of any of the
other Californian groups represented in the Museum. Discounting
imperfect specimens, about 50 per cent of the Yuki baskets have the
herringbone finish. It does not seem to be correlated with the finer
ware but occurs more or less indiscriminately.
Other methods of finishing the coil are found. It may be thinned
and simply whipped to the row below, as was usual with the Pomo,
or it may be chopped off abruptly without any attempt to graduate
the break. A good many of the specimens are broken or raveled about
the rim, and it is impossible to tell what finish they may have had.