lacks in conventionalized figures.  So the list might be extended to cover the women’s knives and their pocket and carrying baskets, as well as the betel boxes and lime holders used by both sexes.  In short, there seems to be no end to the list of personal ornaments and equipment which may be improved by carvings, arrangements of beads or metal castings and inlays.  Even the horses are decorated with artificial forelocks of hair and beads.  Strings of bells surround their necks, while saddles and whips display the aesthetic taste of their owners.

A part of this decoration is apparently realistic and will readily be identified by any member of the tribe; another part is suggestive and with a widely known meaning, but by far the greater number of designs have no generally accepted signification.  The writer spent many hours securing the names of the designs on textiles, ornaments, or on lime boxes, only to receive the reply “done to make pretty,” or to find that no two of five or a dozen informants could agree on many patterns, while frequently it was found that some obliging individual had volunteered names at one time which he could not remember on the day following.  It is possible that a long residence with the people and diligent inquiry along this line might yield more definite results, but for the present the writer must content himself by showing some typical examples of the decorative art, and adding a few notes to the same.

The great majority of baskets lack in decoration, other than that which can be obtained by a slight change in the weave.  In these a central band can be distinguished from those at top and bottom, although the same material is used and there is only a minor variation in the technique.

Small carrying receptacles, or trinket baskets, frequently have designs produced by plaiting the rattan or bamboo of natural color with that which has been blackened (Plate XXXIVa).  No uniform meaning or pattern name seems to be attached to the designs shown in this specimen, but an incised design on the wooden rim was readily identified as a crocodile.

The small baskets in the coiled weave sometimes have the fronts entirely covered with beads which are woven into the basket in parallel lines.  The tobacco box shown in Plate XXXV has been covered with cloth and pitch, in which an artistic design made from the yellow cuticle of an orchid has been inlaid.  Plate XXXVb shows the wooden tops of three tobacco boxes.  Nos. 1 and 2 are carved and inlaid with beads and buttons in designs which “look pretty,” but number 3 depicts a hunting scene in which two men and a dog are hunting the alligator.  Several beads are missing so that it requires quite a stretch of the imagination to secure the impression the native artist meant to impart.

The prized trinket baskets of the women generally have the fronts covered with cloth, to which hundreds of colored beads are sewed, in elaborate designs (Plate XXXVI).