Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/860

 NOTES AND NEWS

How Baskets Are Rounded — Following up Mr Cushing's paper on Manual Concepts, I had an opportunity to watch an Obanike woman making baskets this last summer. She used ash splints of various widths, and sweet-scented grass. The latter was employed single, in bunches, and braided. The ash splints, instead of being hammered out laboriously as in olden times, had been wrought in a Yankee ma- chine ; but the woman, instead of being prejudiced against the white man's device, was very much pleased, and said that the machine-made splints were much nicer. At first I was struck by the uniformity in dimensions of a great number of her productions, but this wonder ceased when I observed that her hand and fingers were never idle as metric apparatus and gauges. But what was new to me was the con- stant use of the knee and the lap for hollowing up the bottoms and for giving rotundity to other forms. We are in the habit of calling in the help of gourds and other natural objects to explain the shapes of ancient textiles and pottery. The only mold this woman employed was herself, and it was charming to see how nimbly the parts of her body came to the service of her hand. O. T. Mason.

Material of the Mexican Codices — There seems to be a general impression that the ancient Mexican codices were written on paper made from the bark of the maguey (agave species), as this statement appears in the works of all the writers who have mentioned the subject. An examination of certain codices in Spain in 1892 gave rise to the belief that the material is the beaten bark of a tree surfaced with clay or lime. In this connection the numerous ridged stone beaters and smoothers found in Mexico, whose use, in a recent number of Science, was surmised to be that of making a texture of bark analogous to Polynesian tapa, are interesting. During a recent extensive journey in Mexico this subject was reexamined and the former conclusion affirmed. It will be seen by those familiar with the century plant that it has no bark. It is true that the chitinous epidermis of the leaves may be stripped off in sheets resembling the finest vellum, but when dry it becomes brittle and intractable, rolling into tight cylinders and curling at the edges. Applied to a rigid backing by means of strong

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