the side edge is reached the strips turn over at right
angles and continue to plait in the changed oblique direction. The
lower edges are finished by bending the elements at right angles and
plaiting them obliquely back for an inch into the completed surface.
Checked weaving and plaiting is employed in a variety of ways, for
aside from mattings it enter into the construction of baskets,
pouches, bags, sails, raincoats, baby's hoods, and a number of other
articles.

[Illustration: FIGURE 4.--ANOTHER TYPE OF LOOM.]

Cedar bark which has been softened and shredded plays an important
part in the clothing of this region, especially in blankets like that
in Figure 4. The blanket here, however, is not of cedar bark but of
goat's hair for a number of materials are made use of by this technic.
In this weaving the warps are not thrown over the crossbeam as in the
other loom but are supported on a cord which itself is bound to the
beam by another cord. Neither are the warps united by a strip of weft
running over and under but by a two strand weft element which twines
about the warps. To my knowledge this form of weaving has never been
reproduced by machinery as no machine can make threads twine. The
blankets of cedar bark are undecorated, but those of wool frequently
have strands of another color passed across the surface and caught
into the weaving from time to time, producing similar designs to that
in Figure 4. As observed in the illustration the lines of weft are not
driven home but are set some distance apart, the space between varying
on different garments. At the lower edge, however, there is frequently
found a band of closely woven twining, at other times a band of fur,
or a long fringe may complete the edge.

[Illustration: FIGURE 5.--UNFINISHED CHILKAT BLANKET.]

The most beautiful weaving of western British Columbia is the Chilkat
blanket, Figures 5 and 6, a weaving which is unique in technic and
design, both in primitive and modern textile art. It is a ceremonial
garment and the gorgeous designs in white, blue, yellow and black are
of totemic significance and relate to the ceremonial life of the
Indian. In earliest times this blanket was undecorated, a plain field
of white; then color was introduced on the white field in stripes of
herring-bone pattern typifying raven's tail, because similar to the
vanes of the tail feathers; and later the elaborate geometric designs
of present day blankets developed. Thes