Latin _bascauda_,
as in Martial (xiv. 99):--

"Barbara de pictis veni bascauda Britannis:
Sed me iam mavult dicere Roma suam."

But its etymology is unknown, and the _New English Dictionary_ states that
there is no evidence to connect basket with _bascauda_, which denotes
rather a tub, tray or brazen vessel.

Among many uncivilized tribes, baskets of a superior order are made and
applied to various useful purposes. The North American Indians prepare
strong water-tight _Wattape_ baskets from the roots of a species of
_abies_, and these they frequently adorn with very pretty patterns made
from the dyed quills of their native porcupine, _Erethizon dorsatum_.
Wealthy Americans have formed collections of the beautiful ware treasured
as heirlooms in Indian families, and large prices have been paid for
baskets made by the few squaws who have inherited the traditions and
practice of the art, as much as L300 having been given for one specimen. It
has been computed that baskets to the value of L1,000,000 were recently
drawn from California and Arizona within two years. The Indians of South
America weave baskets equally useful from the fronds of the Carnahuba and
other palms. The Kaffirs and Hottentots of South Africa are similarly
skilful in using the Ilala reed and the roots of plants; while the
Abyssinians and the tribes of Central Africa display great adroitness in
the art of basket-weaving.

Basket-making, however, has by no means been confined to the fabrication of
those simple and useful utensils from which its name is derived. Of old,
the shields of soldiers were fashioned of wicker-work, either plain or
covered with hides. Xenophon, in his story of the Thirty Tyrants at Athens,
relates that the exiled Greeks who had seized on the Peiraeus made
themselves shields of whitened osiers; and similar weapons of defence are
still constructed by modern savages. The huts of the earliest settlers in
Rome and in western Europe generally were made of osier work plastered with
clay. Some interesting remains of British dwellings of this nature found
near Lewes in 1877 were described by Major-General H. L. F. Pitt-Rivers in
_Archaeologia_, vol. xlvi. pp. 456-458. Boats of the same material, covered
with the skins of animals, attracted the notice of the Romans in Britain;
they seem to have been of the ordinary boat-shape. The basketwork boats
mentioned by Herodotus as being used on the Tigris and Euphrates were round
and covered wi