incorporating of this design into the basket signifies that its maker was desirous of propitiating the evil power behind all rattlesnakes, and that she constantly prayed that none of them should ever harm any of her family. In this basket she kept the sacred mealprepared by herself, but consecrated by the shaman or medicine man, with many smokings, prayings, and other rites - which she daily sprinkled around her house and at a certain shrine in order to secure the protection of herself and family from all evil.

FIG. 6. KUCHYEAMPSI, THE MASHONGNAVI BASKET

A careful study of the various weaves found in North American basketry reveals wonderful ingenuity, taste, and skill. The Pomas alone have nine distinct weaves now in use and five that are obsolete, all of which have appropriate names; and there are perhaps twice as many other weaves in use by different peoples. To see the various methods by which the stitches are made how colored splints are introduced; how strengthening ribs are placed; how the bottleneck baskets are narrowed and again widened; the various ingenious methods of finishing off the basket-all these afford subjects for interesting study.

Fig. 6 is a photograph of Kuchyeampsi,

a Hopi basket-maker at Mashongnavi, one of the cliff cities of this interesting people whose Snake Dance has made them famous throughout the world. Connected with the basketry of the Hopi are many singular facts. There are seven villages of this people, and yet at only four are baskets made. Three of the villages-Mashongnavi, Shimopavi, and Shipauluvi-produce one kind of basket, and Oraibi another. This engraving represents the style made at the three villages. These baskets are more often found in the

round tray or plaque form, and are generally known as the sacred. meal trays of the Moki. The name Moki should never have been given to these people by the whites. It is not their proper name, and is a term of reproach applied to them by the Navaho, on account of their uncleanly sanitary conditions. They call themselves the Hopituh, or People of Peace, and all wellinformed writers and speakers refer to them now as the Hopi. To return to the basketry. These trays receive the name "sacred trays" because they are used in the ceremonies of the Hopi to hold the sacred meal, without which no prayer is effective. Meal is sprinkled upon every possible occasion.

Fig. 7 shows a number of Hopi women during the thrilling Snake Dance, standing where the dancers, carrying the snakes, pass them and so receive a pinch of the sacred and beneficial meal. They are also thus made the beneficiaries of the WEAVER. prayers that accompany the sprinkling of the meal. The ceremony is most weird and interesting.

In the finishing off of the baskets the Hopi woman is required by inexorable custom to symbolize her own physical state. There are three styles of finish, known respectively as "the flowing gate," "the open gate," and "the closed gate." The first is well illustrated in the rear basket to the left in Fig. 6. This is made by a maiden.

The open gate shows the ends of the inner grass cut off and the basket finished by tightly winding the wrapping thread of yucca over them, leaving about half an inch exposed. This is the style of finish required

of a matron capable of bearing children. The closed gate, as its name implies, shows the inner grass completely enclosed in the yucca wrapping, and is the style of finish observed by the barren married women and widows.

Nor are these facts all that are connected with these singular and interesting social revelations. Recently I learned that by a strange law of correlation between symbol and thing symbolized existent in the Hopi mind, the simple-hearted maiden or mother weaver implicitly believes that if she closes the "flowing flowing" or "open" gate of her basket, she produces a similar result in her own condition, which thus precludes her, in the one case, from becoming a happy wife, and in the other deprives her of the further joys of motherhood. For to the unsophisticated and uncivilized "heathen" Hopi woman marriage without many children is unhappy and unblest.

In some baskets the whole history of a nation is symbolized, and to an intelligent sympathy expressed towards the weaver and her ideas, I owe the gleaning of much mythological, traditional, and historical lore that had hitherto entirely escaped ethnologists and others interested in the history of the Indians.

Colors, also, to the Indian are often significant of religious interpretation, and to learn the many methods for producing splints of pleasing color followed by the Indian woman, is to have a revelation of patience, industry, skill, and invention.

Indian baskets can be made to contribute to the intellectual pleasures of any ladies' club or social gathering. Let a loan collection be made of as many baskets as can be found. Then let some intelligent and interested member of the club prepare a paper or deliver an extempore talk covering the following points: the geographical home of the tribe of the maker of the basket under consideration; the weaver's own home; the material used in making the basket; how the colors are made, and the significance of the design, whether imitative, conventionalized, imaginative, ideographic, symbolic. Such a talk could be followed by a general discussion and exchange of ideas that would prove to be profitable and instructive to the whole company.

or

Merely a loan collection could not fail to give interest and increase knowledge, and if, to complement it, a number of photographs were placed on exhibition showing the "majellas" making the baskets, considerable added interest would be secured.

2. Epau

"U. S. N.," surrounded by sprays of ros marinus. The ferrule, or lower end of scabbard, terminates in entwined gold dolphins.

The sword-blade is damascened with the inscription:

The gift of the Nation to Rear-Admiral George
Dewey, U. S. N., in Memory of the Victory
at Manila Bay, May 1st, 1898.

The letters are of an ornamental character, and sufficiently large to be dignified. The Phenician galley, representing the first craft of the navies of the world, supplies the rest of the ornament on this side of the blade. On the other side of the blade is shown the flight of the eagles of victory, bearing festoons of laurel to the four quarters of the earth.

The mounting of the belt and the trappings are the regulation buckles, pierced slide rings and swivels, all of 22-karat gold,

and ornamented with the oak leaves and acorns. The bullion tassel and embroidered belting is specially made, and much superior to that usually employed. The sword was designed and made by Tiffany & Company of New York.

The city of Boston also presented Admiral Dewey with a sword, and both of these swords, together with the other presents showered upon him by a grateful nation, have been on exhibition in the National Museum. It is unfortunate that they are now withdrawn, temporarily at any rate, for not a day passes during which numbers of visitors, who have come perhaps hundreds of miles to see them, are not heard to express keen disappointment.

Two swords of General James Shields are exhibited. They were purchased from his widow and children in honor of his gallant services in the Mexican and Civil wars, and

several thousands of dollars were paid for them. One was presented to him by the state of South Carolina, and the other by the state of Illinois. General Shields was an Irishman by birth. He came to this country in early life, and at the commencement of the Mexican war was appointed a brigadiergeneral in the United States army.

A handsome sword and medal were presented by congress to Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliott for capturing two British vessels (Detroit and Caledonia) at Fort Erie, while serving under Perry. The exploit was remarkable for the lightning speed with which it was arranged and carried out. It is said that after the expedition left Buffalo Creek, hardly ten minutes elapsed before the vessels and their men were made captives. Crowds of people watched the brilliant capture from the shores. There is also exhibited the simitar, with hilt beautifully ornamented with gold, which was presented to Commodore Elliott during his command of the United States squadron in the Mediterranean (1835-36).

The victories of Commodore James Biddle are still fresh in the minds of students of American history. At the age of twentynine he was appointed first lieutenant of the Wasp, and when six days out at sea fell in with six British merchantmen convoyed by the Frolic. A terrific fight, ending with a hand-to-hand encounter, ensued, and the Wasp was victorious. His sword, presented to him by the viceroy of Peru, has a curved blade, a gold hilt set with five diamonds, and a jeweled scabbard. It now adorns the historical exhibit in the National Museum. Commodore Biddle was conspicuous in the Tripoli war (1801-1805), the War of 1812, and the war with Mexico. He was also instrumental in negotiating a treaty with the Ottoman empire in 1830-32, and in 1845 was appointed one of the commissioners to ratify a treaty with China.

By no means the least interesting object in the national collection is a Moorish flint-lock gun, ornamented with silver and coral, which was presented by the emperor of Morocco to President Thomas Jefferson. A naval cutlass, captured from the English ship Serapis by John Paul Jones, commanding the Bonhomme Richard, is a reminder of the pluck of that indomitable fighter. In 1779 he sailed for the British coast for the purpose of intercepting the British Baltic fleet. After number of thrilling adventures, which are well recorded in Wilson's "American Military and Naval Heroes " (Vol. I.), he engaged

in fight with two British vessels, the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough. The Bonhomme Richard was inferior both in size and in armament. In the beginning of the fight the American vessel was worsted, and, when in an almost sinking condition, Jones was asked to surrender. He replied that he hadn't commenced fighting yet, and that he would not strike his colors till he had been fairly beaten. Not long afterwards the British ships were forced to give up the fight. A sword given to John Paul Jones by the king of France is also exhibited, together with the simitar, as well as a sword, musket, and piece of the flag from the Serapis, and the entire flag from the Bonhomme Richard. Later John Paul Jones entered the Russian navy and served under the Prince of Nassau in a war against the Turks. The Turkish fleet being destroyed, Jones retired from the service and went to Paris, where he died in 1792, and was buried with every honorable distinction at the expense of the French National Convention. An effort is now being made by congress to have his bones exhumed, brought back to the United States, and buried beneath the flag he loved so well.

Brigadier-General Gabriel Réné Paul, who served with much distinction in the Seminole war, the war with Mexico, and the Civil war, has bequeathed two of his swords to the nation. One was presented to him by the Twenty-ninth Regiment of New Jersey volunteers, the other by the citizens of Missouri for gallantry. It was he who led the forlorn hope at the storming of Chapultepec, for which he was highly commended by congress.

There is an antique Spanish sword, a relic of the war with Mexico, which was presented to Captain J. T. Ord, U. S. A., when in Mexico. Prominent among the naval heroes of that war was Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, brother of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. The story of his capturing several pirate ships in the West Indies is full of exciting interest. Later he was engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz, and in 1852 commanded an expedition to the China seas and Japan, which resulted in the negotiation of a treaty that opened the Japanese ports to American commerce. While with the Concord at Alexandria in 1832, Ali Pasha, bey of Egypt, presented him and several of his officers with thirteen simitars, all of which adorn this exhibit.

Enhanced by the luster of his grandson's bravery at the battle of La Guasima, Cuba, and of his son's warlike deeds through the