XXIX
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
What do you think would be the easiest way for the women to weave the splints into baskets?
What kind of baskets did they need? Would they be apt to make them all in the same way?
Have you ever seen a basket that will hold water?
If a basket was almost water-tight, how could you make it water-tight?
When the splints were made, the women began to weave them into baskets.
Some of the splints were wide and some of them were narrow.
Some of them were thin, and some of them were thick.
But the women did not mind this.
At first they wove them by interlacing, as Sharptooth had woven the basket of rushes.
But since the strands were not all the same width, the weaving did not look the same.
After a while they began to sort the splints.
They put the wide splints into one pile and the narrow ones into another.
Then they wove the wide splints in open work and made baskets for carrying roots and leaves.
They wanted smaller baskets for carrying berries, so they used the narrow splints.
They wove these splints in close work so that the berries would not drop out.
Some of the women wanted still closer weaving, so they pressed the splints down with their fingers.
When their fingers became sore from pressing hard, they used a long bone.
By driving the splints with a long bone, the weaving was made firm and strong.
Some of the baskets they made in this way were found to be water-tight.
So they sometimes used them for carrying water.
When the baskets became very dry, the wood shrank and this made little holes in the baskets.
But the women soon learned to stop the leak by mending the baskets with pitch.
THINGS TO DO
Find baskets that are woven in open work.
Find baskets that are woven in close work.
See if you can find a water-tight basket.
Draw a picture of the women weaving baskets.
Weave a basket or a mat in close work.
Use a stick and drive the woof strands close together.