BASKET-MAKING. The earlier arta mankind, in an uncivilized condition, are res= to operations•n materials which undergo slight and imperceptible changes; • and implements are fabri cated from substances almost in their natural state. The process of interweaving twigs, reeds, or leaves, is seen among the rudest nations of the world, and there is known even an inferior specimen of art among the natives of Van Dieman's Land, consisting of a bunch of rushes tied together at either end, which, spread out in the middle, forms a basket. But the sudden alteration of shape -obviously renders this con struction less convenient ; whence the same and other tribes make a basket of leaves interwoven, and that so skilfully executed, that it retains either milk or water.
A bundle of rushes spread out may be compared to , the warp of a web, and the application of others across it to the woof, also an early discovery, for basket-making is literally. a web of the coarsest ma terials. By experience these materials are refined and ornamented, and in the most improved stages of manufacture, neat and useful implements and utensils are produced. Scarcely any nation bas been entirely ignorant of the art; and our ancestors in this island made baskets ' which, we learn, were carried to Rome either for use or ornament.
Basket-making, however, has by no means been' confined to the fabrication of those simple and use. &I utensils from which its name is derived. Of old, the shields of soldiers were fashioned of wicker.
? work, either plain or covered with hides, and the • like has been witnessed among modern savages. In Britain, the wicker boats of the natives, co vered with the skins of animals, attracted the no tice of the Romans ; and Herodotus mentions boats of this kind on the Tigris - and Euphrates. But there was this difference, that the former -seem to have been of the ordinary figure of a boat, whereas the latter were round and covered with bitumen. Boats of this shape, about seven feet in diameter, are used at the present day on -these rivers ; and boats of analogous construc tion are employed in crossing the rivers of India, which have not a rapid current. At Hurrial, a town on the western side of Hindostan, the river Toombudra is not fordable from June to October ; during which interval, round basket-boats are used to transport people, goods, and cattle, to the opposite sides. They are of all sizes, from three to fifteen
feet in diameter, but shallow, not being above three -feet in depth ; and some will carry thirty meil. They are of very simple construction: A number of pieces -of split bamboo, twenty for example, are laid on the ground, crossing each other near the centre, and there fastened with thongs ; the ends of the bam boos are then elevated by several persons, and fixed asunder at due distance by means of stakes, in which -position they are bound by other long slips of bamboo. The latter are introduced alternately over and under the pieces first crossed, and tied at the intersections to preserve the shape. This being completed, begin -ningfrom the bottom to the centre, the parts above the intended height or depth of the basket-boat are cut off, and it is liberated from' the stakes reversed, and -covered with half-dressed hides sewed together with thongs. Nothing can be more expeditious or more -simple than the fabrication and materials; of these vessels, if they merit that name. One may be made by six men in as many hours. Only two substances, almost always accessible, are used,—hides and bam boo. They are navigated either by paddles where the water is deep, or are pushed over a shallow bottom with long poles; and the passengers with in are safely transported, being kept dry by planks and pieces of wood at the bottom. The basket boats on the river Kristna, in the same country, are about twelve feet in diameter, and four feet deep. Whole armies are thus enabled to continue their march, and even heavy artillery has been in the same -manner conveyed across rivers. Sometimes the boats are towed by bullocks fastened to them, and goaded on in the proper direction. We may al so observe, that in different parts of the world, whole houses, cottages, fences, and gates, are form ed of basket or wicker-work. On the Continent, a two horse carriage, called a Holstein waggon, of very considerable size, and fit to carry several per sons, is composed solely of basket-work ; the same is Ione in Britain with regard to the bodies of gigs ; and an appendage of the stage-coaches is lite rally designed the ; besides a vast variety of works on a smaller scale.