BASKET, a vessel made of osier twigs or other flexible materials, as rushes, strips of wood, splits of bamboo, rattan, etc., and used for holding and carrying all sorts of commodi ties. The word is of Britanno-Celtic origin and still subsists in the Welsh language in the form Basgatai from Basgi plaiting, net-work: it was adopted into the Latin language in the 1st cen tury with form little altered —Bascauda. The baskets made in Britain were highly prized by the Romans, and the poets Juvenal and Martial make mention of them as articles of no trifling value. They were evidently regarded as rare exotic curios in Juvenal's day, for the poet, in drawing an exaggerated picture of the ship wreck in which his friend Catullus threw over board his most cherished posscssions, couples Bascaudx (baskets) with articles of chased silver wrought by famous artists (Sat. xii.). And Martial (xiv, 99) makes the British bias-. ket say of itself :— Barbara de pictis veal' bascauda Britannia, Sed me jam mavutt dicere Roma suam — " The Basket Barbaric, I'm come from the painted Britanni, But Rome now would choose rather to title me Roman." In primmval times basket-making was a branch of the art of weaving, and both of these arts grew out of the still more primi tive one of wattling, first employed in mak ing enclosures. Tylor ((Early History of Mankind') notes the existence of wicker weaving among primitive tribes throughout the world. This is the first step in the art of weav ing textile fabrics. It is practised, or rather was practised, by the natives of New Zealand and of northwestern America, and as late as 1856 by an Indian tribe living northwest of Lake Huron. In the lake habitations of Switz erland have been found specimens of wicker weaving work consisting of strands of un twisted fibre, probably hemp, bound together by transverse strands wattled in among them; and in the same localities have been found speci mens of the same kind of weaving but of a progressively higher and finer type. There is even a genetic relation between the arts of basket-malcing and pottery, proved by speci mens of rude pottery found in all quarters of the world: in these are seen the impresses of the basket-work on which the clay was molded and which was burnt away in the kiln. Even after the art of molding the clay without the basket-work frame was invented, the potters seem to have imitated the markings left by it. Among the Indians of the Mississippi Valley along the Gulf, all pottery vessels of large size used to be modeled in baskets of willow or splints, which, being burnt off, their markings remained. Shields of basket-work covered with
hide were in use among the Britons at the time of Cmsar's invasion, and similar shields are still employed by primitive peoples wherever they live in savage isolation. Boats, too, of basket-work, with a covering of hide (coracles), were used by the ancient Britons, and boats of the same type were seen by Herodotus (i, 194) navigating thc Euphrates. These were of round form, without distinction of bow and stern, and similar boats are still in use on some rivers in India. On account of its lightness, combined with strength and durability, basket-work is pre ferred to )oinery in the manufacture of various commodities, as window-screens, pony-carriage bodies, chairs, tables, etc. In South Arnenca the natives weave baskets of rushes capable of holding liquids, and those of Tasmama, now extinct, used to weave of leaves water-tight vessels. The material most commonly em ployed in basket-making is the willow or ozier twig, and the production of this material is an important industry in France, Germany, Bel gium, Holland and Britain. The product of France and Britain is the most highly esteemed for firmness, toughness and evenness; that of Germany is reputed inferior to the French; the Dutch product is in least esteem, being soft and pithy. Besides ozier twigs, a great variety of other materials are employed in basket tnaldng. In this country coarse, strong baskets are made of shavings or long broad splits of various tough woods. In China and Japan the usual materials are bamboo and rattan, and the Chinese and Japanese excel in the manufacture of wares of these materials, their products be ing unrivaled for fineness, elegance and finish; and some of their work, as in the encasing of the egg-shell porcelain of the Japanese, is mar velous for the delicacy of the manipulation; even the examples seen in our marts, of com mon little porcelain saucers so encased in basket-work, are worthy of admiration for painstaking workmanship. The fronds of the Palmyra palm, originally employed in India in making (Tajano baskets, now afford a staple material for use in the art throughout the world. So, too, Phortnium tenax, native of New Zea land, which yielded to the natives of that coun try their peculiar basket-making material, is now employed in all countries for the same purpose.