suggestions of the lines and figures unavoidably produced in
wicker-work of any kind when strands of different colors happened to
be employed together. Even slight discolorations in occasional splints
would result in such suggestions, for the stitches would here show,
there disappear. The probability of this view of the accidental origin
of basket-ornamentation may be enhanced by a consideration of the
etymology of a few Zuñi decorative terms, more of which might be given
did space admit. A terraced lozenge (see Figs. 510, 511), instead of
being named after the abstract word _a wi thlui ap í pä tchi na_,
which signifies a double terrace or two terraces joined together at
the base, is designated _shu k‘u tu li a tsi´ nan_, from _shu e_,
splints or fibers; _k‘u tsu_, a double fold, space, or stitch (see
Figs. 512, 513); _li a_, an interpolation referring to form; and _tsi´
nan_, mark; in other words, the "double splint-stitch-form mark."
Likewise, a pattern, composed principally of a series of diagonal or
oblique parallel lines _en masse_ (see Fig. 514), is called _shu´
k‘ish pa tsí nan_, from _shú e_, splints; _k‘i´sh pai e_, tapering
(_k‘ish pon ne_, neck or smaller part of anything); and _tsí nan_,
mark; that is, "tapering" or "neck-splint mark." Curiously enough, in
a bottle-shaped basket as it approaches completion the splints of the
tapering part or neck all lean spirally side by side of one another
(see Fig. 515), and a term descriptive of this has come to be used as
that applied to lines resembling it, instead of a derivative from _ä´s
sël lai e_, signifying an oblique or leaning line. Where splints
variously arranged, or stitches, have given names to decorations--applied
even to painted and embroidered designs--it is not difficult for us to
see that these same combinations, at first unintentional, must have
suggested the forms to which they gave names as decorations.

[Illustration: FIG. 510. FIG. 511.