A few instructive specimens of basketry or wicker ware were exhumed at Cliff Palace. One of the most interesting of these is the unfinished plaque shown in the accompanying figure 2.

FIG. 2.—Coil of basket plaque.

One specimen of basketry (pl. 29) has the form of a hopper; its whole central part was purposely omitted, but the basket is finished on the inner and outer margins. It recalls a basket used by the Ute and other Shoshonean Indians, but it is different in form from any figured in Nordenskiöld's work, and, so far as the author is acquainted with other specimens of basketry from Mesa Verde ruins, is unique. It is supposed that when used this hopper was placed on a flat or rounded stone and that corn or other seeds to be pounded were placed in it, the stone thus forming the surface upon which the seeds were treated, and the sides of the basket serving to retain the meal.

Plate 29. BASKET HOPPER—SIDE AND BOTTOM VIEWS

The sandals found at Cliff Palace (pls. 30-32) are practically the same in form, material, and weave as those recorded from Spruce-tree House. The shape of these, however, is particularly instructive, as it appears to shed light on the meaning of certain flat stones, rare in cliff-dwellings, called "sandal lasts." These stones, one of which is figured in the report on Spruce-tree House, are rectangular, flat, thin, smooth, with rounded corners, and sometimes have a notch in the rim at one end. The exceptionally formed sandal from Cliff Palace (pl. 32) is similar in shape and has a notch identical with that of the problematical stone objects, supporting the theory that the latter were used as sandal lasts, as interpreted by several authors.

The sandals are ordinarily made of plaited yucca leaves, their upper side being sometimes covered with corn leaves for protection of the feet. The thongs that passed between the toes are made either of yucca or other vegetable fiber, or of hide.

Plate 30. SANDALS

Plate 31. SANDALS

Plate 32. SANDALS