Then, in the blackness of the night, lighted only by the stars above, the picturesque band journeyed back into the lonely desert village, and the funeral was at an end. CHAPTER VII DESERT BASKET-MAKERS In the midst of a region so repellent that a large part of it remains comparatively unknown and unexplored, one art has reached a state of perfection unattained in civilized communities. This is the art of basket-making. When, in 1539, Marcos de Niza, in his explorations northward from Mexico, entered the great desert region, he found peoples equipped with baskets of wonderful make and of marvelous fineness, such as the enlightened nations of Europe could not produce. The basket-makers of that time had all the skill that is known to their descendants to-day. More than three and one-half centuries have passed since then, but it has marked no improvement in the art. It was perfect then; it was perfect as far back as the traditions of that early day could trace it. It is an art to which civilization can add nothing; on the contrary, civilization threatens it with retrogression. [Illustration: A MOJAVE INDIAN POUNDING MESQUITE BEANS IN WOODEN MORTAR From photograph by C. C. Pierce & Co.] Neither history nor tradition goes back far enough to determine when the art of plaiting and weaving had its birth, nor can we find evidence of a period when the work of the weaver has been less perfect. Progressiveness in those lines has been at the expense of the quality of the article produced. While the Indian is weaving a single blanket the modern loom will produce thousands, but never has loom been invented which could produce a blanket equal in quality to the hand-made blanket turned out by some of the Indian tribes who inhabit the arid lands of the West. Almost all the basket-weaving tribes--and that includes nearly every tribe west of the Rocky Mountains--have legends pointing to the antiquity of the art. The Pomo Indians of Northern California tell that when the progenitors of their tribe were created, the Great Spirit furnished them with food in conical, water-tight baskets which served them as patterns for future work in that line. The Navajos learned the art by patterning after the baby-baskets in which the infant gods of war were sent to them, and the Havasupais believe that the daughter of the good god Tochopa taught the art to her daughter, from whom the tribe descended.