Then her work is done.
The Japanese are famous basket-makers, but they do not far excel the best work found among these untutored workwomen.
Most curious of all is the fact that a _savant_ connected with the Smithsonian Institute was amazed when examining a "buck," or man's plaque, to find it almost exactly like one he had brought from northern India--similar in weaving, size, and shading.
And a lady told me that she could make herself understood by those of a certain tribe in Mexico by speaking to them in Sicilian.

Which makes me think of Joel Chandler Harris and his embarrassment, after publishing his stories of "Uncle Remus," to receive letters from learned men at home and abroad, inquiring how this legend that he had given was the same as one in India, or Egypt, or Siam.
The art of basketry is rapidly deteriorating, and will soon be lost unless Indian children in the reservation are taught something of the old skill by their grandmothers, before the few now living depart for that happy, unmolested hunting-ground they like to believe in, where I do hope they will find a land all their own.
The Mexican drawn-work is seen everywhere for sale, and at moderate prices--so moderate that any one is foolish to waste eyesight in imitating it.

Each stitch has a name, and is full of meaning to the patient maker.
One can easily spend a good deal for curios, such as plaques, cups, vases, napkin-rings, plates and toothpicks of orange wood, bark pin-cushions, cat's-eye pins, etchings of all the missions in India ink, wild-flower, fern, and moss work, and, perhaps most popular of all, the pictures on orange wood of the burro, the poppy, and pepper and oranges.
Or, if interested in natural history, you can secure a horned toad, a centipede, or a tarantula, alive or dead, and "set up." A horned toad is more easy to care for than the average baby alligator of Florida, and as a pet is not more exacting, as it can live six months without eating.
"Why do some women like horrible things for pets?
"Mother Eve set the example, and ever since serpents have been in the front rank of woman's eccentric loves.

Cleopatra was fond of tigers and ferocious beasts, but she turned at last to a snake as the most fitting creature to do her bidding.
"Centuries ago the queens of Egypt made pets of horned toads, and the ugly little reptiles became things of state, and their lives more sacred than the highest ministers to the court.

Daughters of the Nile worshipped crocodiles." A very intelligent man, who has every reason to speak with authority about the tarantula as found in California, declares that it is not dangerous.