Spaniards saw shawls of cotton, brought, it was said, from the
west--probably the Pueblo country, as they were accompanied by objects
that from the description may have been ornaments of turquois.[34]
The following is from Du Pratz:
Many of the women wear cloaks of the bark of the
mulberry-tree, or of the feathers of swans, turkies, or India
ducks. The bark they take from young mulberry shoots that
rise from the roots of trees that have been cut down; after
it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all the woody
part fall off, and they give the threads that remain a second
beating, after which they bleach them by exposing them to the
dew. When they are well whitened they spin them about the
coarseness of pack-thread, and weave them in the following
manner: they plant two stakes in the ground about a yard and
a half asunder, and having stretched a cord from the one to
the other, they fasten their threads of bark double to this
cord, and then interweave them in a curious manner into a
cloak of about a yard square with a wrought border round the
edges. * * * The girls at the age of eight or ten put on a
little petticoat, which is a kind of fringe made of threads
of mulberry bark.[35]
This is illustrated farther on.
The manner of weaving in the middle and upper Mississippi country is
described by Hunter, who, speaking of the Osage Indians and their
neighbors, says:
The hair of the buffalo and other animals is sometimes
manufactured into blankets; the hair is first twisted by
hand, and wound into balls. The warp is then laid of a length
to answer the size of the intended blanket, crossed by three
small smooth rods alternately beneath the threads, and
secured at each end to stronger rods supported on forks, at a
short distance above the ground. Thus prepared, the woof is
filled in, thread by thread, and pressed closely together, by
means of a long flattened wooden needle. When the weaving is
finished, the ends of the warp and woof are tied into knots,
and the blanket is ready for use. In the same manner they
construct mats from flags and rushes, on which, particularly
in warm weather, they sleep and sit.[36]
Fabrics of various kinds were employed in burial, although not generally
made for that purpose. The wrappings of dead bodies were often very
elaborate, and the consignment of these to tombs and graves where the
conditions were favorable to preservation has kept them for long periods
in a most perfect state. By exhumation we have obtained most of our
information on this subject. Our knowledge is, however, greatly
increased by descriptions of such burial customs as were witnessed in
early times. Extracts already given refer to the use of fabrics in
mortuary customs. Many others could be cited but the following seems
sufficient:
After the dead person has lain a day and a night in one of
their hurdles of canes, commonly in some out house made for
that purpose, those that officiate about the funeral go into
the town, and the first young men they meet withal, that have
blankets or match coats on, whom they think fit for their
turn, they strip them from their backs, who suffer them so to
do without any resistance. In these they wrap the dead
bodies, and cover them with two or three mats which the
Indians make of rushes or cane; and, last of all, they have a
long web of woven reeds or hollow canes, which is the coffin
of the Indians, and is brought round several times and tied
fast at both ends, which, indeed, looks very decent and well.
Then the corps is brought out of the house into the orchard
of peach trees, where another hurdle is made to receive it,
about which comes all the relations and nation that the dead
person belonged to, besides several from other nations in
alliance with them; all which sit down on the ground upon
mats spread there for that purpose.[37]
NETS.
The manufacture and use of nets by natives in various parts of the
country are recorded by early writers, some of whom have already been
quoted. Speaking of the Iroquois De la Potherie says:
The old men and those who can not or do not wish to go to war
or the chase, make nets and are fishers. This is a plebian
trade among them. Their nets are made of thread of nettles or
of white wood, the bark of which they make into thread by
means of lye which renders it strong and pliable.[38]
In another place the same author says:
The Sauteurs, who are beyond the Missisakis, take their name
from a Saut (waterfall) which flows from Lake Superior into
Lake Huron by a great fall whose rapids are extremely
violent. These people are very skillful in fishery by which
they obtain white fish as large as salmons. They cross all
these terrible rapids into which they cast a net like a sack,
a little more than half an ell in width by one in depth
attached to a forked stick about 15 feet long.[39]
A novel use of nets is recorded by this author as follows:
For taking pigeons in summer in nets, they make a broad path
in the woods and attach to two trees, one on each side, a
large net made in the shape of a sack well opened.[40]
Du Pratz, speaking of the fishing nets of the Louisiana Indians, states
that they "are meshed like ours and made of lime-tree bark; the large
fish are shot with arrows."[41]
FEATHER WORK.
Feather work was one of the most remarkable arts of the natives of
Mexico and other southern countries at the period of the conquest. The
feathers were sometimes woven in with the woof and sometimes applied to
a network base after the fashion of embroidery. Rarely, it may be
imagined, were either spun or unspun fabrics woven of feathers alone.
Very pleasing specimens of ancient Peruvian feather work are recovered
from graves at Ancon and elsewhere, and the method of inserting the
feathers is illustrated in the Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology.[42] In few instances has such work been recovered from mounds
or burial places, but there can be no doubt that the mound-building
tribes were experts in this art. Frequent mention is made of the feather
work of the natives by the earliest explorers of the Mississippi valley,
and the character of the work may be gathered from the extracts already
given and from those which follow.
John Smith, speaking of the feather work of the Virginia Indians, says:
We haue seene some vse mantels made of Turky feathers, so
prettily wrought and woven with threads that nothing could be
discerned but the feathers.[43]
Lawson mentions a "doctor" of the Santee nation who "was warmly and
neatly clad with a match coat, made of turkies feathers, which makes a
pretty show, seeming as if it was a garment of the deepest silk
shag."[44]
In another place the same author says:
Their feather match coats are very pretty, especially some of
them, which are made extraordinary charming, containing
several pretty figures wrought in feathers, making them seem
like a fine flower silk shag; and when new and fresh, they
become a bed very well, instead of a quilt. Some of another
sort are made of hair, raccoon, bever, or squirrel skins,
which are very warm. Others again are made of the greenpart
of the skin of a mallard's head, which they sew perfectly
well together, their thread being either the sinews of a deer
divided very small, or silk grass. When these are finished,
they look very finely, though they must needs be very
troublesome to make.[45]
Du Pratz thus describes the art in Louisiana:
If the women know how to do this kind of work they make
mantles either of feathers or woven of the bark of the
mulberry tree. We will describe their method of doing this.
The feather mantles are made on a frame similar to that on
which the peruke makers work hair; they spread the feathers
in the same manner and fasten them on old fish nets or old
mantles of mulberry bark. They are placed, spread in this
manner, one over the other and on both sides; for this
purpose small turkey feathers are used; women who have
feathers of swans or India ducks, which are white, make these
feather mantles for women of high rank.[46]
Butel-Dumont describes feather work of the natives of Louisiana briefly
as follows:
They [the women] also, without a spinning wheel or distaff,
spin the hair or wool of cattle of which they make garters
and ribands; and with the thread which they obtain from
lime-tree bark, they make a species of mantle, which they
cover with the finest swan's feathers fastened one by one to
the material. A long task indeed, but they do not count this
trouble and time when it concerns their satisfaction.[47]
EMBROIDERY.
The use of beads, quills, and other articles to beautify the surfaces
of fabrics and skins was as common, no doubt, with the ancient as with
the modern native inhabitants of the Mississippi valley. In discoursing
on the dress of native women of Louisiana Butel-Dumont says that
the young girls wear--
* * * a sort of network attached to the waist and terminating
in a point, * * * both sides of which are ornamented with
ribbons of thread made from lime-tree fiber, also made into
network. From the waist to the knees hang several cords of
the same thread, to the ends of which are attached claws of
birds of prey, such as eaglets, crows, etc., so that when the
girls walk these make a rattling noise which is highly
pleasing to them. This kind of ornament does not illy
resemble those nets which we use to cover our horses to
protect them from flies.[48]
From Du Pratz we have the following:
The women make also designs in embroidery with the skin of
the porcupine; they remove for this purpose the skin of this
animal, which is white and black; they split it very fine to
use as embroidery thread, dye a part of the white skin a red
color, another part yellow, and a third part is left white;
they usually work on black skin, and dye the black a reddish
brown; but if they work on bark, the black [threads] remain
the same. Their designs are very similar to some of those
found in Gothic architecture; they are composed of straight
lines which form right angles at their conjunction, which is
commonly called the corner of a square. They also work
similar designs on mantles and coverings which they make with
the bark of the mulberry tree.[49]
John Smith testifies to the same practices in Virginia as shown in the
following lines:
For their apparell, they are sometimes covered with the
skinnes of wilde beasts, which in Winter are dressed with the
hayre, but in Sommer without. The better sort use large
mantels of Deare skins, not much differing in fashion from
the Irish mantels. Some imbrodered with white beads, some
with Copper, other painted after their manner. * * * We haue
seene some use mantels made of Turky feathers, so prettily
wrought and woven with threads that nothing could be
discerned but the feathers.[50]
[26] Travels in North America, Peter Kalm. English translation,
London, 1771, vol. II, pp. 131, 132.
[27] Ibid., pp. 148-149.
[28] Hist. de l'Amérique, Sept., vol. III, p. 34.
[29] Hist. Virginia. Richmond, 1819, pp. 132-133.
[30] History of the American Indians. London, 1775, pp. 422,
423.
[31] Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the
Conquest of Florida as told by a Knight of Elvas. Translated
by Buckingham Smith. New York, 1866, p. 52.
[32] Ibid., p. 63.
[33] Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the
Conquest of Florida as told by a Knight of Elvas. Translated
by Buckingham Smith. New York, 1866, p. 160-70.
[34] Ibid., p. 164.
[35] Hist. Louisiana, op. cit., vol. II, p. 23.
[36] Memoirs of a captive among the Indians of North America,
John D. Hunter. London, 1823, pp. 289-290.
[37] Hist. of Carolina, John Lawson. London, 1714; reprint,
Raleigh, N. C., 1800, pp. 293-294.
[38] Histoire de l'Amérique Septentrionale, Bacqueville de la
Potherie, vol. III, pp. 33-34.
[39] Ibid., vol. II, pp. 60-61.
[40] Ibid., vol. II, p. 80.
[41] Histoire de la Louisiane, vol. II, pp. 179-180.
[42] The Textile Art, W. H. Holmes, p. 231.
[43] Hist. Virginia, John Smith. Richmond, 1819, vol. I, p.
130.
[44] Hist. Carolina, John Lawson. Raleigh, 1860, p. 37.
[45] Ibid., pp. 311-312.
[46] Hist. de la Louisiane, vol. II, pp. 191-192.
[47] Memoire sur la Louisiane. Paris, 1753, vol. I, pp.
154-155.
[48] Ibid., vol, I, pp. 138-139.
[49] Historie de la Louisiane, vol. II, pp. 184-185.
[50] Hist. Virginia. Richmond, 1819, vol. I, pp. 129-130.
FOSSIL FABRICS.
MODES OF PRESERVATION.
Contenting myself with the preceding references to the practice of the
arts of spinning and weaving in the various regions of the country,
I pass on to an examination of the archeologic material which includes
traces or remnants of the weaver's work from all sections of the
country. As already mentioned, there are a number of ways in which
textile articles or data relating to them may be preserved in such
manner as to permit examination and study.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. II MAT
OF. SPLIT CANE.]
Through charring by the use of fire in burial rites, and by contact with
copper or preservative salts in burial caves, numerous pieces of cloth
and parts of costumes have come into our possession. One of the most
fertile sources of information has but recently been made available. The
ancient potter employed woven fabrics in handling, finishing, and
decorating pottery. From mounds, graves, and dwelling sites, all over
the country, vases and sherds are found covered with impressions of
these fabrics, and so well preserved that by taking casts in clay or wax
entirely satisfactory restorations are made. Something may be learned
from the recovery of implements of spinning and weaving, but up to this
time the only relics secured are a few rather rude spindle whorls.
I shall present in the following paragraphs such portions of the available
data as seem calculated to illustrate briefly and clearly the nature
of the ancient art.
FABRICS FROM CAVES AND SHELTERS.
At an early date in the history of the country reports began to find
their way into print relating to the discovery of mortuary fabrics in
caverns and shelters. Extracts from some of these publications may
be given.
From the writing of John Haywood historian of Tennessee, we have the
following:
In the spring of the year 1811, was found in a copperas cave
in Warren county, in West Tennessee, about 15 miles southwest
from Sparta, and 20 from McMinnville, the bodies of two human
beings, which had been covered by the dirt or ore from which
copperas was made. One of these persons was a male, the other
a female. They were interred in baskets, made of cane,
curiously wrought, and evidencing great mechanic skill. They
were both dislocated at the hip joint, and were placed erect
in the baskets, with a covering made of cane to fit the
baskets in which they were placed. The flesh of these persons
was entire and undecayed, of a brown dryish colour, produced
by time, the flesh having adhered closely to the bones and
sinews. Around the female, next her body, was placed a well
dressed deer skin. Next to this was placed a rug, very
curiously wrought, of the bark of a tree and feathers. The
bark seemed to have been formed of small strands well
twisted. Around each of these strands, feathers were rolled,
and the whole woven into a cloth of firm texture, after the
manner of our common coarse fabrics. This rug was about three
feet wide, and between six and seven feet in length. The
whole of the ligaments thus framed of bark were completely
covered with feathers, forming a body of about one eighth of
an inch in thickness, the feathers extending about one
quarter of an inch in length from the strand to which they
were confined. The appearance was highly diversified by
green, blue, yellow and black, presenting different shades of
colour when reflected upon by the light in different
positions. The next covering was an undressed deer skin,
around which was rolled, in good order, a plain shroud
manufactured after the same order as the one ornamented with
feathers. This article resembled very much in its texture the
bags generally used for the purpose of holding coffee
exported from Havanna to the United States. The female had in
her hand a fan formed of the tail feathers of a turkey. The
points of these feathers were curiously bound by a buckskin
string, well dressed, and were thus closely bound for about
one inch from the points. About three inches from the point
they were again bound, by another deer skin string, in such a
manner that the fan might be closed and expanded at pleasure.
* * *
The cave in which they were found, abounded in nitre,
copperas, alum, and salts. The whole of this covering, with
the baskets, was perfectly sound, without any marks of
decay.[51]
There was also a scoop net made of bark thread; a mockasin
made of the like materials; a mat of the same materials,
enveloping human bones, were found in saltpetre dirt, six
feet below the surface. The net and other things mouldered on
being exposed to the sun.[52]
In the year 1815 a remarkably interesting set of mortuary fabrics was
recovered from a saltpeter cave near Glasgow, Kentucky. A letter from
Samuel L. Mitchell, published by the American Antiquarian Society,
contains the following description of the condition of the human remains
and of the nature of its coverings:
The outer envelope of the body is a deer skin, probably dried
in the usual way, and perhaps softened before its
application, by rubbing. The next covering is a deer skin,
whose hair had been cut away by a sharp instrument,
resembling a hatter's knife. The remnant of the hair, and the
gashes in the skin, nearly resemble the sheared pelt of
beaver. The next wrapper of cloth is made of twine doubled
and twisted. But the thread does not appear to have been
formed by the wheel, nor the web by the loom. The warp and
filling seemed to have been crossed and knotted by an
operation like that of the fabricks of the northwest coast,
and of the Sandwich islands. * * * The innermost tegument is
a mantle of cloth like the preceding; but furnished with
large brown feathers, arranged and fastened with great art,
so as to be capable of guarding the living wearer from wet
and cold. The plumage is distinct and entire, and the whole
bears a near similitude to the feathery cloaks now worn by
the nations of the northwestern coast of America.[53]
The Bureau of Ethnology had the good fortune to secure recently a number
of representative pieces of burial fabrics of the classes mentioned in
the preceding extracts, and somewhat detailed descriptions of these will
sufficiently illustrate the art as practiced by the early inhabitants of
the middle portions of the country.
The relics which have come into the possession of the Bureau were
obtained in 1885 by Mr. A. J. McGill from a rock shelter on "Clifty" or
Cliff Creek, Morgan county, Tennessee. Mr. J. W. Emmert, through whom
they were procured, reports that they were found in a grave 3½ feet
below the surface and in earth strongly charged with niter and perhaps
other preservative salts. The more pliable cloths, together with skeins
of vegetal fiber, a dog's skull, some bone tools, and portions of human
bones and hair, were rolled up in a large split-cane mat. The grave was
situated about as shown in the accompanying section (figure 4). A shelf
some 20 feet in width, with depressed floor, occurs about midway between
the creek bed and the slightly overhanging ledge above, the whole height
being estimated at 300 feet.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. III
MANTLE OR SKIRT OF LIGHT-COLORED STUFF.]
The mat, a very excellent piece of work, is 6 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 4
inches. By reference to plate II it will be seen that it is neatly and
artistically made and quite well preserved. The strands are from
one-third to three-sixteenths of an inch in width and are even on the
edges and smoothly dressed on the back. The hard, glistening outer
surface of the cane is light in color and the dressed surface is dark
naturally or artificially, and the weaving is so managed that a tasteful
border and a checkered effect are produced by alternately exposing the
light and dark sides. This piece probably very fairly represents the
split-cane work of the whole cane-producing region. A similar piece of
work from the gulf coast is illustrated in figure 12.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Section of cliff showing position of grave
shelter.]
Inclosed with the mat were three pieces of fabric of especial interest,
all pertaining, no doubt, to the costume of the person buried. The piece
of cloth shown in plate III probably served as a mantle or skirt and is
46 inches long by 24 wide. It is of coarse, pliable, yellowish-gray
stuff, woven in the twined style so common all over America. The fiber
was doubtless derived from the native hemp, and the strands are neatly
twisted and about the size of average wrapping cord. The warp strands,
24 inches in length, extend across the piece; and on the left margin, as
seen in the illustration, they are looped for the passage of a gathering
string, while on the left they have been cut to form a short fringe. The
opposing series (the woof strands) have been passed through with the
length of the cloth in pairs, which are twisted half around at each
intersection, inclosing the web strands in alternating pairs as shown in
detail in figure 5. These twined strands are placed three-eights of an
inch apart, the web being so close that the fabric is but slightly open.
The twined strands are carried back and forth in groups of four as shown
at the ends in the plate, and are knotted as illustrated in the figure.
A piece of fabric of much interest is presented in plate IV. It may be
an unfinished garment of the class shown in the preceding illustration,
but it is more likely a complete skirt, the narrow woven band with its
gathering string serving as a belt and the long fringe being the skirt.
The length at the gathered edge is 34 inches, and the pendant length is
20 inches. The material and the weaving are the same as in the piece of
cloth already described, although the work is somewhat coarser. A
detailed study of the border is given in figure 6, the vertical series
of threads being pulled apart to show more distinctly the manner of
combination.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Portion of mantle showing manner of weaving.]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Analysis of the weaving of fringed skirt. Threads
natural size.]
The two pieces just described would seem to correspond pretty closely
with the garments formerly worn by women and girls of the lower
Mississippi country, as illustrated by Du Pratz in a plate facing page
310, volume II, of his Histoire de la Louisiane. His plate is reproduced
in figure 7. The following are translations of his descriptions of the
garments delineated:
The women in warm weather have only a half ell of limbourg,
with which they are covered; they fold this cloth around the
body and are well clothed from the waist to the knees; when
they have no limbourg they use in the same way a deer
skin.[54].
When the girls reach the age of eight or nine years they are
clothed from the waist to the ankles with a fringe of threads
of mulberry bark, fastened to a band
[Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. IV
FRINGED SKIRT.]
which is attached below the abdomen; there is also another
band above the abdomen which meets the first at the back;
between the two the body is covered in front by a network
which is held there by the bands, and at the back there are
merely two large cords, each having a tassel.[55]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Former costumes of woman and girl in Louisiana
(after Du Pratz).]
Of equal interest to the preceding is the badly frayed bag shown in
plate V. It is 20 inches in length and 13 inches in depth. The style of
weaving is the same as that of the two preceding examples; a peculiar
open effect is produced by the rotting out of certain strands of dark
color, which were arranged in pairs alternating with eight lighter
threads. The construction of the border or rim of this bag is quite
remarkable. As shown in figure 8, the upper ends of the vertical