WEAVING AND COSTUME
The first article of dress of primitive people was not a woven stuff,
but nevertheless weaving, like pottery, begins in plaiting and
basketry, and is an ancient art. The first clothing, a necessity of
climate, was made of skins of animals where they could be obtained, and
where they could not primitive man walked in a state of nature. His
desire for clothing was one purely of comfort; modesty, as we define
it, was unknown. Modesty, so far as it relates to concealment of the
body, is the child of climate and fashion. A Breton peasant girl does
not mind if her legs are seen, but she is shocked if caught with her
hair down or without her cap; one of our own ladies thinks nothing of
exhibiting her bare shoulders and bosom at the opera under gaslight,
but she would not do it in daylight. On the beach it would also be
improper, but there she is not troubled if her lower extremities are
seen. In some of the milder climates to-day clothing is scanty, while
with the Eskimo in the Far North it is composed of warm furs. Cold was
responsible for the first clothing, and is to-day responsible for a
good deal of it. The idea of utilising feathers and broad leaves as
well as skins would soon occur to a people, especially if they found it
difficult to secure the skins, and with these some kind of a string was
necessary to hold them together, and if no sinew or thong was at hand
the want would be supplied by twisted grass or bark, and this twisted
grass or bark then came itself to be combined in the form of mats for
sleeping on or covering sticks to produce a shelter. This was plaiting,
and it is the first step to basketry and weaving. Many of the simpler
arts are native in the brain of man, and the expression of them at the
proper time is as easy and natural as it is for a birdling to fly, a
kitten to catch a mouse, or a baby to walk for the first time. It is,
like sight, or thought, or articulate speech, a direct and unconscious
result of the innate composition of mankind. It is impossible to tell
why a spider builds a web of even proportions instead of one that
is irregular, or when it acquired the skill to perform its feat of
engineering, or why it builds a web at all, and does not, like a cat
and some species of spiders, rely on springing upon its prey. The
spider does this the world round because it is a spider, and because
its prey also has, the world round, its own habits. So with man.
Everywhere he learned to plait mats, make wicker-work and pottery, and
a thousand other things simply because he was everywhere _the same
man_. If you examine articles of primitive manufacture from various
parts of the globe, you will find them all practically alike, because
the men who made them were practically alike and their wants and
surroundings were practically alike. They plaited together strips of
bark or twisted grasses, or rushes, because they had to have them, and
they went on finding out the properties of the materials that compose
the world just as they are doing to-day, till they made cloth and made
it on a machine. Primitive fabrics were everywhere about the same,
and when the loom was invented it was and is, where still used in its
primitive form, very much the same. That in use to-day by the Navajos
is much like that used by the Orientals. The Navajos are probably not
the inventors of it, but borrowed the idea from the Pueblos, or at
least derived it through a mixture of Pueblo blood. Their cousins, the
Apaches, do not weave, and they are probably better representatives of
the original Athapascan stock than the Navajos.
The Mexican loom was similar to that of the Navajos, and it is probable
that some of the tribes of the Mississippi valley were acquainted with
one built on a like pattern. The product of these primitive looms was
also much alike in its character; some of the Oriental rugs that we see
now strongly resemble the blankets of the Mexicans or Navajos.
[Illustration: MENOMINEE BEADED GARTERS]
This is because weaving is a simple art; and until the invention of the
Jacquard principle complex patterns were produced only by great labour,
as all the different colours had to be adjusted by hand, which is still
the case in many fine products like the Turkish rugs or the shawls of
Cashmere.
The primitive products of the loom were square in shape, and when used
as garments they were not cut to a pattern or altered, but were worn
as they came from the loom. To make a dress, it was only necessary to
fasten two of these mats or blankets together, just as the Moki women
do now. This combination was then slipped over the head, with one
corner on the right shoulder and one under the left, and a belt around
the waist. This was the costume complete. There was no fitting the
fabric to the body.
Thread, cord, twine, and rope were made by the Menominees chiefly
out of the “inner bark of the young sprouts of basswood. The bark is
removed in sheets and boiled in water to which a large quantity of lye
from wood ashes has been added. This softens the fibre and permits
the worker to manipulate it without breaking. The shoulder-blade of
a deer or other large animal is then nailed or otherwise fastened
to an upright post, and through it a hole about an inch in diameter
is drilled; through this hole bunches of the boiled bark are pulled
backward and forward, from right to left, to remove from it all
splinters or other hard fragments. After the fibre has become soft and
pliable, bunches of it are hung up in hanks, to be twisted as desired.
The manner of making cord or twine, such as is used in weaving mats and
for almost all household purposes, is by holding in the left hand the
fibre as it is pulled from the hank, and separating it into two parts,
which are laid across the thigh. The palm of the right hand is then
rolled forward over both so as to tightly twist the pair of strands,
when they are permitted to unite and twist into a cord. The twisted
end being pushed a little to the right, the next continuous portions
of the united strands also are twisted to form a single cord. The same
process is followed in all fibre-twisting, even to the finest nettle
thread.”[99] In the matter of thread some fine results were obtained
by various Amerinds. Holmes says: “The finest threads with which I
am acquainted are perhaps not as fine as our number ten ordinary
spool-cotton thread, but we are not justified in assuming that more
refined work was not done.”[100] Sage-brush, yucca, and other plants
were used for making thread and cord.
[Illustration: NAVAJO WOMAN AT THE LOOM]
In order to weave, it is first necessary to reduce your fibre, or
wool, or cotton, to more or less even threads or yarn. The Amerind
way of doing this was the same, practically, wherever spinning and
weaving were attempted, from Central America northward. The spindle is
a round, slender, pointed stick, a foot to about fifteen inches long,
put through a disc, generally of flat, hard wood, four to six inches in
diameter, which acts as a flywheel to keep up the momentum. It is the
simplest form of top. The operator holds the wool or cotton, previously
prepared, in his or her lap, and attaching one end of it to the top
arm of the spindle, above the disc, gives the spindle a twirl, either
by the thumb and forefinger or by a dexterous sweep of the palm of the
hand along the thigh. The fibre, or wool, that was attached to the arm
of it winds round till it reaches the tip, where it clings and takes
on the rotary motion of the stick to which it is fast, being twisted
thereby into yarn. It continues to spin with the spindle for some
seconds, about fifteen or twenty, and when the momentum slackens below
the necessary speed, the yarn thus far made is wound on the spindle
and it is started afresh, with more wool paid out to the twisting. The
operation is repeated over and over till the spindle is full, and it
is surprising to see how rapidly it can be done. I have only seen this
performed amongst the Moki, but the descriptions from other places
show it to be done in about the same way everywhere. In the Mexican
region the spindle-discs were made of pottery. In Nicaragua both wood
and terra cotta were employed, and it is likely that wood was also
used by some part of the people in Mexico and other places where the
terra-cotta discs are now found.
Weaving was not confined to the Pueblo and Mexican country when the
whites first came to the continent, but was in vogue amongst many
different tribes, who used various substances in the manufacture of
rugs and blankets. Cotton amongst Southern and South-western tribes
was a favourite material, and in other places hemp, and the hair of
animals, and birds’ feathers were used. The Kwakiutls of the North-west
coast “made blankets of mountain-goat wool, dog’s hair, feathers, or a
mixture of both.”[101] And the tribes of Puget Sound and the Straits
of Fuca “attained considerable skill in manufacturing a species of
blanket from a mixture of the wool of the mountain sheep and the hair
of a particular kind of dog, though in this art they never equalled
the more northern tribes.”[102] It is extremely probable that some
of the Pueblos, before the introduction of the sheep of Europe, used
the hair or wool of a mountain sheep or goat for weaving, and it is
possible that they had to some extent domesticated that animal or some
similar one; at least they may have kept it imprisoned for its wool in
much the same way that they now keep eagles for their feathers. Fray
Marcos relates that one of the natives he met with in 1540 told him
that the people of Totonteac made cloth, much like the garment he had
on, from the hair of certain small animals. These animals have usually
been supposed to have been dogs, but as the Northern Amerinds used
mountain-goat’s wool, it is possible that the Pueblos, who were in
advance of them in all that pertains to weaving, had not only succeeded
in weaving such hair or wool garments, but had conceived the idea of
holding the animals in captivity. It has been supposed by some that
they had an animal of the vicuna kind. Terra-cotta images have been
found in the Salado ruins of Arizona that are difficult to identify,
and are believed by some zoölogists who have seen them to represent “a
creature allied to the South-American Camellidæ.”[103]
[Illustration: PART OF THE SOMAÍKOLI CEREMONY AT CICHUMOVI, NOVEMBER,
1884, SHOWING A SACRED BLANKET ON FIGURE IN FOREGROUND
From photograph by the author
]
“It has been surmised that such animals continued to be domesticated
by the sedentary Indians of Arizona and New Mexico down to historic
days and became extinct only when the more serviceable European sheep
was introduced by the Spaniards.... Fossil bones of an animal of this
family have been found in the South-west; but its bones were not
identified in the Salado ruins.”[103]
The Pai Utes made a garment of rabbit-skins which was very warm. The
skins were twisted and attached one to another end and end, making a
sort of fur rope, and this rope was tied in parallel lines, forming
a kind of large cloak which was most serviceable in winter. Flax, or
a plant closely allied to it, also grew wild all over Arizona and
New Mexico, and was used for garments. The bark of the sagebrush was
used to make cord and mats. Yucca also furnished a supply of valuable
fibre. Cotton was grown by many of the Pueblos and is still cultivated
by the Mokis, who manufacture a sacred blanket from it that is sought
after at good prices by the Pueblos of other districts. It is a finely
woven white blanket, with a broad red stripe transversely at each end.
It is worn by women in the ceremonials. The Mokis are good weavers,
using a loom similar to that employed by the Navajos. The Moki loom
is generally set up in the kiva[104] where often there are permanent
attachments for it, and there the men, who do all the weaving among
this tribe, patiently execute their plans. Most of the Moki blankets
are of low colours and simple design, dark blue being, with black, the
favourite tint. The usual material is the wool of the European sheep,
which has flourished among the Pueblos ever since it was introduced by
the Spaniards. The sheep are herded on the plains during the day and at
night are driven up the talus of the cliffs to corrals that lie just
below the plateau on which the villages are built. The Navajos living
in the surrounding country have far larger flocks than those of the
Moki, and weave only wool. In fact, there are amongst the Navajos more
than a million and a half head of sheep and goats. Most of the wool
from these they usually sell to dealers at four or five cents a pound
and then purchase for their blanket-work at high prices Germantown
wools of brilliant colours, which colours they cannot obtain with their
own dyes, though the colours they do secure are far more artistic.
Formerly, to get the brilliant red of which they are so fond, they
would buy a Mexican cloth, called _bayeta_, a sort of flannel, and
ravel it, to reweave it in their blankets. The women do most of the
weaving amongst the Navajos. The colours are usually bright, though
the every-day serviceable blanket is of dark blue and white or black
and white, or of the natural grey of the wool. The greater gaudiness
of much of the Navajo work has given it a reputation of superiority
to that of the Pueblo, which, in my opinion, is not wholly correct.
Washington Matthews,[105] who has so carefully studied the subject,
states that there is a constant deterioration in Pueblo weaving, which
may be true in general, but hardly applies to the Moki. I have a sample
of Moki work which, so far as weaving skill is concerned, is as fine
as any Navajo work I have ever seen. The Moki do not turn out as much
as the Navajo, because they are a far smaller tribe; and their product
is dark, as a rule, in colour, as they use their own dyes, but its
texture, and especially the texture of the sacred cotton blankets, is
extremely fine, even finer and better as an example of weaving skill
than many Navajo blankets. “In some Pueblos,” says Matthews, “the skill
of the loom has been almost forgotten.”
[Illustration: DETAILS OF NAVAJO LOOM CONSTRUCTION]
The Navajo loom is set up anywhere and a shelter of boughs built over
it. As the rainfall is light in the Navajo country, it is not necessary
to provide permanent shelters. The loom is worth a careful description,
and as I do not know of any better, or indeed so good as that given by
Matthews, it is here quoted entire: “Two posts, a a, are set firmly
in the ground; to these are lashed two cross pieces or braces, b c,
the whole forming the frame of the loom. Sometimes two slender trees,
growing at a convenient distance from one another, are made to answer
for the posts, d is a horizontal pole, which I call the supplementary
yarn-beam, attached to the upper brace, b, by means of a rope, e e,
spirally applied, f is the upper beam of the loom. As it is analogous
to the yarn-beam of our looms, I will call it by this name, although
once only have I seen the warp wound around it. It lies parallel to
the pole, d, about two or three inches below it, and is attached to
the latter by a number of loops, g g. A spiral cord wound around the
yarn-beam holds the upper border cord, h h, which, in turn, secures
the upper end of the warp, i i. The lower beam of the loom is shown
at k. I will call this the cloth beam, although the finished web is
never wound around it; it is tied firmly to the lower brace, c, of the
frame, and to it is secured the lower border cord of the blanket. The
original distance between the two beams is the length of the blanket.
Lying between the threads of the warp is depicted a broad, thin, oaken
stick, l, which I will call the batten. A set of healds attached to a
heald-rod, m, are shown above the batten. These healds are made of cord
or yarn; they include alternate threads of the warp, and serve when
drawn forward to open the lower shed. The upper shed is kept patent by
a stout rod, n (having no healds attached), which I name the shed-rod.
Their substitute for the reed of our looms is a wooden fork, which will
be designated as the reed-fork.”[106]
All the Navajo and Pueblo weaving is the same on both sides. Most of
it is straight weaving, but there is a good deal of diagonal work.
This is true also of the Moki. The diagonal weaving produces a diamond
figure that is very pretty, but I have never seen it used in any of the
finest Navajo work. As to the designs, Matthews says that “in the finer
blankets of intricate pattern, out of thousands which I have examined,
I do not remember to have ever seen two exactly alike.”[106] Doubtless
while some of these designs, or even many, are drawn from Pueblo
sources as noticed, the weaver introduces original features and often
invents new patterns. The blankets are woven, as a rule, in two ways,
the tight method for protection against rain, and the loose method for
protection against cold. The loose, soft blanket is worn under one of
the harder ones in wet or windy weather.[107] The Navajos also weave
garters and long sashes. The garters are similar to the sashes, only
smaller. They are used to hold leggings in place. Small blankets are
made to put under the saddle, and these are often very fine in texture
as well as in pattern. Similar ones are made for children.
“Previously to the seventeenth century,” says Bandelier, “the
aboriginal dress consisted largely of cotton sheets, or rather simple
wrappers, tied either around the neck or on the shoulder, or converted
into sleeveless jackets.” Of the fibre of the yucca, the Zuñi Indians
made skirts and kilts; of rabbit-skins very heavy blankets were made.
The northern Puebloans, of New Mexico, nearer to a game region, dressed
in buckskin in preference to anything else. But still, even when cotton
was unobtainable for whole garments, they sought to secure cotton
scarfs and girdles woven in bright colours, which were used for belts
as well as for garters, etc. The dress was more simple than that of
to-day. Leggings of buckskin were worn in winter only, and then mostly
by the northern Pueblos. The moccasin, or _tegua_, protected the feet.
It is explicitly stated that while the uppers of this shoe without heel
were of deerskin, the soles were frequently of buffalo hide.”[108] The
moccasin of the South-west is generally soled with rawhide of some
kind, the sole being slightly turned up all round.
Another material for garments was feathers. These were utilised all
over the continent, to a greater or less degree, by various tribes, but
it was the Mexicans who carried the work in this line to perfection.
“Nothing could be more picturesque,” says Prescott, “than the aspect of
these Indian battalions with the naked bodies of the common soldiers
gaudily painted, the fantastic helmets of the chiefs glittering with
gold and precious stones, and the glowing panoplies of feather-work,
which decorated their persons.... The common file wore no covering
except a girdle round the loins. Their bodies were painted with
appropriate colours of the chieftain whose banner they followed. The
feather-mail of the higher class of warriors exhibited also a similar
selection of colours for the like object, in the same manner as the
colour of the tartan indicates the peculiar clan of the Highlander.
The caciques and principal warriors were clothed in a quilted cotton
tunic, two inches thick, which, fitting close to the body, protected
also the thighs and the shoulders. Over this the wealthier Indians
wore cuirasses of thin gold plate or silver. Their legs were defended
by leathern boots or sandals, trimmed with gold. But the most
brilliant part of their costume was a rich mantle of the _plumaje_,
or feather-work, embroidered with curious art, and furnishing some
resemblance to the gorgeous surcoat worn by the European knight over
his armour in the Middle Ages. This graceful and picturesque dress
was surmounted by a fantastic head-piece made of wood or leather,
representing the head of some wild animal, and frequently displaying
a formidable array of teeth. With this covering the warrior’s head
was enveloped, producing a most grotesque and hideous effect. From
the crown floated a splendid _panache_ of the richly variegated
plumage of the tropics, indicating, by its form and colours, the
rank and family of the wearer. To complete their defensive armour,
they carried shields or targets, made sometimes of wood covered with
leather, but more usually of a light frame of reeds quilted with
cotton, which were preferred as tougher and less liable to fracture
than the former. They had other bucklers, in which the cotton was
covered with an elastic substance, enabling them to be shut up in a
more compact form, like a fan or umbrella. These shields were decorated
with showy ornaments, according to the taste or wealth of the wearer,
and fringed with a beautiful pendant of feather-work.... Such was the
costume of the Tlascalan warrior, and, indeed, of that great family of
nations generally who occupied the plateau of Anahuac.[109]... They
were particularly struck with the costume of the higher classes, who
wore fine embroidered mantles, resembling the graceful _albornoz_, or
Moorish cloak, in their texture and fashion.[110]... Here they were
met by several hundred Aztec chiefs, who came out to announce the
approach of Montezuma, and to welcome the Spaniards to his capital.
They were dressed in the fanciful gala costume of the country, with
the _maxtlatl_, or cotton sash, around their loins, and a broad mantle
of the same material, or of the brilliant feather-embroidery, flowing
gracefully down their shoulders. On their necks and arms they displayed
collars and bracelets of turquoise mosaic, with which delicate plumage
was curiously mingled, while their ears, under-lips, and occasionally
their noses, were garnished with pendants formed of precious stones,
or crescents of fine gold[111].... Montezuma wore the girdle and ample
square cloak, _tilmatli_,[112] of his nation. It was made of the
finest cotton, with the embroidered ends gathered in a knot around
his neck. His feet were defended by sandals having soles of gold, and
the leathern thongs which bound them to his ankles were embossed with
the same metal. Both the cloak and sandals were sprinkled with pearls
and precious stones, among which the emerald and the _chalchivitl_—a
green stone of higher estimation than any other among the Aztecs—were
conspicuous. On his head he wore no other ornament than a _panache_ of
plumes of the royal green which floated down his back, the badge of
military, rather than of regal rank.”[113]
[Illustration: A PUEBLOAN OF SAN JUAN, NEW MEXICO]
These quotations from Prescott will give an idea of the costume of the
Mexicans, and of the beautiful feather-work which formed so important
a part of it. Though the language of Prescott may somewhat exaggerate
the quality and beauty of the Mexican garments, we know from what
the Mexicans and Pueblos manufactured afterward that much skill must
have been displayed in these various fabrics. The cloak of cotton was
probably no more a cloak or mantle than the blankets woven by the
Pueblos and Navajos to-day; that is, it was a square of cloth worn
about the shoulders. If one should describe the Pueblo in Prescott’s
delightful language, we should think him and his houses and garments
far finer than they really are. To describe a breech-cloth as a girdle
round the loins; to speak of blankets as mantles and robes; moccasins
as sandals, and otherwise gild description, makes pleasant reading, but
is liable to convey erroneous impressions. Prescott’s lack of general
knowledge of Amerind customs gave him a free rein and his poetical
temperament finished the picture.
[Illustration: METHOD OF MAKING FEATHER-WORK]
Montezuma wore on his head “a _panache_ of plumes, ... the badge
of military, rather than of regal rank.” And this is exactly what
Montezuma was, a war-chief. But Prescott drew his material from the
Spaniards, and where he describes what they saw, he is not, in all
probability, far from the mark, although his language may be sometimes
rather flowery. The feather-work was one of the remarkable products
of the Aztecs. In an ornamental way it is still practised in Mexico,
and the birds and other objects made from feathers exhibit a wonderful
skill. Mantles of fur are mentioned as being used by the Aztecs,
but these were probably constructed in much the same manner as the
rabbit-skin robes of the Moki and the Pai Ute, that is, by twisting
the skins into ropes and then tying them together. The cotton weaving
was done on a loom similar to that now in use by the Navajos and the
Pueblos. The feather-work was probably made in much the same way as
that of Peru, specimens of which have been preserved in the tombs. The
figure on page 137 shows the way the Peruvians attached the feathers
to the cloth underground, but in many cases the feathers were woven
in with the warp and woof, instead of being attached to the surface
in this way. This use of feathers was not confined to any particular
locality, but, like almost all the arts in use on the continent, was
widely distributed. Turkey feathers were used in Virginia for this
work, and in Louisiana the same bird was called upon. “The feather
mantles,” writes Du Pratz in his history of Louisiana, “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.”[114] Feather mantles of fine quality were also made by the
Lenapé.
Almost every Amerind tribe could make thread, cord, nets, mats, and
some kind of woven stuff. The Mexicans, Mayas, and other tribes of the
Central region excelled in these things, but the Pueblos, and Navajos,
as we have seen, execute in modern times some admirable fabrics, which
the Pueblos also constructed before the advent of the whites.
“The Mexicans had also,” says Prescott, “the art of spinning a fine
thread of the hair of the rabbit and other animals, which they wove
into a delicate web that took a permanent dye.... The women, as in
other parts of the country, seemed to go about as freely as the men.
They wore several skirts or petticoats of different lengths, with
highly ornamented borders, and sometimes over them loose flowing
robes, which reached to the ankles. These, also, were made of cotton;
for the wealthier classes, of a fine texture, prettily embroidered.
No veils were worn here (Mexico) as in some other parts of Anahuac,
where they were made of the aloe thread, or of the light web of hair
above noticed.”[115] Biart[116] says the women wore “a piece of cloth
_cueitl_, which they wrapped around their bodies, and which descended
a little below the knee; over this skirt they wore a sleeveless chemise
called _huepilli_.”
[Illustration: CHILKAT CEREMONIAL SHIRT]
The Mayas and other Amerinds of the Central region used woven cloths
similar to those of the Aztecs. Of the dress of the modern Amerinds
of Nicaragua, Squier says: “It is exceedingly simple. On ordinary
occasions the women wear only a white or flowered skirt fastened round
the waist, leaving the upper part of the person entirely exposed, or
but partially covered by a handkerchief fastened around the neck.
In Masaya and some other places, a square piece of cloth of native
manufacture, and precisely the same style and pattern with that used
for the same purpose before the Discovery, supplies the place of a
skirt. It is fastened in some incomprehensible way without aid of
strings or pins and falls from the hips a little below the knees....
The men wear a kind of cotton drawers, fastened above the hips, but
frequently reaching no lower than the knees. Sandals supply the place
of shoes, but for the most part both sexes go with bare feet.”[117]
The costume of the women of Louisiana as depicted by Du Pratz in an
illustration in his history, is almost, if not quite identical with the
costume of the women of Nicaragua.
Fine dressing was not confined to the Mexicans. Other Amerinds gave
some attention to their personal appearance as well as the tribes of
Mexico. In the following description by a Miss Powell, who visited an
Iroquois council on Buffalo Creek, in 1785, of Captain David, if the
worthy Captain had been described as a “lord,” and Miss Powell had been
less skeptical about his ablutions, he might easily have ranked with
some of the “lords” of Anahuac who are so conspicuous in the charming
works of Prescott. Miss Powell declared, “that the Prince of Wales
did not bow with more grace than ‘Captain David.’ He spoke English
with propriety. His person was as tall and fine as it was possible to
imagine; his features handsome and regular, with a countenance of much
softness; his complexion not disagreeably dark, and, said Miss Powell,
‘I really believe he washes his face.’... His hair was shaved off,
except a little on top of his head, which, with his ears, was painted
a glowing red. Around his head was a fillet of silver from which two
strips of black velvet, covered with silver beads and brooches, hung
over the left temple. A ‘foxtail feather’ in his scalp-lock and a black
one behind each ear waved and nodded as he walked, while a pair of
immense silver ear-rings hung down to his shoulders. He wore a calico
shirt, the neck and shoulders thickly covered with silver brooches, the
sleeves confined above the elbows with broad silver bracelets engraved
with the arms of England, while four smaller ones adorned his wrists.
Around his waist was a dark scarf lined with scarlet which hung to his
feet, while his costume was completed by neatly fitting blue cloth
leggins, fastened with an ornamental garter below the knee.”[118] This
elegant gentleman belonged to no vanished or mysterious race; he was
a modern Iroquois. Undoubtedly his ancestors had, many of them, with
the means at their command, dressed with equal splendour, and we may
wonder what kind of a description of them we would have had from the
romantic Spaniards if they had happened to meet with them. Even this
well-balanced American lady was considerably overcome, for she says:
“Captain David made the finest appearance I ever saw in my life.” About
this same time, or to be accurate, in 1776, Father Escalante met with
Amerinds in Utah whose dress was very different. “Their dress,” he
says, “manifests great poverty; the most decent which they wear is a
coat or shirt of deerskin, and big moccasins of the same in winter;
they have dresses made of hare and rabbit skin.”[119] In the latter we
recognise the same twisted skin garments that are still used, or were
a few years ago, by the Pai Utes and the Mokis. In central Georgia in
Soto’s time the women wore a kind of shawl, “for covering, wearing one
about the body from the waist downward, and another over the shoulder
with the right arm left free.”[120] Spinning and weaving were long
supposed, by those who had not investigated, to be practised only by
the Mexican and Pueblo tribes, and by the Navajos, but the Pimas and
Maricopas of Arizona were adepts in these arts in 1857. The government
agent reports at that time: “They also spin and weave their cotton, by
hand, into blankets of a beautiful texture, an art not acquired from
the Spaniards, but found among them more than three hundred years ago,
when the Spaniards first penetrated the country.”[121] The Algonquins
of Connecticut dressed in skins “cured so as to be soft and pliable,
and sometimes ornamented with paint and with beads manufactured from
shells. Occasionally they decked themselves in mantles made of feathers
overlapping each other as on the back of the fowl, and presenting an
appearance of fantastic gayety which, no doubt, prodigiously delighted
the wearers. The dress of the women consisted usually of two articles:
a leather skirt, or under garment, ornamented with fringe; and a skirt
of the same material, fastened round the waist with a belt and reaching
nearly to the feet.... Their hair they dressed in a thick heavy
plait which fell down upon the neck; and they sometimes ornamented
their heads with bands of wampum or with a small cap. The men went
bare-headed, with their hair fantastically trimmed, each according to
his fancy. One warrior would have it shaved on one side of the head
and long on the other. Another might be seen with his scalp completely
bare, except a strip two or three inches in width running from the
forehead over to the nape of the neck. This was kept short, and so
thoroughly stiffened with paint and bear’s grease as to stand straight
after the fashion of a cock’s comb, or the crest of a warrior’s
helmet. The legs were covered with leggins of dressed deerskin, and
the lower part of the body was protected by the breech-cloth, usually
called by the early settlers, Indian breeches. Moccasins, that is,
light shoes of soft dressed leather, were common to both sexes;
and like other portions of the attire, were many times tastefully
ornamented with embroidery of wampum. The men often dispensed with
their leggins, especially in summer; while in winter they protected
themselves against the bleak air by adding to their garments a mantle
of skins. The male children ran about in a state of nature until they
were ten or twelve years old; the girls were provided with an apron,
though of very economical dimensions.... The women ... used the paint
as an ornament, while the men seldom applied it, except when they
went to war and wished to appear very terrible in the sight of their
enemies. Sachems and great men had caps and aprons heavily wrought with
different-coloured beads. Belts were also worn of the same material,
some of which contained so great a quantity of wampum as to be valued
by the English colonists at eight and ten pounds sterling.”[122]
[Illustration: CHILKAT CEREMONIAL BLANKET]
Here we discover the same desire for distinction of individuals by
dress that exists in all races, and the same desire to dress richly
on the part of those possessing wealth or station, for it must be
understood that wealth and station have their degrees amongst the
rudest Amerinds as well as amongst the highest and amongst the
Europeans. The dress in the summer always differs considerably from
that of winter. In many tribes little is worn by the men in summer but
the breech-cloth, and sometimes not even that. I recall one morning
when I was living in the Moki village of Tewa, in Arizona, one of
the dignitaries came to call upon me, as was a common custom, and he
had wrapped about him a native blanket. When he temporarily let this
covering drop away from his person, I noticed that there was not even
a breech-cloth beneath. The small children of both sexes played about
in a state of nature, though some wore a shirt, and the women appeared
to have on only the one garment, made of two small black blankets sewed
together on their side edges and caught over the right shoulder and
under the left. The Moki women wear moccasins only in the ceremonials,
or on some state occasion, or when travelling. They rarely travel.
Catlin gave a great deal of attention to the costumes of the Amerinds
he travelled amongst and painted, and a reference to his works opens
up a world of detail that cannot be presented here. Some of his most
interesting work was amongst the Mandans, of Dakota stock, in the year
1832.[123] I will quote from him some general remarks on the Mandan
costume. “The Mandans, in many instances, dress very neatly, and some
of them splendidly. As they are in their native state, their dresses
are all of their own manufacture, and, of course, altogether made
of skins of different animals belonging to those regions. There is,
certainly, a reigning and striking similarity of costume amongst most
of the North-western tribes, and I cannot say that the dress of the
Mandans is decidedly distinct from that of the Crows or the Blackfeet,
the Assiniboins, or the Sioux[124]; yet there are modes of stitching
or embroidering in every tribe which may at once enable the traveller
who is familiar with their modes to detect or distinguish the dress
of any tribe. These differences consist generally in the fashions of
constructing the head-dress, or of garnishing their dresses with the
porcupine quills, which they use in great profusion.... The tunic,
or shirt, of the Mandan men is very similar in shape to that of the
Blackfeet—made of two skins of deer, or mountain-sheep, strung with
scalp-locks, beads, and ermine. The leggings, like those of the other
tribes of which I have spoken, are made of deerskins and shaped to fit
the leg, embroidered with porcupine quills, and fringed with scalps
from their enemies’ heads. Their moccasins are made of buckskin, and
neatly ornamented with porcupine quills. Over their shoulders (or, in
other words, over one shoulder and passing under the other) they very
gracefully wear a robe from a young buffalo’s back, oftentimes cut
down to about half of its original size, to make it handy and easy
for use. Many of these are also fringed on one side with scalp-locks,
and the flesh side of the skin curiously ornamented with pictured
representations of the creditable events and battles of their lives.
Their head-dresses are of various sorts, and many of them exceedingly
picturesque and handsome, generally made of war-eagles’ or ravens’
quills and ermine. These are the most costly part of an Indian’s dress
in all this county, owing to the difficulty of procuring the quills and
the fur; the war-eagle being the _rara avis_, and the ermine the rarest
animal that is found in the country.” Catlin gave two horses for one of
the head-dresses. This specimen came down to the wearer’s feet. These
are now called “war-bonnets,” and are still in use among the Sioux and
other tribes. “There is occasionally,” continues Catlin, “a chief or a
warrior of so extraordinary renown that he is allowed to wear horns on
his head-dress, which give to his aspect a strange and majestic effect.
These are made of about a third part of the horn of a buffalo bull, the
horn having been split from end to end, and a third part of it taken
and shaved thin and light and highly polished. These are attached to
the top of the head-dress on each side in the same place that they rise
and stand on the head of a buffalo, rising out of a mat of ermine skins
and tails, which hang over the top of the head-dress somewhat in the
form that the large and profuse locks of hair hang and fall over the
head of a buffalo bull.” This head-dress with horns “is used only on
certain occasions, and they are very seldom.”[125]
[Illustration: MOKI WALL DECORATION. PINK ON A WHITE GROUND.
MISHONGNUVI, ARIZONA]
[Illustration: BELLACOOLAS]
[Illustration: TOP VIEW OF CONICAL NORTH-WEST COAST HAT
Made of spruce roots, ornamented in red and black paint, with
totemic device of a raven
See figure page 160
]
Among the Omahas, also of Dakota stock, garments, Dorsey says, “were
usually made by the women, while men made their weapons.... There is no
distinction between the attire of dignitaries and that of the common
people.”[126]
[Illustration: WONSIVU, A PAI UTE GIRL
Posed by Thomas Moran
From photograph by the Colorado River Survey, 1874
]
The Makahs of the North-west region (U. S.) manufacture a kind of cloth
out of cedar bark. “The inner bark is selected, boiled, or macerated,
and then pounded and hatcheled out. The bark is made to form the warp,
the woof being made of grass thread. This stuff is pliable, and makes a
convenient outer garment. Very pretty capes, edged with sea-otter skin,
are made of it. This tribe also are the principal manufacturers of the
cedar mats which are used on the Sound. These are entirely of bark,
formed into narrow strips, and woven on the floor. They are thin and
perfectly even in texture.”[127] Among the tribes of the North-west:
“The women universally wore a breech-clout of strands gathered around
the waist and falling usually to the knees.... With the men no idea of
modesty existed.”[128] They sometimes wear a bearskin with the hair
out tied around the throat. “Their hats, when they wear any, are of
the conical form common along the coast.”[129] A conical wicker hat
similar to the Japanese shape is found among the Tlinkits (Koluschan)
and Chimmesyan up on the Alaskan coast. I saw several at Sitka in the
summer of 1899, but not in use. The head covering of various tribes
differs considerably. The skull-cap, woven like a basket, was never
found, so far as I know, in the Mississippi region. The Pai Utes
formerly wore caps, or at least some of them did, the men wearing a
little buckskin affair tied under the chin with strings. The remainder
of their costume often consisted of a string around the waist from
which was suspended front and rear a cloth of buckskin reaching half
way to the ground. Others wore fine buckskin suits; a fringed shirt
and fringed leggings reaching, like those of the Dakota, to the waist.
The southern Utah women wore conical caps of wicker-work, like a bowl
upside down, except that they had a little point at the top.[130] The
women’s garment was of buckskin, attached at the neck and hanging down
before and behind to below the knee, open at the sides, and bound
around the waist by a buckskin sash. There was a plentiful adornment of
buckskin fringe also. The feet were bare except in cold weather, when
moccasins were worn. The younger women wore a narrow band around the
brow composed of two buckskin strings, covered with porcupine quills,
which were interwoven to hold the strings together, and the men
often wore a head-dress of feathers, which stood straight up around
the crown. In both men and women the hair was allowed to hang down,
brushed back from the face without braids of any kind. The Navajo men
wear a sort of turban; a piece of red cloth or a bandana twisted around
the brow, the hair being done up in a kind of Greek knot behind. Their
clothes consist of a shirt or jacket of cotton goods, and trousers
of the same stuff reaching to just below the knee and slashed up on
the outside for about eight inches. They sometimes wear close-fitting
breeches with leggings. This garment is generally held at the waist
by a belt, which is often richly decorated by discs of silver about
two by four inches elaborately engraved in their native style. The
trousers are sometimes bound inside the leggings. Their leggings are
of buckskin, red or black, frequently fastened on the outside by a row
of silver half-globe buttons of their own make and woven garters, some
three feet long, twisted around above the calf. The leggings are also
applied without any buttons when they are held by the garters. The
moccasin is one finely made, red or black, or the natural tan colour,
with a rawhide sole turned up all round, and, like the leggings, often
fastened by several silver buttons. The Navajos are extremely fond
of black. The hair of the women is parted and tied in a knot behind
very much the same as that of the men. Their dress is now very like
that of Moki women, that is, a garment that is attached over the right
shoulder, under the left, and falls about half way between the knees
and the ground, usually caught in at the waist by a sash or belt.
Also like the Moki women they wear a kind of combined moccasin and
legging, on certain occasions. This is a rawhide-soled moccasin with
a long narrow top-piece which is wound round and round the leg after
the moccasin is put on, and gives an almost straight line from the
knee down, almost exactly the same as the Moki custom. In fact, so far
as garments are concerned, it might often be difficult to tell Navajo
and Moki women apart. The Moki women wear their hair differently; the
married ones making two cues of it which hang down on each side of the
face, usually in front of the shoulders, while the unmarried ones have
theirs done up in two extraordinary wheels or discs standing parallel
with the side of the face or head, and attached to it by a sort of axle
wound round with string. This effect is obtained by first dividing the
hair into two equal parts, drawing each part to its side of the head
and winding it with string just above the ear, and a little behind
it. Each division is then again divided, horizontally, into two equal
parts, and these parts are carefully brushed around a curved stick,
like a letter U, held with the opening sidewise, the upper one down
and around and the lower one up and around, till they are completely
wound over the U and spread out as much as possible at the same time.
Then they are tied in the middle with a string, that is, between the
arms of the U, and finally, before withdrawing the U, the two portions
are fully spread, till when the U is taken out, and they are further
arranged, they almost meet and form a perfect wheel or circle. In
ordinary practice they do not meet, but resemble a well tied bow-knot
of broad ribbon; but when a girl has a fine head of hair that has been
well cared for, and her mother takes a pride in dressing her hair for
any ceremony or feast day, the wheel is almost perfect. This peculiar
method of hair-dressing is now found nowhere else in the world, except
among the unmarried women of the Coyotero Apaches, who are said to wear
a coil something like it.
[Illustration: A NAVAJO LEADER IN NATIVE COSTUME
Figure from photograph by the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology
]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A MOKI HOUSE, ARIZONA
Unmarried women grinding corn; married women baking _piki_, or
“paper” bread. From a model in the National Museum
]
[Illustration: PUEBLO HEAD MAT]
Some of the Pueblo women tie their hair in a knot behind like the
Navajo women; in fact, both Navajo women and men closely resemble the
Pueblo in their dress, the reason in my opinion being that advanced
before: namely, the incorporation of Pueblo stock. The Moki men also
sometimes wear their hair like Navajos, but full-blood Navajos have
taken up their residence with the Moki, so it may be confined to these
and their children. The regular Moki method of dressing a man’s hair
is to “bang” it across the eyebrows, cut the side locks straight back
on the lower line of the ear, and gather the remainder into a knot
behind.[131] The brush used is composed of a bunch of stiff grass tied
round the middle with a string. Both Navajo and Moki men as well as
those of other tribes now wear white men’s trousers when obtainable.
The costumes worn in the various ceremonials of the Navajos, Pueblos,
Iroquois, and other Amerinds are so numerous and so varied that there
is no space in a chapter like this for a description of them.
[Illustration: NAVAJOS]
In the line of embroidery comes the beadwork, see p. 125, the
ornamentation with quills, and embroidery with yarns. I will only
mention the embroidery of the Mokis, which is done on the ends of broad
cotton sashes, with coloured yarns. This is the only form in which I
have seen it. The pattern is elaborate, and often a foot or more at
each end of a sash will be thus ornamented. The Pueblo women wore a
roll on the head on which a water-jar was balanced. Coronado mentions
this thus: “I also send two rolls, such as the women usually wear on
their heads when they bring water from the spring, the same way that
they do in Spain. One of these Indian women, with one of these rolls
on her head, will carry a jar of water up a ladder without touching it
with her hands.”[132] Some of the Pueblo women still use rings to carry
water-jars on their heads. See figure on page 151.
Jaramillo speaks of the natives of the first village of “Cibola” as
having clothing of “deerskins, very carefully tanned, and they also
prepare some tanned cowhides, with which they cover themselves, which
are like shawls and a great protection. They have square cloaks of
cotton, some larger than others, about a yard and a half long. The
Indians wear them thrown over the shoulder like a gypsy and fastened
with one end over the other, with a girdle, also of cotton.”[133]
Other Pueblos of New Mexico he describes as having “some long robes of
feathers which they braid, joining the feathers with a sort of thread;
and they also make them of a sort of plain weaving with which they
make the cloaks with which they protect themselves.” In the _Relación
Postrera_, the Cibola dress is described also, and I add it here
because these accounts show so conclusively that the art of weaving was
in full practice in this northern country before the Europeans entered
it. “Some of these people wear cloaks of cotton and of the maguey (or
Mexican aloe) and of tanned deerskin, and they wear shoes made of these
skins, reaching up to the knees. They also make cloaks of the skins of
hares and rabbits, with which they cover themselves. The women wear
cloaks of the maguey, reaching down to the feet, with girdles; they
wear their hair gathered about the ears like little wheels.”[134] I
would specially call attention to the similarity to the costume of
the present Moki, even to the hair-dressing. The Seminole men had a
singular way of wearing their hair. It was cut “close to the head,
except a strip about an inch wide, running over the front of the scalp
from temple to temple, and another strip, of about the same width,
perpendicular to the former, crossing the crown of the head to the
nape of the neck. At each temple a heavy tuft was allowed to hang to
the bottom of the lobe of the ear. The long hair of the strip crossing
to the neck is generally gathered and braided into two ornamental
queues.”[135] The mustache is worn among the Seminole, Navajo,
Tlinkit, Eskimo, and other tribes. Some Eskimo shave a round place on
the crown of the head. Some Amerinds also wear a small beard.
[Illustration: SEMINOLE MAN’S AND WOMAN’S COSTUME]
Many Amerinds, especially the men, wore, as before mentioned, nothing
whatever in mild weather, and even in winter the dress of some,
especially in the more southerly regions, was far from elaborate. I
remember one February, in the mountains of Arizona, visiting a camp of
Shevwits to have a talk with the chief. Proceeding toward his wikiup, I
found him near it lying naked, basking in the sun, only partly covered
by a rabbit-skin robe. He seemed to be warm and happy, the spot being
a sheltered one in a canyon, and the rays of the sun being comfortably
warm. In a _Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679–80_, the authors,
speaking of the natives near Sandy Hook, said: “They wear something in
front, over the thighs, and a piece of duffels, like a blanket, around
the body, and this is all the clothing they have. Their hair hangs down
from their head in strings, well smeared with fat, and sometimes with
quantities of little beads twisted in it out of pride.”[136]
[Illustration: EAR-PERFORATING AND HAIR-DRESSING OF SEMINOLES]
In war the body was generally naked in many tribes.[137] The Navajo
warrior wore absolutely nothing but the breech-cloth, and I am not sure
that he wore even that. In some tribes the warriors wore a head-dress,
either a kind of turban or a feather head-dress. The Dakotas wore their
long trailing war-bonnets of feathers, or not possessing one, certain
feathers in their hair, according to their standing as warriors; and
sometimes their leggings. Of course each carried bow, quiver, shield,
and such weapons of his tribe as were in vogue. On the North-west coast
a protective armour was employed, and such a practice obtained in other
regions, notably among the Aztecs and other Mexicans, who made a thick
quilted cotton armour, as was noted in the quotations from Prescott.
The subject of armour, however, belongs to another chapter. The wearing
of rings in the nose and ears, and the perforation of the ears, while
a part of costume, more properly belongs to customs. In the “ghost”
excitement of a few years ago, special shirts were donned, and in the
battles resulting from this craze, these shirts were worn because they
were thought to be proof against bullets and all other weapons. “During
the dance,” says Mooney, “it was worn as an outside garment, but was
said to be worn at other times under the ordinary dress. Although the
shape, fringing, and feather adornment were practically the same in
every case, considerable variation existed in regard to the painting,
the designs on some being very simple, while the others were fairly
covered with representations of sun, moon, and stars, the sacred
things of their mythology, and the visions of the trance. The feathers
attached to the garment were always those of the eagle, and the thread
used in the sewing was always the old-time sinew.”[138] The approved
material of the “ghost-shirt” was buckskin, but where this could not be
had the shirt was made of cotton cloth.
In the Far North, clothing is imperative all the year round, and about
every minute of the time, out-of-doors. Yet the garments of the Eskimo
often do not quite meet around the waist, so that in bending over the
bare back is exposed to the cold. In their houses, too, they often wear
very little; nothing more than a kind of deerskin drawers. The material
of their clothing is entirely fur-skins; though the Hudson Bay Eskimo
sometimes wear trousers of jean, or denim, obtained in trade. Up to a
certain age the children of both sexes are dressed much alike, and the
smaller ones scrabbling about the bottom of a _umiak_, or skin boat,
can hardly be distinguished at first glance from some kind of a bear
cub. At Plover Bay, Siberia, where the natives resemble the Eskimo, I
saw one small child in arms, that seemed to be completely sewed up in
skins with the hair side in, its arms and legs looking like the stumps
left after a surgical operation. Of the skin of the child nothing was
to be seen except its face, its head, too, being entirely enveloped.
This was in the middle of July, when the far-away Moki children would
be scurrying about without a thread to disguise them. The children
of the Eskimo proper, on our side of Bering Strait, were clothed, as
mentioned, in skins with the fur side out. Reindeer, otter, fox, and
seal seem to furnish the bulk of their furs, but a number of other
skins and furs are used when they can get them. Murdoch, Boas, and
Turner have given such careful detailed accounts of the Eskimo in the
various regions they visited,[139] that I refer the reader to them for
full information, presenting here only sufficient to convey a general
idea of the clothing. “The chief material (at Point Barrow) is the skin
of the reindeer (caribou),” says Murdoch, “which is used in various
stages of pelage. Fine, short-haired summer skins, especially those of
does and fawns, are used for making dress garments and underclothes.
The heavier skins are used for every-day working clothes, while the
heaviest winter skins furnish extra warm jackets for cold weather, warm
winter stockings and mittens.... The man’s dress consists of the usual
loose hooded frock, without opening except at the neck and wrists.
This reaches just over the hips, rarely about to mid-thigh, where it
is cut off square, and is usually confined by a girdle at the waist.
Under this garment is worn a similar one, usually of lighter skin and
sometimes without a hood. The thighs are clad in one or two pairs
of tight-fitting knee-breeches, confined round the hips by a girdle
and usually secured by a drawstring below the knee, which ties over
the tops of the boots. On the legs and feet are worn, first, a pair
of long, deerskin stockings with the hair inside; then slippers of
tanned sealskin, in the bottom of which is spread a layer of whalebone
shavings, and outside a pair of close-fitting boots, held in place
round the ankle, usually reaching above the knee, and ending by a
string with a rough edge, which is covered by the breeches.... The
boots are of reindeer skin, with white sealskin soles for winter and
dry weather, but in summer waterproof boots of black sealskin with
soles of white whaleskin, etc., are worn.”[140]
[Illustration: THE GHOST-SHIRT, SIMPLE FORM]
[Illustration: ESKIMO BOOTS]
The woman’s frock is much like the man’s, in the Point Barrow region,
only it has tails, or aprons, front and rear, rounded at the bottom. In
the Hudson Bay region, this garment is shaped more at the waist, and
the tails are lance-shaped and narrower, while the front one is much
shorter than the back. At Point Barrow there is also worn by the men a
cloak or mantle of deerskin, in extremely cold weather. These cloaks
are put on over the head, and fall down all round, being fastened
at the throat by strings. They are not of one piece. The men’s leg
coverings come only to the knee, but the women’s are long enough to
reach from the feet to the waist, and the moccasin is attached to the
bottom. The edge of the moccasin sole is crimped to make it smaller at
the top, and this is the case with the soles of the boots made. This
crimping is done by the teeth. The wet-weather boots are waterproof
and light, but there is a disagreeable odour about them. This odour is
more pronounced in some of the hastily made stockings which are worn
inside the boots. I bought a pair of the common sealskin stockings
made with hair side in at Port Clarence, but their smell was something
unbearable. For a waterproof garment they take the entrails of the
seal and, splitting them longitudinally, sew together the strips thus
obtained in the desired shape. Coats made in this way are durable and
light, and answer the purpose admirably. Dr. Kane mentions a dress
he saw where a man wore “booted trousers of white bearskin, which
at the end of the foot were made to terminate with the claws of the
animal.”[141]
In the middle and upper Mississippi region, according to Hunter, there
were tribes who made blankets of the wool of the buffalo, notably the
Osages, who were of Siouan stock. Their method of procedure seems to
have been very like that of the Navajos and Mokis, to whom they are
not related, except that they belong to the Amerind race. Hunter 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.”[142]
[Illustration: RAIN HAT, HAIDA
See figure page 146
]
[Illustration: TOUCAN OF SQUIER AND DAVIS, REALLY A CROW]