68 



BULLETIN 87, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



through the hole, one cord above and one below the horizontal part 

 of the loop. (Fig. 145 ^, A, side and back view.) An exceptionally 

 strong lashing of this sort (fig. 146 a^h) is made with braided cord, 

 the under leaf is braided at the end, and the thong is wound about 

 the cord. Another lashing is made with a hank of untwisted fiber 

 secured to a yucca leaf bent over the toggle. (Fig. 146 c.) The 

 specimens indicate that heavy back loads were carried in a carrying 

 frame, no examples of which have survived, but a model placed in the 

 Bear Creek Cave shrine (see fig. 318) may be of the form used on the 

 Tularosa. On the other hand, the pack may have been merely se- 

 cured with cord or smaller burdens held fixed in a pouch construction 

 , , made by tying yucca strips in a manner re- 

 sembling network, specimens of which were 

 found both on the Tularosa and Blue Rivers. 

 True network, however, appears not to have 

 been known by the peoples 

 of this resrion. 



The surprising variety of 

 cord found in the debris of 

 this cave gives an idea of 

 the comprehensive value 

 that this first element of 

 the textile industry had to 

 the ancients of the Tula- 

 rosa. The commonest kind 

 of cord here is a thick, 

 very linty, two-strand, not 

 hard-twisted cord, which 

 appears to be of shredded 

 yucca fiber. It is gener- 

 ally of natural color, but 

 is sometimes rubbed red 



Fig. 146. — Lashings OF tdcca strips from Tularosa with ocher, and waS lised 



^^^'^' almost exclusively for the 



application of feathers (see fig. 148), the cords so overlaid being 

 combined to form garments, etc., resembling the twisted fur strip 

 blankets of the Pueblos, Utes, Californian, and other Indians. 



A second variety is a very strong, clean cord made from yucca, 

 dasylirion, and like long, wiry fiber, which now has aged to yellow 

 brown and dark brown. It was twisted by hand and used for bow- 

 strings and for j^urposes where very strong cord was needed. It is 

 sometimes thick like small rope and is two-ply, three-ply, two-ply 

 laid up, braided and sometimes two braids laid up to form cord. 

 Cord of this character was most useful. 



