ANCIENT PUEBLOS OF UPPER GILA REGION. 69 



Bark cord, apparently of walnut or natural bark, dyed, was made 

 and had a limited use as a bundle to be placed beneath the baby in 

 the cradle. 



Cotton cord found here is coarse and of natural color or rubbed 

 with red ocher. Cotton cords were sometimes formed into a braid at 

 the corner of some textiles. Its common use was for loin bundles. 

 (See fig. 158.) A few specimens of sinew cord w^ere found, one well 

 laid up with a loop ingeniously formed at the end. Cord made from 

 human and other hair is comparatively rare. 



CORD-MAKING SERIES AND PRODUCTS. 



Raw material for fiber was furnished by several species of yucca, 

 several of dasylirion, and one or more of agave. These plants are 

 abundant, and no doubt the supply available for the aboriginal cord 

 wainer was far above his needs; and that the extracted fiber was not 

 regarded as of much value is shown by the amount of it in various 

 stages of elaboration thrown away into the back of the cave. In 

 most cases it is not possible to ascertain b}^ the eye the particular 

 plant from which a given mass of fiber was derived, but as most of 

 the natural leaves and leaves in the first stages of fiber extraction are 

 of yucca, it is presumed that this plant w^as the chief source of 

 supply; and also, it produces a very good fiber in greater amount 

 than the other plants mentioned. Yucca leaves (fig. 147 a) and the 

 central spike of closely wrapped pale leaves were common in the 

 debris, and with them leaves which had been coarsely shredded by 

 pounding with a stone. (Fig. lit h.) A "quid" (oj^ened out for 

 purposes of drawing) containing the entire mass of fiber in one leaf, 

 the spine end of which has not been reduced to fiber, is shown at e. 

 These "quids," which are flattened masses of roughly circular out- 

 line, found in great numbers in the rubbish of dry-rock shelters 

 formerly inhabited or connected with the houses of the ancient 

 Pueblos appear to have been formed by chewing, but there is some 

 doubt on this point, as the chewing of the dense acrid leaf would 

 seem to require good teeth and a powerful resolution. It is probable 

 that the leaves were boiled, pounded in a small mortar, and dried, 

 when the parenchyma would easily fall away in small fragments 

 and dust on rubbing the fiber between the palms. The Zuhi, Mrs. 

 •M. C. Stevenson informs me, boil the j'ucca leaf to extract the fiber. 

 A specimen of the cleaned, straightened fiber and a small hank 

 twisted up for future use are shown at d and e. Two-strand (fig. 

 147 / and g) ; two-strand, two-ply (fig. 147 h) ; three-strand (fig. 147 

 i) ; and four-strand (fig. 147 ]) combine the varieties of yucca fiber 

 cord observed, except a few braided specimens (fig. 147), the 



