390 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



and the weft, are ontirel}" difierent material, one a finely spun thread, 

 the other a loose, coarse filament several times wider than the former, 

 and are woven tog-ether in the ordinary plan of under two and over 

 two, and vet the difi'orence in the width and tension of the two elements 

 produces a most charming effect which is not lost, after many thousands 

 of years, in the cast taken from the surface of the fragment. (See p. 225. ) 

 An example of matting, also illustrated b}^ Holmes, was taken from a 

 piece of pottery found in Alabama. It is worked in the diagonal st3de, 

 but on one side the warp passes over one and under three, and, conse- 

 quently, though the matting was destroyed hundreds of years ago it 

 is certain that on the other side of the faliric the weft made a similar 

 figure, but vertical. (See p. 225.) 



ANCIENT TWILLED MATTING, 



Petit Anse Island, Louisiana. 



The caves of Kentucky furnish specimens of ancient textiles pre- 

 served in nitrous earth, and fig. 117 is an illustration of one of these, 

 revealing a wicker type of weaving in soft materials, not found on 

 pottery, however.'^ 



One of the most interesting examples of this ancient work is illus- 

 trated by Foster, also taken from a mound on Great Miami River, 

 Ohio. It has a warp of twine on which the weft is w^rapped round 



" Third Annual Eeport of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1884, p. 403, fig. 67 



