KO. 2235. 



HOPl INDIAN COLLECTION— HOUGH. 



261 



39&) . The under cord is then cut at the point indicated in the shorter 

 groove, the loops slipped off the stick (fig. 39(?), and on it is laid 

 a ring of cornhusk, which forms the core of the tassel; the loops 

 are rolled over J;his ring and the resultant tassel ball formed. This 

 is an example of remarkable imagination and ingenuity. 



Knitting. — Many of the Hopi, in common with the Navaho, Zuiii, 

 and other Pueblo tribes, are familiar with the art of knitting, but 

 usually practice it only in the making of leggings of blue yarn. Knit- 

 ting was learned from the whites, at what period it is difficult to 

 ascertain. An unfinished piece of knitting with wooden needles in 

 place was brought presumably from cliff ruins in northern New 

 Mexico by Dr. Washington Matthews, but the circumstances of its 

 finding are not now known. A coarse horsehair legging and one made 

 of brown (buffalo?) hair were also 

 collected by Dr. Matthews. A fab- 

 ric resembling the crochet bags 

 which have a wide distribution in 

 the Eastern and Western Hem- 

 ispheres and are especially common 

 in South and Central America has 

 been found in archeological sites in 

 northern New Mexico and Arizona ; 

 no specimens, however, have been 

 found in the southern portion of the 

 Pueblo region. A hook or needle 

 would be indicated for the making 

 of this fabric,^ but no implements of 

 this character have been discovered 

 except a needle of bone^ in ancient 

 sites; and it is probable that this 

 method, like knitting, was compar- 

 atively recently acquired. 



Hair cord. — One of the most primitive textile materials is hair, 

 and the kind that is most available is human hair, which without 

 doubt was worked into cord from the earliest times. Among the 

 Hopi hair cord is made by women and at present the art is practically 

 limited to the making of cord used in the coiffure of women. There 

 is evidence, however, that formerly whenever a cord of peculiar 

 strength and wearing quality was needed, cord made of human hair 

 was employed. Some of the earlier specimens collected by the Bu- 

 reau of Ethnology show uses of human hair cord for a netting over 

 gourd canteens, for the strings of marionette birds, and in cere- 

 monies, etc. On the acquisition of cattle and the horse an abundant 



Fig. 39.— a. Old tassel stick; ft, c, d. Tassel 



STICK AND PROCESS OF MAKING TASSEL. GIFT 



OF Emey Kopta. 



1 See Mason, Basketry, Ann. Rept. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1902, p. 380. 



« See Hougb, Museum-Gates Expedition, Ann. Rept. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1902, pi. 13. 



