SWANTnx] INDIAN TlilUKS OK Till, l-OWRR MISSISSI IM'I VALLKY C5 



It is llms pn'pjii'cil it ni;iy he used for :ill kinds of piii-poscs. However much 

 it is waslKHl of latlu'iTd. pn)videil one taiies tiu- prcH-aiitioii to lot it dry in 

 tlio shade, it novcr liardeiis and is always as soft and supjile as cbamois. Onr 

 FreuclmuMi make very neat drawers and vests of it, and the rojfui/cur.s h',i- 

 jrinps or stockings witliont feet, as well as a kind of shoe very nuicii like onr 

 pumps, with the only difference tliat it is folded on the foot and shuts together 

 like a purse. These are proof against eanes and roots, but would be of little 

 use on our roads pavi'd witii pclihles and gravel." 



Dn l*intz is very brief but to the same o;ciieral effect, so far as the 

 j)reliiiiiiuiry dressing* is concerned. He says that the hair was made 

 to fall off by soaking and the skin afterward scraped with the flat- 

 tened bone of a bison, after which each animal was dressed by means 

 of its own brain. He also speaks of skins being dressed with the 

 hair on, out of which particularly robes or coverings were made. 

 " For sewing these skins," he adds, " they make use of sinews beaten 

 and spun. For piercing the skin they emplo}^ a bone from the leg 

 of the heron sharpened in the form of an awl." ^ 



The skins of deer, which were purchased in early times from the natives 

 and which take at Niort, where they are perfected, the name of doeskins, did 

 not please these manufacturers at all, because the natives changed the quality 

 of the skins in dressing them, but since these skins have been demanded with- 

 out any preparation except the removal of the hair, they take more of them 

 and give them to a better market than before.'' 



One special use to which skins were put was in the manufacture of 

 burden bearers. 

 Du Pratz says: 



These * * * are formed of two bands of bearskin worn with the white side 

 out. These bands are of the breadth of the hand and are joined together by 

 means of little' straps of the same quality of skin. These straps are long enough 

 to fasten burdens to, which they (the women) carry much more often than the 

 men. One of these bands passes over the shoulders, embraces them, and holds 

 them tight. The other passes over the forehead and supports it (the burden) 

 in such a manner that they relieve each other.'' 



Besides painting skins in different colors the native women often 

 ornamented them with porcupine quills. 



For this purpose they take off the quills of the porcupine which are white 

 and black. '^ They split them fine enough to use in embroidery. They dye a 

 part of the white red, another part yellow, while a third part remains white. 

 Ordinarily they embroider on black skin, and then they dye the black a reddish 

 brown. But if they embroider on the tree bark the black always remains the 

 same. 



Their designs are rather similar to some of those which one finds in Gothic 

 architecture. They are composed of straight lines which form right angles 



° Dumont, Mem. Hist, sur La Louisiane, i, 146-149. 



'' Du Pratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, ii, 169. 



Mbid., Ill, 378, 379. 



" Ibid., II, 184. 



« In ibid., 99, he says " white and brown." 



83220— Bull. 43—10 5 



