KIDDER-GUERNSEY] ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN ARIZONA 113 
a somewhat heavier string, usually two-stranded, having been used 
for that purpose. The stoutest cotton cord in the collection is one- 
tenth inch in diameter; but, like all the other products of this fiber, 
it is not closely twisted. Cotton threads were sometimes dyed red 
(A-1551, Ruin 7), or black (A-1286, Ruin 3). A large hank of 
cotton thread, prepared for weaving (A-1621), was found in a 
charred condition in one of the kivas of-Ruin 8. 
Whether cotton was grown in northern Arizona or whether it was 
obtained in trade from the south has not yet been definitely decided. 
We know that the plant was cultivated at Zufi and seemingly by the 
Hopi in the sixteenth century, and there is no reason why it should 
not grow in favorable localities in the San Juan district. We had the 
good fortune to recover from a rubbish heap a large wad of cotton 
waste, bunches of the fiber, and uncombed cotton still containing 
the seeds (88322). This should practically settle the question, as 
raw materials of this sort would hardly have formed an article of 
trade. 
Yucca.—Yucca fiber was the most important of all cordage ma- 
terials, probably nine-tenths of all the twisted cord employed 
having been made from it. In the particular region investigated 
by us, the only common yucca plant seems to be the “ narrow leaf” 
(2. angustifolia), and this was apparently also the case in former 
times, as all the identifiable leaves found in the rubbish or worked 
into baskets and sandals belong to that species. The broad-leaf 
yucca grows on the top of the Black Mesa, also on the Mesa Verde. 
Both these localities are higher and moister than the Monument 
country. 
Every stage in the production of yucca string is illustrated in the 
collection: sheaves of whole leaves, chewed or pounded leaves with 
the parenchyma partly removed, and lastly, hanks of the cleaned 
fiber ready for spinning (pl. 45, 6-11). Yucca string is very stout, 
specimens that have escaped moisture being still quite as hard to 
break as modern twine of the same weight. The majority of the 
specimens range in diameter from one-twentieth to just less than 
one-fourth of an inch in diameter; the cord most commonly found 
is about one-tenth of an inch in diameter. Examples over one-fourth 
of an inch are rare; our largest specimen (A—1693, Ruin 9) is not 
quite one-half inch.. The standard string is two-strand, each strand 
twisted clockwise, the two twisted together anti-clockwise. Three 
and four strand strings are found, but are not abundant. Some very 
stout cords are made of two strands, each one of which is two- 
1 Coronado, Winship, 1896, pp. 489, 550, 558. Espejo saw many cotton “ towels” 
(kilts?) at Tusayan in 1583. Consult Lewton, F. L., The Cotton of the Hopi Indians: 
A New Species of Gossypium, Smithsonian Miscel. Coll., vol. 60, no. 6, Washington, 
1912. 
90521°—19—Bull. 65——8 
