HOLMES] DEPENDENCE OF ARTS ON ENVIRONMENT. 11 



earthenware and neglected basketry, and the coiuninnity well supplied 

 with skins of animals did not need to undertake the difficult and 

 laborious task of spinning fibers and weaving garments and bedding. 

 Thus it appears that well-advanced jieoples may have produced inferior 

 textiles and that backward tribes may have excelled in the art. 

 Caution is necessary in using the evidence furnished by the art to aid 

 in determining i-elative degrees of culture. 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 



The failure of the textile art to secure a prominent place in the field 

 of archeologic evidence is due to the susceptibility of the products 

 to decay. Examples of archaic work survive to us only by virtue of 

 exceptionally favorable circumstances ; it rarely happened that mound 

 fiibrics were so conditioned, as the soil in which they were buried is 

 generally porous and moist; they were in some cases preserved through 

 contact with objects of copjier, the oxides of that metal having a 

 tendency to arrest decay. The custom of burial in caves and rock 

 shelters has led to the preservation of numerous fabri(%s through the 

 agency of cei'taiu salts with which the soil is charged. Preservation 

 by charring is common, and it is held by some that carbonization with- 

 out the agency of tire has in some cases taken place. 



Considerable knowledge of the fabrics of the ancient North Ameri- 

 can tribes is preserved in a way wholly distinct from the preceding. 

 The primitive potter employed woven textiles in the manufacture of 

 earthenware; during the processes of construction the fabrics were 

 imf)ressed on the soft clay, and when the vessels were baked the im- 

 pressions became fixed. The study of these impressions led to meager 

 results until the idea was conceived of taking castings from them in 

 clay, wax, or paper; through this device the negative impression 

 becomes a positive reproduction and the fabrics are shown in relief, 

 every feature coming out with surprising distinctness; it is possible 

 even to discover the nature of the threads employed and to detect the 

 manner of their combination. 



Evitlence of the practice of textile arts by many ancient nations is 

 preserved to us by such implements of weaving as happened to be of 

 enduring materials; spindle-whorls in clay and stone are perhaps the 

 most common of these relics. These objects tell ns definitely of the 

 practice of the art, but give little insight into the character of the 

 products. It is a notable fact that evidence of this class is almost wholly 

 wanting in the United States; sjjindle-whorls have in rare cases been 

 reported from southern localities, and a few writers have mentioned 

 their use by modern tribes. 



It happens that in some cases we may learn something of the progress 

 made by vanished peoples in this art by a study of the forms of such 

 of their earthen vessels as were manifestly derived from baskets, or 



