18 PREHISTORIC TEXTILE ART. 1eth.ann.13 



they have svfted fourth the finest, they poiiud againe the great, and so separating yt 

 hy dashing their hand in the baskett, receave the flower in a platter of wood, which, 

 blending with water, etc' 



Cradles. 



That cradles of textile construction were used by the mound-build- 

 ers may be taken for granted. The following is from Du Pratz, who is 

 speaking of the work of the inhabitants of the lower Mississippi : 



This cradle is about two feet and a half long, nine inches broad. It is skill- 

 fully made of straight canes of the length desired for the cradle, and at the end 

 they are cut in half aud doubled under to form the foot. The whole is only half a 

 foot high. This cradle is very light, weighing only two pounds. » • » The 

 infant being rocked lengthwise, its head is not shaken as are those who are rocked 

 from side to side, as in France. « » * The cradle is rocked by means of two ends 

 of canes, which make two rollers.^ 



Shields. 



Woven targets or shields would seem to be rather novel objects, but 

 such are mentioned by John Smith, who used those belonging to 

 friendly Indians m an encounter on the Chesapeake: 



Here the Massawomek Targets stood vs in good stead, for vpon Mosco's words we 

 had set them about the forepart of our Boat like a forecastle, from whence we 

 securely beat the Salvages from oft' the plaine without any hurt. ♦ » • Arming 

 ourselues with these light Targets (which are made of little small sticks woven 

 betwixt strings of their henipe and silke grasse, as is our cloth, but so firmly that 

 no arrow can possibly pierce them).^ 



MATTING. 



No class of articles of textile nature were more universally employed 

 by the aborigines than mats of split cane, rushes, and reeds, and our 

 information, derived from literature and from such remnants of the 

 articles themselves as have been recovered from graves and caves, is 

 quite full aud satisfactory. Mats are not so varied in form and char- 

 acter as are baskets, but their uses were greatly diversified; they 

 served for carpeting, seats, hangings, coverings, and wrappings, and 

 they were extensively eraploj'ed in permanent house construction, and 

 for temporary or movable shelters. A few brief extracts will serve to 

 indicate their use in various classes of construction by the tribes first 

 encountered by the whites. 



Hariot says that the houses of the Virginia Indians — 



Are made of small poles made fast at the tops in rouude forme after the maner as 

 is vsed in many arbories in our gardens of England, in most townes couered with 

 barkes, and in some with artiflciall mattes made of long rushes; from the tops of 

 the houses downe to the ground.'' 



It would appear from a study of the numerous illustrations of houses 

 given by this author that the mats so often referred to were identical 



' Hist, of Travaile into Virginia: Wm. Strachey, Hakluyt Society, Lond.. 1844, vol. vi. p. 73. 



' Hist. Louisiana, vol. n, jip. 310,311. 



' Op. cit., p. 185. 



* A Brief and True account of the New Found Land of Virginia, Thomas Hariot, p. 24. 



