VARIOUS USES OF MATTING. 



19 



in construction with those still in use among the tribes of the upper 

 Mississippi and the far west. The rushes are laid close together side 

 by side and bound together at long intervals by cords intertwined 

 across. In e, plate I, is reproduced a small portion of a mat from Har- 

 lot's engraving of the dead-house of the Virginia Indians, which shows 

 this method of construction. 



The modern use of mats of this class iu house construction is known 

 by an example which I have seen represented in a small photograph, 

 taken about the year 1868, and representing a Chippewa village, situ- 

 ated somewhere in the iipper Missouri valley, probably not far from 

 Sioux City, Iowa. 



Mats were used not only in and about the dwellings of the aborigines, 

 but it was a common practice to carry them from place to place to sleep 

 on, or for use as seats or carpeting in meetings or councils of ceremoni- 

 ous nature. The latter use is illustrated in a number of the early 



Fig. 2.— Use of mats in an Indian council (after Lafitau). 



accounts of the natives. Figure 2, copied from Latttau, serves to indi- 

 cate the common practice. 



The omnipresent sweat-house of the aborigines is thus described by 

 Smith : 



Sometimes they are troubled with dropsies, swellings, aches, and such like diseases; 

 for cure whereof they liuild a Stoue in the forme of a Doue-house with mats, so close 

 that a few coales therein covered with a pot, will make the patient sweat extreamely.' 



Bartram, speaking of the Seminoles, states that the wide steps lead- 

 ing up to the canopied platform of the council house are "covered with 

 carpets or mats, curiously woven of split canes dyed of various colours.'"* 



• A Brief and True account of the New Found Land of Virginia, Thomas Mariot, p. 137. 



* William liartram's Travels, etc. London, 1792, p. 302. 



