24 PREHISTORIC TEXTILE ART. [eth axn.13 



coarse threinl is prepared, they put it iuto a frame about six feet square, and instead 

 of a shuttle, they thrust through the thread with a long cane, having a large string 

 through the web, which they shift at every second course of the thread. When 

 they have thus finished their arduous labour, they paint each side of the carpet with 

 such figures, of various colours, as their fruitful imaginations devise; particularly the 

 images of those birds and beasts they are acrjuaiuted with ; and likewise of them- 

 selves, acting in their social, and martial stations. There is that due pro])ortioii and 

 so much wild variety iu the design, that would really strike a curious eye with 

 pleasure and admiration. J. W— t, Esq.. a most skilful linguist in the Muskohge 

 dialect, assures me, that time out of mind they passed the woof with a .shuttle; and 

 they have a couple of threddles, which they move with the h.and so as to enable 

 them to make good dispatch, something after our maimer of weaving. This is suffi- 

 ciently confirmed by their method of workin»; broad garters, s.ashes, shot pouches, 

 broad belts, and the like, which are decorated all over with beautiful stripes and 

 chequers. 



The women 'are the chief, if not the only, manufacturers; the meu judge that if 

 they performed that office, it would exceedingly depreciate them. * " ' In the 

 winter season, the women gather butt'alo's hair, a sort of coarse, hrown, curled wool; 

 and having spun it as fine as they can, and properly doubled it, they put small beads 

 of ditt'crent colours upon the yarn, as they work it, the figures they work in those 

 small webs, are generally uniform, but sometimes they diversify them on both sides. 

 The Choktah weave shot-pouches which have raised work inside and outside. 

 They likewise make turkey feather blankets with the long feathers of the neck and 

 breast of that large fowl — they twist the inner end of the feathers very fast iuto a 

 strong double thread of hemp, or the inner bark of the mulberry tree, of the size 

 and strength of coarse twine, as the fibres are sufticiently fine, aud they work it in 

 manner of fine netting. As the feathers are long and glittering, this sort of blankets 

 is not only very warm, but pleasing to the eye. ' 



The extent and importance of the art among the Gulf tribes are indi- 

 cated by a miinber of early ob.servers. The Knight of Elvas speaks of 

 the use of blankets by the Indians, 83 degrees west longitude, and 32 

 degrees north latitude, or near the central jiortion of Georgia: 



These are like shawls, some of them are made from the inner barks of trees, and 

 others from a grass resembling nettle, which, by threading out, becomes like flax. 

 The women use them for covering, wearing one about the body from the waist down- 

 ward, and another over the shoulder, with the right arm left free, after the manner 

 of the gypsies : the meu wear but one, which they carry over their shoulders in the 

 same way, the loins being covered with a bragueiro of deer-skin, after the fashion 

 of the woolen breech-cloth that was once the custom of Spain. The skins are well 

 dressed, the color being given to them that is wished, and in such perfection, that, 

 when of vermilion, they look like very fine red broadcloth, and when black, the sort 

 in use for shoes, they are of the purest. The same hues are given to blankets. - 



At Cutifachiqui similar fabrics were observed : 



In the barbacoas were large quantities of clothing, shawls of thread, made from 

 the barks of trees and others of feathers, white gray, vermilion and yellow, rich 

 and proper for winter. ' 



The frequent mention of fabrics used by the Indians for shawls, 

 mantles, etc., makes it plain that such were in very general use when 



' History of the American Indians. London. 1775, pp. 422, 423. 



"Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the Conquest of Florida as told hy a Knight of 

 Elvas. Translated by Buckingham Smith. New York, 1860. p. 52. 

 nbid.,p.63. 



