26 PREHISTORIC TEXTILE ART. Ieth.ann.13 



tied into knots, iind the blanket is ready for use. In the same manner they construct 

 mats from flags and rushes, on which, ])articHlarly in warm weather, they sleepandsit.' 



Fabrics of various kinds were employed in burial, although not gen- 

 erally made for that purpose. The wrappings of dead bodies were often 

 very elaborate, and the consignment of these to tombs and graves where 

 the conditions were favorable to preservation has kept them for long 

 periods in a most perfect state. By exhuniution we have obtained most 

 of our information on this subject. Our knowledge is, however, greatly 

 increased by descriptions of such burial customs as were witnessed in 

 early times. Extracts already given refer to the use of fabrics in mor- 

 tuary customs. Many others could be cited but the following seems 

 sufldcient : 



After the dead person has lain a day and a niffht in one of their hurdles of canes, 

 counuonly in some out house made for that purpose, those that officiate about the 

 funeral go into the town, and the first young men they meet withal, that have 

 blanliets or match coats on, whom they think fit for their turn, they strip them 

 from their backs, who suffer them so to do without any resistance. In these they 

 wrap the dead bodies, and cover them with two or three mats which the Indians 

 make of rushes or cane ; and, last of all, they have a long web of woven reeds or 

 hollow canes, which is the colfin of the Indians, and is brought round several timea 

 and tied fast at both ends, which, indeed, looks very decent and well. Then the 

 corps is brought out of the house into the orchard of peach trees, where another 

 hurdle is made to receive it, about which comes all the relations and nation that 

 the dead person belonged to, besides several from other nations in alliance with 

 them; all which sit down on the ground upon mats spread there for that purpose. - 



Nets. 



The mauufacture and use of nets by natives in various parts of the 

 country are recorded by early writers, some of whom have already been 

 quoted. Speaking of the Iroquois De la Potherie says: 



The old men and those who can not or do not wish to go to war or the chase, make 

 nets and are fishers. This is a plebian trade among them. Their nets are made of 

 thread of nettles or of white wood, the bark of which they make into thread by 

 means of lye which ren<lers it strong and pliable.^ 



In another place the same author says: 



The Sauteurs, who are beyond the Missisakis, take their name from a Saut (water- 

 fall) which flows from Lake Superior into Lake Huron by a great fall whose rapids 

 are extremely violent. These people are very skillful in fishery by which they 

 obtain white fish as large as salmons. They cross all these terrible rapids into which 

 they cast a net like a sack, a little more than h.alf an ell in width by one in depth 

 attached to .a forked stick about 15 feet long.^ 



A novel use of nets is recorded by this author as follows: 



For taking pigeons in summer in nets, they make a broad path in the woods and 

 attach to two trees, one on each side, a large net made in the shape of a sack well 

 opened."' 



' Memoirs of a captive among the Indians of North America, John D. Hunter. Loudon, 1823, pp. 

 • 289-290. 



•Hist, of Carolina, John Lawsou. Loudon, 1714; reprint, Raleigh, N. C, 1860, pp. 293-294. 

 * Histoire del'Amerique Septentrionale, Bacqueville de la Potherie, vol. in, pp. 33-34. 

 « Ibid., vol. n, pp. 60-61. 

 "Ibid., vol. II, p. 80. 



