August 2, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



135 



cord, and by another bend around the left 

 side of the heelcord and back to the start- 

 ing point, where it is fastened off by a series 

 of half-hitches. The heelcord is a twine 

 woven into the margin of the sole on either 

 side of the heel. This, according to Mr. 

 Cushing, is called by the ZuSi Egati (heel- 

 skin-under-grass). The sole is made of 

 split Yucca angustifoliimi fibre plaited in the 

 diagonal form of weaving common in the 

 Pueblo country, each stitch passing over 

 two and under two. 



A second pair, having the eyelets worked 

 in for the toeloop, is built upon a warp of 

 twenty-three filaments or small bundles of 

 shredded Yucca fibre. The weft is doubled, 

 the upper portion consisting of a close 

 weaving exactly like that on the Pueblo 

 blankets and belts, the yarn being twisted 

 bast fibre (probablj^ Apocynum). The 

 lower part of the sole consists of a series 

 of rows or twined weaving laid under and 

 enclosed in the warp of the lapper weav- 

 ing, but not appearing on the upper side. 

 The exact technique of this under weaving 

 has not been made out, owing to the danger 

 of mutilating the specimen, but it seems to 

 be in a line with the composite texture no- 

 ticed in the Yoki baskets which I have de- 

 scribed elsewhere. This sandal, when new, 

 was prettily decorated with bands and 

 stripes of red and black threads, alterna- 

 ting with the natural color of the material. 

 At the heel and toe the warp threads are 

 braided down and enclosed in an ornamen- 

 tal border of plaited bu.ckskin thong. The 

 toestrap is missing and the heelstrap is a 

 small rope of bast fibre. One end firmly 

 secured, the other slips through a loop on 

 the back and is lased as a part of the lacing. 



The third specimen is built up upon four 

 warp ropes of shredded Yucca fibre ; the weft 

 being of short pieces of very loosely twisted 

 yarn of Yucca fibre woven into the wai'p by 

 the same style of weaving as in the last 

 named, such as is seen on the blankets and 



the Moki wicker trays and in the ordinai'y 

 twilled goods. These short warp strands 

 are so manipulated that the frayed ends 

 shall be spread out on the top of the sandal. 

 The four-stranded warp, the plan of weav- 

 ing and the shredding of the ends, are pre- 

 cisely like the texture of many hundreds of 

 Japanese and Corean sandals, only in this 

 specimen the shredding forms the top of the 

 sandal, while in the Japanese example of 

 straw the shredding forms the bottom. The 

 loop for the toes in this specimen is well 

 shown, consisting of a bit of four-ply rope 

 of the Agave fibre, loosely twisted. The 

 lacing is gone. 



The fourth example is a very coarse sole 

 of split Yucca fibre plaited diagonally and 

 plainly with loops of the same material 

 around the margin for the lacing, and on 

 top between the sole and the lacing is laid 

 a pad or bed of neatly folded corn husks to 

 act as a protection to the sole of the foot. 



In the National Museum is a sandal 

 woven in the same manner as the one last 

 described, having a loop to enclose the sec- 

 ond and the third toe. This specimen was 

 dug from the celebrated mound in Saint 

 Georges, Utah, by Edward Palmer. 



If one will examine a collection of pho- 

 tographs showing the peon and common 

 people of Mexico and other Latin Ameiican 

 states by the Eev. F. H. Cleveland, he will 

 notice that many are wearing sandals having 

 no string between the toes whatever. 



In the sculpture from ' Copan ' and the 

 mound at Saint Georges, we have the two 

 ends of a geographic era in which the san- 

 dal has a loop in front enclosing two toes. 



The questions raised by these specimens 

 are as follows: Was the old aboriginal 

 Mexican sandal provided with a loop to en- 

 close the second and the third toe ? Is the 

 form of rawhide sandal, now so common in 

 Latin America, having a single string be- 

 tween the first and the second toe, a deriva- 

 tive from the Old World ? 



