442 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



wings used by men in the Powhatan country as an embellishment 

 for the headdress (Smith, John, 1907 ed., p. 99; Strachey, 1849, 

 p. 66). 



Clothing made of materials of vegetable origin had a much more 

 restricted distribution, but skirts and cloaks were woven out of the 

 inner fiber of the mulberry practically everywhere. 



There were also substitutes for this material, among which are 

 mentioned a native grass called usually "silk grass," a nettle, and a 

 kind of native hemp. One of my own informants asserted that the 

 bark of the slippery elm was used in this way. 



Along the south Atlantic coast, in Florida and in Louisiana, women 

 made clothing out of Spanish moss. (See Garcia, 1902, p. 193, for the 

 Georgia coast.) 



In southern Florida breechclouts of "a plaitwork of straws," and 

 "braided palm leaves" — ^by both of which was probably meant pal- 

 metto leaves, as seems to be confirmed by San Miguel (Garcia, 1902, p. 

 200) — took the place of the corresponding garments of deer hide worn 

 by men elsewhere. 



In Virginia very poor Indians are said to have covered themselves 

 with grass and leaves fastened to their belts (Strachey, 1849, p. 64; 

 Smith, John, 1907 ed., p. 99). 



SKIN DRESSING 



The excellent manner in which skins were dressed by the Indians 

 of Cofitachequi, one of the tribes later known as Creeks, is commented 

 upon by De Soto's companions. Kan j el says : 



They make hose and moccasins and leggings with ties of white leather, al- 

 though the leggings are black and with fringes or edgings of colored leather 

 as they would have done in Spain. (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, pp. 100-102.) 



And Elvas: 



The skins are well tanned and are given the color that is desired; and 

 so perfectly that if the color is vermillion, it seems to be very fine grained 

 cloth, and that colored black is splendid. And of this same they make shoes. 

 (Robertson, 1933, p. 76.) 



Somewhat later Spark tells us that the Florida Indians had skins 

 colored "yellow and red, some black and russet, and every man 

 according to his own fancy" (Burrage, 1906, p. 120). 



Very few descriptions of the process of dressing skins have been 

 preserved. Speaking of the Guale breechclout, San Miguel re- 

 marks : 



The dress of the men of this province and of those surrounding it Is nothing 

 but a very soft deerskin, not tanned but rubbed hard between the hands and 

 with the nails, which they never cut. (Garcia, 1902, p. 193.) 



