SwANTON] INiDIANS OF THE &OUTIIEASTE1RN UNIITED STATES 455 



perhaps worn for ornament as much as for warmth. When the 

 Spaniards met Tascalusa he had on "a pelote or mantle of feathers 

 down to his feet" (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, p. 120), and in the store- 

 houses about Cofitachequi were "feather mantles (white, gray, ver- 

 milion, and yellow), made according to their custom, elegant and 

 suitable for winter" (Kobertson, 1933, p. 93) . Du Pratz thus describes 

 the Natchez method of making these : 



The feather mantles are worked on a frame similar to that on which wig 

 makers work hair. They lay out the feathers in the same manner and fasten 

 them to old fish nets or old mulberry-bark mantles. They place them in the 

 manner already outlined one over another and on both sides. For this purpose 

 they make use of little turkey feathers. The women who can obtain feathers 

 of the swan or Indian duck make mantles of them for the women of the 

 Honored class. (Le Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, pp. 191-192; Swanton, 1911, 

 p. 63.) 



To this we may add the words of Dumont de Montigny: 



With the thread which they obtain from the bark of the bass tree they make 

 for themselves a kind of mantle which they cover with the finest swan 

 feathers fastened on this cloth one by one, a long piece of work in truth, but 

 they account their pains and time as nothing when they want to satisfy 

 themselves. (Dumont, 1753, vol. 1, p. 155; Swanton, 1911, p. 63.) 



Adair says that the Chickasaw women 



make turkey feather blankets with the long feathers of the neck and breast 

 of that large fowl — they twist the inner end[s] of the feathers very fast into 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 sufficiently fine, and they 

 work it in the manner of fine netting. As the feathers are long and glit- 

 tering, this sort of blanket is not only very warm, but pleasing to the eye. 

 (Adair, 1775, p. 423.) 



In his description of Choctaw activities Romans (1775, p. 85) 

 includes the manufacture of "blankets and other coverings out of 

 the feathers of the breasts of wild turkies by a process similar to 

 that of our wig makers, when they knit hair together for the pur- 

 pose of making wigs." 



Of the Creeks, Bartram says: 



Some have a short cloak, just large enough to cover the shoulders and 

 breast; this is most ingeniously constructed, of feathers woven or placed in 

 a most natural imbricated manner, usually of the scarlet feathers of the 

 flamingo, or others of the gayest colours. (Bartram, 1792, p. 500.) 



Since he does not speak of mulberry-bark textiles, it is probable 

 that in his time the base was of European materials. 



As recently as 1907, a Creek Indian remembered that an old 

 woman — the same who recalled the use of textiles made of slippery- 

 elm bark — remembered that these were sometimes ornamented with 

 the iridescent feathers of the turkey gobbler arranged in designs. 



Lawson informs us, regarding the Siouan tribes, that: 



