470 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



Stracliey (1849, p. 66) says, "being once twelve yeares, they put on a 

 kind of semicinctum lethern apron (as doe our artificers or handycrafts 

 men) before their bellies." According to Lawson, the Indian women 

 of the Peidmont region, except in severe weather, wore 



a sort of flap or apron containing two yards in length, and better than half 

 a yard deep. Sometimes it is a deer skin dressed white, and pointed or slit 

 at the bottom, like fringe. . . . Others wear blue, or red flaps, made of bays 

 and plains, which they buy of the English, of both which they tuck In the 

 corners, to fasten the garment, and sometimes make it part with a belt. (Law- 

 son, 1860, p. 310.) 



Of approximately the same territory, Catesby says : 



The women wear short petticoats of woollen, and some of moss. In summer 

 they generally go naked from the waste upwards, but in winter they wrap 

 themselves in a mantle of skins or woolen cloth, which they purchase of the 

 English. (Catesby, 1731-43, vol. 2, p. ix.) 



Byrd seems to be our only authority to mention the use of silk 

 grass as a material in manufacturing this garment. His information 

 is volunteered as if what he says were true for the entire Virginia- 

 North Carolina section, but his particular informant was "an old 

 Indian trader," and he was accompanied by a Saponi. 



Of this [silk grass], [he says] they make their Baskets and Aprons which 

 their Women wear about their Middles, for Decency's Sake. These are long 

 enough to wrap quite round them and reach down to their Knees, with a Fringe 

 on the under part by way of Ornament. (Bassett, 1901, p. 286.) 



That this material was actually used in lieu of deerskin is indi- 

 cated by the mention of "woollen" above and the well-known fact that 

 farther south and west mulberry-bark textiles were common. 



When Oglethorpe visited the Lower Creek town of Coweta in 1739 

 and observed the dances there, he says: "The women are mostly 

 naked to the waist wearing only one short Peticoat w*=^ reaches to 

 the Calves of their Legs" (Bushnell, 1908, p. 573). Bartram, having 

 special reference to the Creeks and Cherokee, remarks of female dress, 

 "their flap or petticoat is made after a different manner [from that 

 of the men], is larger and longer, reaching almost to the middle of 

 the leg, and is put on differently" (Bartram, 1792, p. 501). He men- 

 tions this in one or two other places. 



The women's dress [says Adair] consists only in a broad softened skin, 

 or several small skins sewed together, which they wrap and tye round their 

 waist, reaching a little below their knees. (Adair, 1775, pp. 6-7.) 



In his time, however, it had been largely displaced by "a fathom 

 of the half breadth of Stroud cloth," which they wrapped around 

 their waists and tied with a leathern belt "commonly covered with 

 brass runners or buckles." This corresponds to the skirt, or bono', 

 of the Alabama. 



