524 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY • [Bull. 137 



in his text girdles hung with little oval balls of gold, silver, and 

 brass, which made a tinkling sound as the wearer moved. An earlier 

 use of copper may be assumed. Such girdles were seen by Iberville 

 worn by young Houma men and women. (Margry, 1875-86, vol. 4, 

 pp. 175-176; Swanton, 1911, p. 286.) The Chickasaw women of 

 Adair's time had leather belts coveted with brass runners or buckles, 

 and he mentions beaded sashes (Adair, 1775, pp. 8, 178) . Gatschet was 

 told that the Chitimacha wore copper ornaments about their waists, 

 referring, of course, to their belts (Gatschet, 1861, pp. 5-6; Swanton, 

 1911, p. 345). 



Le Moyne's drawings show metal danglers fastened to strings, 

 which were tied to the lower borders of the breechclouts worn by 

 Timucua chiefs. The breechclout of these Indians seems, however, 

 to have been misconceived by the illustrator, and it is possible that 

 the danglers w^ere fastened to the belt rather than to the breechclout 

 itself. 



Mention has been made of "buttons, cord-knobs of large oliva- 

 shells, and many little conical wooden plugs that had obviously 

 formed the cores of tassels" found by Gushing at Key Marco. He 

 adds the following paragraphs regarding the ornamentation of 

 clothing : 



The remains of fringes and of elaborate tassels, made from finely spun cords 

 of the cotton-tree down — dyed, in one case green, in another yellow — betokened 

 high skill in such decorative employment of cordage. . . . Collections of 

 giant sea-crab claws, still mottled with the red, brown, orange, yellow and black 

 colors of life, looked as though they had been used as fringe-rattles and orna- 

 ments combined, for the decoration of kilts. At all events their resemblance to 

 the pendants shown as attached to the loin-cloth of a man, in one of the early 

 paintings of Florida Indians preserved in the British Museum, was per- 

 fect. . . . 



Certain delicate plates of pinna-shell, and others of tortoise-shell, square — 

 though in some cases longer than broad — were pierced to facilitate attachment, 

 and appeared to have been used as dress ornaments. Still other similar plates 

 of these various materials, as well as smaller, shaped pieces of differing forms, 

 seemed to have been inlaid, for they were worn only on one side, the outer, and 

 a few retained traces of black gum on the backs or unworn sides. (Cushing, 

 1896, p. 376.) 



In later times, after the introduction of European materials for 

 clothing, silver disks were fastened to the fronts of garments which 

 were to be worn on festive occasions, and also to the belt or sash. 



The moccasins were ornamented with beads, but not to the extent 

 common in the North and on the Plains. Before white contact, orna- 

 mentation of moccasins was probably much more restricted than in 

 later times. The De Soto chroniclers mention no ornamentation applied 

 here except the use of dyes. Adair (1775, p. 171) includes moccasins 

 among those garments to which native stones were tied by way of 

 ornament. 



