INDIAN GRASS. 221 



get from the Indians pretty braided chains, confined at 

 intervals by bands or rings of dyed quills or beads. 

 These I sent home to England, where they were highly 

 ■esteemed for the work and the sweet scent of the grass. 

 One of these chains is still in existence and has lost 

 little of its fragrance. 



I have sometimes suggested that the aroma might be 

 utilized as a toilet article in the. way. of perfume. 



The Indian women of the present generation are much 

 more refined, and pay more attention to cleanliness in 

 their habits than did their mothers and grandmothers. 

 A lady who was returning to her friends in England 

 asked me to procure for her some of these grass chains. 

 I applied to an Indian woman, who readily set to work 

 to supply them, seating herself under one of the trees in 

 the grove near my garden. On going out to bring her 

 some refreshment, great was my dismay to see a great 

 length of the grass braid wound round her by no means 

 ■delicately clean big toe. 



When I protested against this mode of proceeding, 

 she laughed and said, " Good, way, hold it all tight, nice." 



But finding that I made. great objection to her "nice 

 way " of holding the braiding, she stuck a sharp stick 

 into the ground, and fastened the coil of braid round it, 

 and seemed convinced that this way was " nicer " than 

 the other. 



She had been perfectly unconscious that there was 

 anything objectionable in her original mode of weaving 



