TEXTILE FABRICS, BASKET-WORK, ETC. 



It is probable that of the natural materials which man has adapted to 

 his requirements, he early made use of the flexible twigs of trees, stems of 

 reeds, stalks of long - grasses, and the tough, pliable leaves and roots of 

 various plants, which he bound together, and in different ways united, for 

 temporary or permanent convenience. However long the time may have 

 been for the progress of primitive man to the state corresponding with that 

 of the lowest form of savagery as now known, he, apparently, had then 

 everywhere acquired the knowledge of the use, and adaptability to his 

 requirements, of many natural materials. The particular kind of vege- 

 table fibre, or of bark, grass, etc., that has been or is now used, of course 

 has varied with the natural conditions surrounding man in his distribu- 

 tion over the world, and while one race or nation has made use of palm- 

 fibre, another has used flax, and so on through a long- list of plants. 



Among the earliest traces of textile substances in the remains of the 

 settlements on the Swiss Lakes, flax has been found in such quantity, and 

 made into so many articles, as to prove that its use was general and 

 extensive, although other materials, such as bast, grasses, and reeds, were 

 also utilized. What the flax was to the lake-dwellers of Europe, the several 

 species of Agave and Yucca are to the present Indians of all the great south- 

 western portion of our continent ; and other plants are similarly used by 

 man in other regions. 



Mr. Davidson* has given an account of the twine made by the Indians 

 of British Columbia, of which he writes: 



"Proceedings California Academy Science, vol. v (1874), p. 400. 



239 



