240 TEXTILE FABKICS. 



"The twine is well made and strong, and is formed from the fibrous covering of the 

 tall, rank nettles which abound around all their villages. They collect the nettles, strip 

 off the leaves, dry the stalks, and when brittle beat them until the woody parts are 

 separated from the fibre. * * * They also make twine from the inner 

 fibrous bark of the EpttoMum angustifolium. n 



Of the Indians of California Mr. Powers* likewise says : 



"There are two plants used for textile purposes. One is a kind of tule-grass or 

 small bulrush (Juncns), which they hetcheled with flints or with their finger-nails, 

 bleached, and wove into breechcloths. For strings, cords, and nets they used the inner 

 bark of the lowland milkweed (Asclepias). When it is dry the Indian takes both ends 

 of a stalk in his hand and crushes it iu his teeth, or else passes it over a stone while he 

 gently taps it with another, then strips off the bark and twists it into strands, theu 

 into cords." 



Dr. Palmer has, also, during his several explorations tinder the direc- 

 tion of the Peabody Museum, collected much information in relation to 

 the plants used for textile and other purposes by the Indians from Utah 

 to the Pacific Ocean, and has recently published a summary of his obser- 

 vations, from which I extract the following :f 



' ' Yucca baccata. — This is one of the most useful plants to the Indians of New Mexico, 

 Arizona, and Southern California. Its fruit is eaten while fresh and iu the dry state. 

 It grows from 2 to 18 feet in height, and becomes a tall tree further southward, vary- 

 ing in diameter from S to 20 inches. The bodies of these plants are very fibrous. The 

 Indians and Mexicans, when in want of soap, cut the stems into slices, beat them into 

 a pulp, and mix them with the water in washing, as a substitute for soaj), for which it 

 answers finely. The leaves are generally about 2 feet in length, and are very fibrous. 

 In order to remove the bast, the leaves are first soaked in water, then pounded with a 

 wooden mallet, at the same time occasionally plunged into water to remove the liber- 

 ated epidermis. Then if not sufficiently clean and white it is returned to the water for 

 a time and again put through the beating process; generally the second course is suffi- 

 cient. The fibres of the leaves being strong, long, and durable, are adapted for Indian 

 manufactures, and the savages of Southern California make therefrom excellent horse- 

 blankets. All the tribes living in the country where this plant is found use it to make 

 ropes, twine, nets, hats, hair-brushes, shoes, and mattresses. 



"The Diegeno Indians of Southern California have brought the uses of this 

 plant to notice by the various articles they make from its fibres to sell to white set- 

 tlers. In preparing a warp for the manufacture of saddle-blankets, it is first loosely 

 twisted; then when wanted it receives a firmer twist. If the blanket is to be orna- 

 mented, a part of the warp during the first process is dyed a claret brown, oak bark 

 being used for that purpose. The loom in use among the Indians of to-day is original 



* Proceed. Gal. Acad. Sci., vol. v (1874), p. 373; also, Tribes of California, p. 426 (1877). 

 t American Naturalist for Oct. 1878, p. 646. 



