Putnam.] 320 [January 6, 



were found a number of cast-off sandals, very finely made of the 

 twisted leaves of the cat-tail flag (Typha) braided in a careful and 

 artistic way, identical in the manner of braiding with the straw san- 

 dals from China, though of a different shape, and having a raised 

 portion from toe to heel, like the sides of a leather slipper, while all 

 the ends of the braids were brought forward and united on the me- 

 dian line over the toes. About twenty-five of these sandal-like moc- 

 casons, of various sizes and of several slightly varying designs, but all 

 worn through at toe and heel, were found in the interior chambers of 

 the cave. 1 A piece of cloth more than a foot square and regularly 

 woven, probably from the inner bark of some tree, was also found. 

 This cloth was specially interesting, showing as it did that it had 

 been dyed or colored with black stripes, and also in exhibiting at 

 one corner a place where it had been mended by darning. The 

 other articles found in the cave, which were exhibited at the meeting 

 with those already mentioned, consisted of bunches of the bark such 

 as was used to make the cloth, and of different degrees of fineness ; 

 a number of pieces of bark-twine and rope, several showing knots 

 where pieces had been tied together, some made of twisted strands 



i The only reference I have yet found relating to existing tribes of Indians using 

 moccasons made of other material than skins of animals, is in Gibbs' notice of the 

 northern California Indians and in Fremont's notice of the same tribes. Both 

 these writers state that moccasons made of braided grass are used by these Indians. 

 It is interesting in this connection to note that the sandals of braided grass and 

 some other articles in general resembling those found with the body in Short Cave 

 mentioned further on have been found in a cave in Spain. I quote the following 

 from Dawkins' Cave Hunting as I have not seen the original work by Don Manuel 

 Gongora y Martinez, cited by Dawkins. 



" In the work of Martinez referred to, there is a most interesting account of 

 the pre-historic antiquities of Andalusia. Several interments are described in the 

 Cueva de los Murcielagos, a cave running into the limestone rock, out of which the 

 grand scenery of the southern part of the Sierra Nevada has been, to a great ex- 

 tent, carved. In one spot, a group of three skeletons was met with, one of which 

 was adorned with a plain coronet of gold, and clad in a tunic made of esparto- 

 grass, finely plaited, so as to form a pattern which resembles some of the designs on 

 gold ornaments from Etruscan tombs. At a spot further within, a second group of 

 twelve skeletons lay in a semicircle, around one considered by Don Manuel to have 

 belonged to a woman, covered with a tunic of skin, and wearing a necklace of es- 

 parto-grass, a marine shell pierced for suspension, the carved tusk of a wild 

 boar, and earrings of black stone. There were other articles of plaited esparto- 

 grass, such as baskets and sandals ; flint flakes, pieces of a white marble armlet, 

 polished axes, bone awls, and a wooden spoon, together with pottery of the same 

 type as that from Gibraltar, fragments; of charcoal,, and bones of animals. " — Cave 

 Hunting, p. 209. 



