78 Cincinnats Society of Natural Fiistory. 
and of cotton. Among the Six Nations they used the silky fibre 
from the pods of the milk-weed. The Virginia Indians wore man- 
tles made of feathers. They wove garments of vegetable fibre, of 
wool, of hair, on very rude looms, and made fine rugs and blankets, 
using the hair of the buffalo, wolf, lynx and rabbit. In Mexico 
the women used the distaff, twisting the threads by hand, which 
were then woven in a loom. 
In summer they wore little else than the ‘‘ breech-cloth,” but 
they generally wore a shirt, fringed leggins, moccasins of deer 
hide, with a furred mantle over their shoulders which served as bed 
and bed covering at night. In snowy climates they wore two long 
frames, like tennis rackets, on their feet, which were called snow- 
shoes, which enabled them to glide over the surface of the snow. 
They decorated their dresses with beads of clam-shell, teeth of 
deer and claws of bear, with porcupine quills dyed in brilliant 
colors—blue, red and yellow—with chunks of native copper, and 
mussel-shell pearls; also furs, and feathers of birds; and many 
tribes wore hoods over their heads. 
With sharp stones, bones and shells they made canoes, troughs, 
bowls, and mortars for pounding Indian corn. 
They made coarse pottery of clay. De Soto found the Indians 
of the Mississippi using pounded mussel shells in their pottery, 
which was equal to that of Portugal. It was unglazed. 
Gold and silver they pounded or bent into rude ornaments. 
Copper was generally used for ornaments, but some tribes, as 
in Mexico, knew how to smelt it; and it was formed into axes and 
cutting tools. 
Meteoric iron converted into knives was found among the Esqui- 
maux by Ross and Parry. 
Columbus states that at Honduras a trading canoe brought him 
‘“small hatchets made of copper to hew wood, small bells and 
plates, crucibles to melt copper, etc. 
Del Rio speaks of vessels of silver from the province of Chiapa, 
among which was a silver chalice, that was afterward used in the 
service of the altar. 
Juarros mentions star-shaped ornaments worn by the Quiche 
nobility, and Herrera says the goldsmiths of Nicaragua ‘‘ wrought 
and cast gold extraordinary curiously.” 
Dogs were used for drawing burdens. De Soto found them in 
