Part 5 (1/2)
The Bureau of Ethnology had the good fortune to secure recently a number of representative pieces of burial fabrics of the cla.s.ses mentioned in the preceding extracts, and somewhat detailed descriptions of these will sufficiently ill.u.s.trate the art as practiced by the early inhabitants of the middle portions of the country.
The relics which have come into the possession of the Bureau were obtained in 1885 by Mr. A. J. McGill from a rock shelter on ”Clifty” or Cliff Creek, Morgan county, Tennessee. Mr. J. W. Emmert, through whom they were procured, reports that they were found in a grave 3 feet below the surface and in earth strongly charged with niter and perhaps other preservative salts. The more pliable cloths, together with skeins of vegetal fiber, a dog's skull, some bone tools, and portions of human bones and hair, were rolled up in a large split-cane mat. The grave was situated about as shown in the accompanying section (figure 4). A shelf some 20 feet in width, with depressed floor, occurs about midway between the creek bed and the slightly overhanging ledge above, the whole height being estimated at 300 feet.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. III MANTLE OR SKIRT OF LIGHT-COLORED STUFF.]
The mat, a very excellent piece of work, is 6 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 4 inches. By reference to plate II it will be seen that it is neatly and artistically made and quite well preserved. The strands are from one-third to three-sixteenths of an inch in width and are even on the edges and smoothly dressed on the back. The hard, glistening outer surface of the cane is light in color and the dressed surface is dark naturally or artificially, and the weaving is so managed that a tasteful border and a checkered effect are produced by alternately exposing the light and dark sides. This piece probably very fairly represents the split-cane work of the whole cane-producing region. A similar piece of work from the gulf coast is ill.u.s.trated in figure 12.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 4.--Section of cliff showing position of grave shelter.]
Inclosed with the mat were three pieces of fabric of especial interest, all pertaining, no doubt, to the costume of the person buried. The piece of cloth shown in plate III probably served as a mantle or skirt and is 46 inches long by 24 wide. It is of coa.r.s.e, pliable, yellowish-gray stuff, woven in the twined style so common all over America. The fiber was doubtless derived from the native hemp, and the strands are neatly twisted and about the size of average wrapping cord. The warp strands, 24 inches in length, extend across the piece; and on the left margin, as seen in the ill.u.s.tration, they are looped for the pa.s.sage of a gathering string, while on the left they have been cut to form a short fringe. The opposing series (the woof strands) have been pa.s.sed through with the length of the cloth in pairs, which are twisted half around at each intersection, inclosing the web strands in alternating pairs as shown in detail in figure 5. These twined strands are placed three-eights of an inch apart, the web being so close that the fabric is but slightly open.
The twined strands are carried back and forth in groups of four as shown at the ends in the plate, and are knotted as ill.u.s.trated in the figure.
A piece of fabric of much interest is presented in plate IV. It may be an unfinished garment of the cla.s.s shown in the preceding ill.u.s.tration, but it is more likely a complete skirt, the narrow woven band with its gathering string serving as a belt and the long fringe being the skirt.
The length at the gathered edge is 34 inches, and the pendant length is 20 inches. The material and the weaving are the same as in the piece of cloth already described, although the work is somewhat coa.r.s.er. A detailed study of the border is given in figure 6, the vertical series of threads being pulled apart to show more distinctly the manner of combination.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 5.--Portion of mantle showing manner of weaving.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 6.--a.n.a.lysis of the weaving of fringed skirt. Threads natural size.]
The two pieces just described would seem to correspond pretty closely with the garments formerly worn by women and girls of the lower Mississippi country, as ill.u.s.trated by Du Pratz in a plate facing page 310, volume II, of his Histoire de la Louisiane. His plate is reproduced in figure 7. The following are translations of his descriptions of the garments delineated:
The women in warm weather have only a half ell of limbourg, with which they are covered; they fold this cloth around the body and are well clothed from the waist to the knees; when they have no limbourg they use in the same way a deer skin.[54].
When the girls reach the age of eight or nine years they are clothed from the waist to the ankles with a fringe of threads of mulberry bark, fastened to a band
[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. IV FRINGED SKIRT.]
which is attached below the abdomen; there is also another band above the abdomen which meets the first at the back; between the two the body is covered in front by a network which is held there by the bands, and at the back there are merely two large cords, each having a ta.s.sel.[55]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 7.--Former costumes of woman and girl in Louisiana (after Du Pratz).]
Of equal interest to the preceding is the badly frayed bag shown in plate V. It is 20 inches in length and 13 inches in depth. The style of weaving is the same as that of the two preceding examples; a peculiar open effect is produced by the rotting out of certain strands of dark color, which were arranged in pairs alternating with eight lighter threads. The construction of the border or rim of this bag is quite remarkable. As shown in figure 8, the upper ends of the vertical
strands are gathered in slightly twisted groups of four and carried up free for about two inches, when they are brought together and plaited with remarkable neatness into a string border. As if to convey to the curious investigator of modern times a complete knowledge of their weavers' art, the friends of the dead deposited with the body not only the fabrics worn during life but a number of skeins of the fiber from which the fabrics were probably made. This fiber has been identified as that of the _Cannabis sativa_, or wild hemp. Two of the skeins are shown in plate V.
The presence of these unworked materials makes it probable that the individual burned was a female, for the distaff and the loom have been and are universal emblems of the practical enslavement of that s.e.x.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 8.--Border of bag.]
A small but very instructive group of burial fabrics is preserved in the National Museum. These specimens were found with a desiccated body in 1877 in a cave 8 miles from Mammoth cave, Kentucky. They consist of a number of bags and other articles woven in the usual styles of bast and hemp. Nearly all of the articles are worn or fragmentary, but the fiber is wonderfully preserved and the original colors are as fresh as if the burial had taken place but yesterday. There are three wide-mouthed, shallow bags, resembling the one from Tennessee ill.u.s.trated in plate V.
The largest is 34 inches long when closed, and 15 inches deep. Both web and woof are of bast. There is a border of open work bound by a plaited band as seen in figure 8, and the manner of weaving is identical with that shown in that figure. The second bag is 22 inches long and 16 deep.
The web is of bast, the woof of hemp. The smaller specimen is 14 by 9 inches and is made exclusively of hemp, and is thus much more pliable than the others. The small remnant of a larger bag shows a web of heavy, plaited bast strands resembling the specimen impressed on pottery and shown in _a_, plate IX. Besides these pieces there is a bit of heavy, compactly woven stuff, resembling the broad part of a sling, which shows traces of a geometric pattern, and a piece of flattish rope 12 feet long and 12 inches broad plaited very neatly of hempen twine.
Among a number of cave relics from Kentucky donated to the Museum by Mr.
Francis Klett, are some textile articles. Among these is a sandal or moccasin woven or plaited very neatly of bast. It is shown in figure 9.
Prof. F. W. Putnam and other explorers of these caves have obtained numerous textile articles of interest.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. V FRAYED BAG AND SKEINS OF HEMP FIBER.]