src="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@17370@17370-h@images@fig97.jpg" alt="figure 97" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}img"/>

FOURTH GROUP.

A fourth form of fabric, illustrated in Fig. 98, is of very rare occurrence on our fictile remains.

Fig. 98.—Diagonal fabric, ancient pottery of Tennessee.

It is a very neatly woven diagonal from the ancient pottery of Polk County, Tennessee. Two series of cords have been interwoven at right angles to each other, but so arranged as to produce a diagonal pattern. One series of the cords is fine and well twisted, the other coarser and very slightly twisted.

The remarkable sample of matting shown in Fig. 99 is from a small piece of pottery from Alabama. It has been worked in the diagonal style, but is somewhat different from the last example. It has probably been made of rushes or heavy blades of grass.

Fig. 99.—From the ancient pottery of Alabama.

Fig. 100.—From ancient pottery, Iowa.

The texture shown in Fig. 100 is from a rather indistinct impression upon a small fragment of pottery from Iowa. One series of the strands seems to have been quite rigid, while the other has been pliable, and appear in the impression only where they have crossed the rigid series. The dotted lines indicate their probable course on the under side of the cross threads.

This form of fabric is very common in modern work.

FIFTH GROUP.

In Fig. 101 I present a variety of ancient fabric which has not to my knowledge been found upon ceramic products. This specimen shows the method of plaiting sandals practiced by the ancient inhabitants of Kentucky. Numbers of these very interesting relics have been obtained from the great caves of that State. They are beautifully woven, and well shaped to the foot.

The fiber has the appearance of bast and is plaited in untwisted strands, after the manner shown in the illustration. Professor Putman describes a number of cast-off sandals from Salt Cave, Kentucky, as "neatly made of finely braided and twisted leaves of rushes."5

Fig. 102 illustrates a somewhat similar method of plaiting practiced by the Lake Dwellers of Switzerland, from one of Keller's figures.6

Fig. 101.—Plaiting of a sandal, Kentucky cave.	Fig. 102.—Braiding done by the Lake-Dwellers.

SIXTH GROUP.

The art of making nets of spun and twisted cords seems to have been practiced by many of the ancient peoples of America. Beautiful examples have been found in the huacas of the Incas and in the tombs of the Aztecs. They were used by the prehistoric tribes of California and the ancient inhabitants of Alaska. Nets were in use by the Indians of Florida and Virginia at the time of the discovery, and the ancient pottery of the Atlantic States has preserved impressions of a number of varieties. It is possible that some of these impressions may be from European nets, but we have plentiful historical proof that nets of hemp were in use by the natives, and as all of this pottery is very old it is probable that the impressions upon the fragments are from nets of native manufacture.

Wyman states that nets or net impressions have not been found among the antiquities of Tennessee. I have found, however, that the pottery of Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland furnish examples of netting in great numbers. In many cases the meshes have been distorted by stretching and overlapping so that the fabric cannot be examined in detail; in other cases the impressions have been so deep that casts cannot be taken, and in a majority of cases the fragments are so decayed that no details of the cords and their combinations can be made out.

Fig. 103.—From ancient pottery, District of Columbia.

In Fig. 103 we have a thoroughly satisfactory restoration from a small fragment of pottery picked up in the District of Columbia. It is shown a little larger than natural size in the drawing. The impression is so perfect that the twist of the cord and the form of the knot may be seen with ease. Most of the examples from this locality are of much finer cord and have a less open mesh than the specimen illustrated. It is a noteworthy fact that in one of these specimens an incised pattern has been added to the surface of the soft clay after the removal of the net.

Fig. 104.—Net from the pottery of North Carolina.

Fig. 105.—Net from the pottery of North Carolina.