USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Madisonville > Indian Village Site and Cemetery Near Madisonville, Ohio > Part 20
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1 Except as "markers" in painted designs (plate 27, e). See, however, the woven fabric (plate 26, b), where squares are made in this way.
" There is one specimen (A-3056) with a band in brown; this dye caused the string to which it was applied to rot rather badly. Another bag (A-3005) has two lines each one made of one red and one dark blue strand. The third case of the use of colors other than the conventional red and black, is the appearance of a few yellow lines in A-3470.
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The type of pattern illustrated in e, is the only one which needs E explanation. Normally the weave of the bags is counter-clockwise, and a series of " beaded " weft-rows produces an oblique design, whose lines run downward to the right as in a. By shifting the weave to a clockwise direction, the slant of the oblique lines is changed and they run downward to the left. The decoration shown in e, therefore, was made by introducing three clockwise rows, then six counter-clockwise, and finally six clockwise. There are but two examples of this style in the collection.
One further point should be noticed: the weft is continuous, going around and around the bag; if the number of warps were even, and if (for example) a weft-pair of one black and one natural strand were being used, the black strands would, at each successive revolution about the bag, cross the same warp, and a series of vertical black bars would be produced (as in the two upper rows of f). If on the other hand, the number of warps were odd, the emergences of the black strand on the surface would be offset at each revolution and the resultant design would be oblique as in a. As both types, vertical and oblique, often occur in the same band, as shown in d, it is obvious that when the change from oblique to vertical or vice versa was to be made the weaver had to employ some device to reverse the order of emergences of her alternating colors. How this was done is shown in plate 27, d.
Painting, the second style of bag decoration, would call for little notice beyond the illustration of the designs themselves, were it not for two very interesting peculiarities, namely, the practice of applying the designs to the inside as well as to the outside of the bags, and the use of markers woven in, apparently to aid in this duplication. These methods were employed in the decoration of the bag shown in plate 30, f, and restored in color in plate 28.
Perhaps the clearest way of presenting the technic is to describe the steps by which we arrived at an understanding of it. We had examined the bags a number of times and had always sup- posed, because the designs appeared on both sides of the fabric, that they had been woven in probably by means of the dyed-weft method; closer scrutiny, however, showed that the vertical and oblique edges of the figures were perfectly even and straight, not finely serrated or stepped as is always the case with such edges in & woven design. Under a magnifying glass the edges of the colored
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VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 28
WHITE DOG CAVE Color-scheme of woven bag.
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areas proved to be formed not by the stitches of the weave, but to run quite independently of them as illustrated in plate 27, e. This showed, of course, that the designs had been painted on, not woven in; but we were still at a loss to account for the accuracy with which they were reproduced on the reverse of the fabric (we had pushed pins through the weave at various juts and corners of the figures and had found that their points protruded at exactly corre- sponding places in the designs on the other side). We then decided that some dye must have been used which struck clear through the material and colored both surfaces. This explanation satisfied us until we chanced to pry apart some of the weft strings, and noticed that their under parts and the warps were not colored. This puzzled us greatly because we could not conceive of a dye which would act on both surfaces of a cloth without affecting its body. We then returned to our pin tests, and eventually discovered a few places where the designs on front and back failed to correspond by a small fraction of an inch, and one spot where there was an error of a quarter of an inch.
It was then clear that the two sides had been painted separately, but we could not understand how the elaborate patterns had been duplicated so exactly. Further examination cleared up this ques- tion also. We noticed that the top line of weaving in many of the colored units was of a darker shade than its body; on picking one of these upper lines out, we found that for the space necessary to cross the top of the design-unit, both its strands had been tinted before weaving in (weft-dyeing). These little colored lines or markers appeared, of course, on both sides of the fabric and must have made it quite easy for the weaver to paint identical patterns on each. They must also have been of great assistance in the original laying-out of the designs, for by introducing markers at regular intervals (ascertained by counting warps) along any single line of weft, regularity of spacing in a horizontal sense could be accomplished; by counting weft lines as they were woven upward from the one last marked and then marking a new weft, sym- metrical vertical spacing could be insured (see plate 27, e; the shade of the markers is there exaggerated).
One further point: we experimented with water-color paints on bits of the bag fabric and found that it takes them without any blotting or running; furthermore the moisture in the paint (carry-
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ing very little of the color itself) quickly soaks through and shows on the reverse side in sharply defined wet areas of exactly the same shape as the painted figures. By painting over these moist areas the decorator was still further aided in the accuracy of the dupli- cation of the design.
This painstaking reproduction was accomplished on nearly all the painted bags in the collection; there are but few specimens decorated on one side only. Its purpose is not obvious, for while the bags are reversible, the weave being the same within and with- out, specimens showing long use are much more worn on one side than on the other. It seems, therefore, that the patterns on the inside were normally invisible. That they were so meticulously carried out may be due to the strong craving for perfection and love for detail possessed by so many primitive craftsmen; or it may have resulted from an equally common psychological trait, namely that of wishing to carry over into a new technic the quali- ties of an older one. To be explicit: it is likely that basket-mak- ing was practised by these people before they learned to weave this specialized type of bag; the painted patterns under discussion are also found woven in the baskets (compare plate 24 with plates 26 and 28); hence it may be that when painting such decorations, it was thought proper that they should appear on both sides of the fabric as in baskets.
Fur cloth. This was one of the most important textile products of the Basket-makers. Robes of fur cloth were presumably the usual overgarment for cold weather, were doubtless used for sleep- ing blankets, and were invariably wrapped about the dead previ- ous to burial; young babies were provided with specially shaped fur cloth coverings (plate 4, b, f).
The strings that compose the body of the fabric were variously prepared. The commonest method was to wrap a yucca cord with narrow strips of the hide of small animals applied raw and with the fur on; deer and mountain-sheep skins, when used, were generally dressed. The strips were applied spirally, the end of one piece holding down the beginning of the next. The tight wrapping of the hide caused the hair to stand out in all directions, thus giving the finished string the appearance of a greatly magnified pipe- cleaner. Another way of making the string was to catch tufts of long, woolly animal hair (dog or buffalo) detached from the hide,
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VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 29
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Twined weaving; designs produced by different manipulations of the weft-strands.
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through the twists of a two-ply cord; the same was also done with small patches of skin from the heavily furred bottoms of rabbits' feet. Strips of tough skin with the hair on were sometimes twisted upon themselves instead of being wound about a cord.
The weaving process was very simple; the prepared string was wound about some sort of frame, or perhaps around a pair of long pegs driven in the ground. The winding was done in such a way as to lay each succeeding turn of the string parallel to and close against the preceding one. When the desired size was reached, the strings were fastened together by twined rows of yucca cord; finally, the frame was removed. To illustrate the nature of the selvages, a corner of one of these fabrics is shown in figure 11, a. The upper edge is composed of the looped turns of the single long fur-string which forms the body of the cloth. On the lateral selvage may be seen the method of bringing the continuous twin- ing cords down the edge for a new crossing.
Due to the wide spacing of the rows of twining cord, the texture of fur cloth is very loose. The component string is, however, 80 fluffy and hangs so evenly between the twined cross-rows, that the finished blanket has a very smooth surface; it is also softer and more flexible than the best dressed hide. Pleasing blends of color were produced by mixing different kinds of fur; ornamental edg- ings and tassels were sometimes made by using bits of string wrapped with strips of downy bird skin; or strings between the plies of which were held pieces of rabbit foot fur, colored red.
Narrow Fabrics. Carrying bands were employed for the trans- portation of heavy loads. We have found them attached to the large pannier baskets (plate 23, k, 1), and one accompanied the bulky bundle containing a hunting net discovered in White Dog Cave. It is probable that they were also used with cradles. They are long woven straps with loops at either end. Although individ- ual specimens differ from each other in dimensions and in the details of weave and ornamentation, most of them are fundamen- tally alike in that they are made of a long cord looped into a flat skein and held together by a single binder, which runs over and under, back and forth across it. The binder terminates just before reaching the ends, thus leaving two loops for the attachment of the strap to the burden (see the diagrammatic drawing, plate 27, f). Ornamental patterns are sometimes introduced by making the
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skein of strings of contrasting colors, or by using a binder of a color different from the rest of the fabric.
One of the straps found with a pannier basket (plate 23, k) is made of a single heavy yucca fiber string looped on itself twelve times to form twenty-four parallel elements; the binder is also of yucca. The length of the specimen is 22 inches, width 1} inches. The second pannier strap is longer, 32 inches, but of the same width. It is composed of yellowish fiber and black human hair strings, alternated to produce a simple design; the binder is yucca. There are also several fragmentary bands of the same weave, in one of which (A-3495) the one remaining loop is tightly wound with fine string.
The band found with the rabbit net (plate 31, c) is constructed on the same basic principle, but its binder, instead of being cov- ered by the longitudinal strings, forms the surface of the fabric. In making this strap, a single stout yucca cord was looped four times, producing eight parallel strings; the binder is woven back and forth over and under these; it is a heavy cord twisted of a mixture of dog and buffalo hair, and is so fluffy and is beaten up so tightly that the underlying yucca strings are entirely concealed except at the ends, where they protrude to form short loops for the attachment of tie-cords. The specimen is 22 inches long and 2} inches wide.
Tape. Very narrow flat fabrics were made on the same general principle as the coarser carrying-straps, but the materials are finer and the weave more elaborate. They are rare, our only new ex- ample being a short length of tape fs of an inch wide which was found attached, apparently as a tie-string, to a large fur cloth robe enveloping mummy 1, Cist 24, White Dog Cave. It has parallel longitudinal elements and a single binder; the parallel strings are twenty-eight in number, arranged in fourteen pairs which twine about the successive crossings of the binder instead of merely pass- ing over and under them as in the carrying-straps. The design, produced by mixing brown and white strands, is very similar to that of a tape found in Cave 1, 1915. In number of elements and in weave the two specimens are identical.1
Rigid bands. We have only a single specimen of this type, but there is a very similar one from Grand Gulch in the American 1 Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, p. 173 and figure 82.
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VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 30
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Twined-woven bags. All from White Dog Cave with the exception of d, which is from Cave 6. (About }.)
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Museum of Natural History in New York. Our example (White Dog Cave, A-3452) is composed of thirty slim, peeled willow twigs laid side by side to form a flat band 4} inches wide and held to- gether by a tight, twilled over-two-under-two weave of fine string. The upper part of the cross-weaving is in human hair string, the lower of apocynum. The object is 9} inches long, but is broken off at both ends so that we cannot even guess at its original length, nor at the way in which it was finished.
NETTING AND CORDAGE
Coiled Netting.1 A bag from White Dog Cave is our best ex- ample of this technic. It is a little apocynum string sack, 6 inches long, with rounded body and constricted neck. The stitch is very even and regular (plate 25, d); there are twelve coils to the inch and each coil has nine loops to the inch. The entire bottom of the bag is red; the neck is in natural color, encircled by narrow bands of red and brown. As there is no sign that new strings were introduced to make the changes in color, it seems probable that the entire fabric is made from a single long strand, which was stained or rubbed with pigment for the proper length whenever it was desired to produce a colored band.
Rabbit Net. This remarkable specimen, which, according to Dr. J. W. Fewkes, is probably the largest piece of ancient textile so far recovered in North America, is from White Dog Cave. When found it was rolled upon itself, partly wrapped in bunches of fiber, and tied into a neat bundle with yucca leaves. Undone and spread out, it proved to be a net 240 feet long, 3 feet 8 inches wide, and with meshes 2} inches square. It is in perfect condition and, ex- cept for a single strand which has at some time been burned through by a stray spark, is as firm and strong as the day it was made. The material is a two-ply twine of Indian hemp (Apocynum cannabinum), very firm and evenly twisted and about 3&, of an inch in diameter. An estimate of the amount of string composing the net gives approximately 19,581 feet, or very nearly 3} miles. Ex- tending the length of the long edges and across the ends is a mar- ginal cord, of stouter two-ply yucca string; the method of attach- ing this can be seen in plate 31. The mesh-knot is one that is
1 This term has been suggested by Mr. Willoughby as a more appropriate one than Mason's "coil without foundation"; for a diagram of the weave, see Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, figure 45.
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used almost universally. The entire net is of the same mesh, but there are two sections, one 9 and the other 6 feet long, in which human hair has been used with the apocynum fiber, one strand of hair twisted with one of fiber.1 These sections are naturally of a darker color than the rest of the specimen. Strung on the cord of one of the meshes is a single olivella shell bead, another bears two stone beads; still another has attached to it a few downy feathers which may be seen in the plate; on a fourth is a small pink feather, and at a fifth place there is a paw of some small animal tied on with sinew.
Attached to the net when found was a carrying-strap of coarse dog or buffalo fur-string. Such a strap was no doubt needed for transporting the net, as the whole bundle weighs over twenty-eight pounds. The bunches of fiber that partly enclosed the rolled up net are of Indian hemp (the same material in its raw state as the twine); it is stripped up and tied in hanks in much the same manner as are the trade bundles of Indian hemp in the Peabody Museum collected from the Thompson Indians.
The method of using nets such as this is made clear by the following quotation from Powell: ?
They (the Paiute) get many rabbits sometimes with arrows sometimes with nets. They make a net of twine, made of the fibers of a native flax. Some- times this is made a hundred yards in length, and is placed in a half-circular position, with wings of sage brush. They have a circle hunt, and drive great numbers of rabbits into the snare, where they are shot with arrows.
It has occurred to us that the hair string sections, being darker than the rest, might have been intended to lure the quarry toward them, for, to a frightened animal they might appear to be openings.
Of interest because of its close similarity to the present specimen is a rabbit net in the Peabody Museum that was collected from the Paiutes about 1870 by Dr. Edward Palmer. Its length is 124 feet, width 4 feet. The mesh is practically the same, and the material is also apocynum fiber; furthermore, there are sections which appear darker than the rest of the body, though no human hair string is used. This net is provided with a number of light crotched sticks which were used to hold it upright when set. No such sticks were
1 From Cave 10 came a fragment of another net of the same weave and mesh size; this piece is also made of human hair and apocynum string.
: 1875, p. 127.
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VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 31
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WHITE DOG CAVE a, Umbilical pad; b, Gourd vessel; c, Rabbit-net, carrying-strap and bunch of fiber found with the net. (About 1/10.)
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found with the specimen from White Dog Cave. In the collection from the caves of Coahuila, northern Mexico, is a fragment of netting similar to the above. Heye records a fragment of yucca rabbit net from a Diegueño cache pot.1
Snares. The best preserved of the three specimens of snares found in Cave 6, measures 8 feet 6 inches in length and is made from twelve strands of twisted yucca fiber, braided into a rope f's of an inch square. At one end is a loosely tied knot, at the other a loop, 2 inches in length. This loop is not spliced or seized to the body of the rope, but is an integral part of it (plate 32, a). To accomplish this, a piece 7 inches in length was first braided with six strands, then doubled to make the loop, and the twelve strands thus brought together were braided to form the rope itself.
A second specimen made of the same material and in the same way measures 7 feet, 4 inches in length.
The third snare though made in the same way as the other two, is of a different material, probably apocynum fiber. The strands are more evenly twisted and the braiding so done as to give the finished rope a very smooth appearance. It is also more flexible than the others, and shows signs of considerable use. It was broken or cut into three sections when found. Attached to the loop of the noose is a fragment of coarse netting made of soft fiber string. Fastened to the netting at several points is a thread-like fiber string.
Tied to the noose of each of the first two specimens described is a short piece of twine, and a bit of netting made of similar twine was found loose in the cache. Attached to one end of this netting are four beads and a little pendant of a material resembling opal, very brilliant in the proper light. Of the beads, the one next to the pendant is of white stone and measures } of an inch in diameter, and is of an inch thick. It is very symmetrical. Another white bead of the same material is a thin disk. The third and fourth are discoidal in shape and } of an inch in diameter; one is made of a green stone, the other of shell, Spondylus calcifer.
The use of snares of this kind is not confined to any one region, but appears to have been general where game, such as deer, ante- lope, or mountain-sheep, was found. The Pomo Indians employ a similar contrivance, the noose, when set, filled with coarse netting.
1 1919, p. 45.
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Lumholtz describes and figures a snare used by the Huichol Indians of central Mexico, which is set with a netting across the noose opening.1 Waterman illustrates a Yahi deer snare of the same type as those under discussion, but without the netting. It is probable that the Cliff-dwellers also used snares, as one of a series of pictographs found near Ruin 5 by the 1914 expedition depicts a man in the act of throwing a noose over the head of a mountain- sheep.3
The netting with which the noose was filled no doubt made the trap more effective, as it could be set to cover a much wider space in the runway. The animal in pushing its way through the net would draw the noose tight about its neck.
The method of braiding a rope square is also widespread and has survived into modern times as in Navajo leather riatos. Examples are found principally in regions where the lariat is used, though the Northwest Coast tribes braid ropes in this way for their harpoons and other fishing devices, as do the Mohave for neck strings.
A running noose probably designed for a snare is the clever little device illustrated in plate 32, b. The braided loop is replaced by a short section of hollow bone, neatly cut and seized to one end of the string with sinew. This makes a very free-running noose.
OBJECTS OF WOOD
Atlati or Spear-thrower. The atlatl is a device which serves to add greater length, and therefore, greater propulsive force to the arm of the thrower in launching a spear or dart. It consists of a long, thin stick with a grip for the hand at one end, and a hook- like spur to engage the butt of the spear at the other. In throw- ing, the butt of the spear was placed against the spur at the end of the atlatl; its shaft lay flat along the atlatl with its point project- ing in front of the user's hand; it was held in this position, prob- ably near its middle, by the second (fore) and third fingers which passed through the loops of the atlatl on the sides of the grip. The fourth and fifth fingers were clenched upon the atlatl grip below the loops, holding it firmly against the palm and heel of the hand. The base of the thumb served to solidify this grip on the atlatl,
1 Lumholts, 1903, Vol. II, p. 41.
: Waterman, 1918, plate 13.
' Kidder-Guernsey, 1919, plate 93, b.
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VOL. VIII, No. 2, PLATE 32
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a, b, Snares showing details; c, d, e, Bunches of human hair; f, g, Skin bags. b, c, d, f, g, White Dog Cave; s, Cave 6; e, Cave 14. (About }.)
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The second atlatl (plate 33, f) is somewhat less well-preserved, its oak shaft being checked and a little shrunken, and the finger- loops dried stiff. The lateral curve of the stick is probably due to warping. The total length is 23} inches. The spur is slimmer and sharper than that of the specimen just described; and the groove, instead of being deep and short, is shallow and runs nearly 5 inches down the shaft. The finger-loops are straddled as before, over a pair of broad notches in the side of the stick; they are made by folding a buckskin strip, slitting it in the middle, and drawing it over the shaft, to which the ends are attached by a cross-binding and an over-wrapping of sinew. The slit middle part is kept from slipping backward by an annular seizing. Ten inches from the butt there may be seen on the front (illustrated) side of the weapon the print of a former ligature; on the back there is a light colored oval mark corresponding exactly in size and shape to the flat base of a chipped stone (plate 35, f) found loose in the same cist. These traces indicate, of course, that the stone was once attached to the back of the weapon.
The next atlatl to be considered is a fragmentary one, shown in plate 33, d. The part recovered is a section of the shaft 72 inches long extending forward from the former seat of the finger-loops. To the back is attached an elaborate series of "weights." The specimen was found, done up with other objects, in a skin container that was tucked between the outer coverings and the fur cloth robe of mummy 2, Cist 24. Both ends are bruised and rounded, indicating that the piece was used in some way, perhaps as a cere- monial object or as a fetish, for a long time after the original weapon was broken.
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