ccount of the New Found Land of
Virginia, Thomas Hariot, p. 137.

[19] William Bartram's Travels, etc. London, 1792, p. 302.

[20] Joutel, in B. F. French's Historical Collections of
Louisiana. New York, 1846, p. 149.

[21] Hist. de l'Amer. Sept., Bacqueville de la Potherie. Paris,
1722, vol. III. Plate opposite p. 24.

[22] Hist. Louisiana, Du Pratz. English translation. London,
1763, vol. II, p. 227.

[23] Hist. de l'Amer. Sept., vol. II, p. 17.

[24] Mem. sur la Louisiane, vol. I, pp. 240-241.

[25] Views of Louisiana, H. M. Brackenridge, 1817, p. 178.

PLIABLE FABRICS.

DEVELOPMENT OF SPINNING AND WEAVING.

The use of simple strands or parts in textile art precedes the use of
spun threads, but the one use leads very naturally up to the other. In
employing rushes, stems, grasses, etc., the smaller strands were doubled
to secure uniformity of size, and when a number of parts were used
they were combined into one by twisting or plaiting. In time the
advantage in strength and pliability of twisted strands came to be
recognized, and this led to the general utilization of fibrous substances,
and finally to the manufacture of suitable fibers by manipulating the
bark of trees and plants. Spinning was probably not devised until
the weaver's art had made considerable advance, but its invention
opened a new and broad field and led to the development of a magnificent
industry. Semi-rigid fabrics served for a wide range of uses,
as already described, but soft and pliable cloths for personal use and
ornament were made possible only by the introduction of spinning.

On the arrival of the whites the native art was well advanced;
thread, cordage, and even ropes of considerable weight were made with
a degree of uniformity and refinement that surprises us. The finest
threads with which I am acquainted are perhaps not as fine as our no.
10 ordinary spool cotton thread, but we are not justified in assuming
that more refined work was not done. What we have is only that which
happened to be preserved through burial with the dead or by impression
on the plastic surface of clay used in the arts.

The materials employed for spinning by the aborigines were greatly
diversified. Through historical as well as through purely archeologic
sources we learn that both vegetal and animal filaments and fibers were
freely used. The inner bark of the mulberry was a favorite material,
but other fibrou