und each of these strands, feathers were rolled,
and the whole woven into a cloth of firm texture, after the
manner of our common coarse fabrics. This rug was about three
feet wide, and between six and seven feet in length. The
whole of the ligaments thus framed of bark were completely
covered with feathers, forming a body of about one eighth of
an inch in thickness, the feathers extending about one
quarter of an inch in length from the strand to which they
were confined. The appearance was highly diversified by
green, blue, yellow and black, presenting different shades of
colour when reflected upon by the light in different
positions. The next covering was an undressed deer skin,
around which was rolled, in good order, a plain shroud
manufactured after the same order as the one ornamented with
feathers. This article resembled very much in its texture the
bags generally used for the purpose of holding coffee
exported from Havanna to the United States. The female had in
her hand a fan formed of the tail feathers of a turkey. The
points of these feathers were curiously bound by a buckskin
string, well dressed, and were thus closely bound for about
one inch from the points. About three inches from the point
they were again bound, by another deer skin string, in such a
manner that the fan might be closed and expanded at pleasure.
* * *

The cave in which they were found, abounded in nitre,
copperas, alum, and salts. The whole of this covering, with
the baskets, was perfectly sound, without any marks of
decay.[51]

There was also a scoop net made of bark thread; a mockasin
made of the like materials; a mat of the same materials,
enveloping human bones, were found in saltpetre dirt, six
feet below the surface. The net and other things mouldered on
being exposed to the sun.[52]

In the year 1815 a remarkably interesting set of mortuary fabrics was
recovered from a saltpeter cave near Glasgow, Kentucky. A letter from
Samuel L. Mitchell, published by the American Antiquarian Society,
contains the following description of the condition of the human remains
and of the nature of its coverings:

The outer envelope of the body is a deer skin, probably dried
in the usual way, and perhaps softened before its
application, by rubbing. The next covering is a deer skin,
whose hair had been