Annual report of the Bureau of ethnology to the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution .. . nia, Thomas Hariot. p. 24. HOLMES] VARIOUS USES OF MATTING. 19 in construction with those still in use among the tribes of the upperMississippi and the far west. The rushes are laid close together sideby side and bound together at long intervals by cords intertwinedacross. In e, plate I, is reproduced a small portion of a mat from Har-iots engraving of the dead-house of the Virginia Indians, which showsthis method of construction. The modern use of mats of this class in house construction is knownby a
Annual report of the Bureau of ethnology to the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution .. . nia, Thomas Hariot. p. 24. HOLMES] VARIOUS USES OF MATTING. 19 in construction with those still in use among the tribes of the upperMississippi and the far west. The rushes are laid close together sideby side and bound together at long intervals by cords intertwinedacross. In e, plate I, is reproduced a small portion of a mat from Har-iots engraving of the dead-house of the Virginia Indians, which showsthis method of construction. The modern use of mats of this class in house construction is knownby an example which I have seen represented in a small photograph,taken about the year 1868, and representing a Chippewa village, situated somewhere in the upper Missouri valley, probably not far fromSioux City, Iowa. Mats were used not only in and about the dwellings of the aborigines,but it was a common practice to carry them from place to place to sleepon, or for use as seats or carpeting in meetings or councils of ceremoni-ous nature. The latter use is illustrated in a number of the early. Fig, 2.—Use of mats in an Endian council (after Lafitau). accounts of the natives. Figure 2, copied from Lafitau, serves to indi-cate the common practice. The omnipresent sweat-house of the aborigines is ilms described bySmith: Sometimes they are troubled with dropsies, swellings, aches, and such like diseases;for cure whereof they build a. Stone in t ho ) of a I >oue-house it h mats, bo closethai a few coales therein covered with a pi>t,, will make the patienl sweal Bartram, speaking of tbe Seminoles, states thai the wide steps lend-ing up to the canopied platform of the council house are covered withcarpets or mats, curiously woven f split canes dyed of various 1 a Brief and True account of the NVw Pound Land of Virginia, ThoinWilliam Bartram t Travels, «? t••. London, 1702, p. 302, Harlot p. 187 20 PREHISTORIC TEXTILE ART. |ETII. ANN. llj The use o
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