ers of the caciques, were
obtained from the bark of the young mulberry shoots beaten into small
fibres, then bleached and twisted or spun into threads of a convenient
size for weaving, which was done in a very simple manner by driving
small stakes into the ground, stretching a warp across from one to
another, then inserting the weft by using the fingers instead of a
shuttle. By this tedious process they made very beautiful shawls and
mantillas, with figured borders of most exquisite patterns."

"They must have been very industrious, I think," said Elsie.

"Yes," assented her grandmother. "The weavers I presume were women;
but the men also seem to have been industrious, for they manufactured
articles of gold, silver, and copper. None of iron, however. Some of
their axes, hatchets, and weapons of war were made of copper, and
they, like the Peruvians, possessed the art of imparting a temper to
that metal which made it nearly equal to iron for the manufacture of
edge tools. The Peruvians, it is said, used an alloy of copper and tin
for such purposes; and that might perhaps be harder than brass, which
is composed chiefly of copper and zinc."

"Had they good houses to live in, grandma?" asked Ned.

"Yes," she replied; "even those of the common people were much better
than the log huts of our Western settlers, or the turf-built shanties
of the Irish peasantry. Some were thirty feet square and contained
several rooms each, and some had cellars in which the people stored
their grain. The houses of the caciques were built on mounds or
terraces, and sometimes had porticos, and the walls of some were hung
with prepared buckskin which resembled tapestry, while others had
carpets of the same material. Some of their temples had sculptured
ornaments. A Portuguese gentleman tells of one on the roof or cupola
of a temple which was a carved bird with gilded eyes.

"The religion of the Natchez resembled that of the Peruvians; they
worshipped the sun as the source of light and heat, or a symbol of the
divine goodness and wisdom. They believed in the immortality of the
human soul and in future rewards and punishments; in the existence of
a supreme and omnipotent Deity called the Great Spirit and also in an
evil spirit of inferior power, who was supposed to govern the seasons
and control the elements. They seem not to have been image-worshippers
until the Spaniards made them such. Their government was despotic, but
not tyrannical. They w