of articles of textile nature were more universally employed by
the aborigines than mats of split cane, rushes, and reeds, and our
information, derived from literature and from such remnants of the
articles themselves as have been recovered from graves and caves, is
quite full and satisfactory. Mats are not so varied in form and
character as are baskets, but their uses were greatly diversified; they
served for carpeting, seats, hangings, coverings, and wrappings, and
they were extensively employed in permanent house construction, and for
temporary or movable shelters. A few brief extracts will serve to
indicate their use in various classes of construction by the tribes
first encountered by the whites.

Hariot says that the houses of the Virginia Indians--

Are made of small poles made fast at the tops in rounde forme
after the maner as is vsed in many arbories in our gardens of
England, in most townes couered with barkes, and in some with
artificiall mattes made of long rushes; from the tops of the
houses downe to the ground.[17]

[Illustration: PL. I. PRODUCTS OF THE TEXTILE ART.

_a_, Openwork fish baskets of Virginia Indians; _b_, manner of weaving;
_c_, basket strainer; _d_, quiver of rushes; _e_, mat of rushes.]

It would appear from a study of the numerous illustrations of houses
given by this author that the mats so often referred to were identical
in construction with those still in use among the tribes of the upper
Mississippi and the far west. The rushes are laid close together side by
side and bound together at long intervals by cords intertwined across.
In _e_, plate I, is reproduced a small portion of a mat from Hariot's
engraving of the dead-house of the Virginia Indians, which shows this
method of construction.

The modern use of mats of this class in house construction is known by
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 from Sioux
City, Iowa.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Use of mats in an Indian council (after
Lafitau).]

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 sleep
on, or for use as seats or carpeting in meetings or councils of
ceremonious nature. The latter use is illustrated in a number of the
early accounts of the natives. Figur