he presence of these unworked materials makes it probable that the
individual burned was a female, for the distaff and the loom have been
and are universal emblems of the practical enslavement of that sex.

[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Border of bag.]

A small but very instructive group of burial fabrics is preserved in the
National Museum. These specimens were found with a desiccated body in
1877 in a cave 8 miles from Mammoth cave, Kentucky. They consist of a
number of bags and other articles woven in the usual styles of bast and
hemp. Nearly all of the articles are worn or fragmentary, but the fiber
is wonderfully preserved and the original colors are as fresh as if the
burial had taken place but yesterday. There are three wide-mouthed,
shallow bags, resembling the one from Tennessee illustrated in plate V.
The largest is 34 inches long when closed, and 15 inches deep. Both web
and woof are of bast. There is a border of open work bound by a plaited
band as seen in figure 8, and the manner of weaving is identical with
that shown in that figure. The second bag is 22 inches long and 16 deep.
The web is of bast, the woof of hemp. The smaller specimen is 14 by 9
inches and is made exclusively of hemp, and is thus much more pliable
than the others. The small remnant of a larger bag shows a web of heavy,
plaited bast strands resembling the specimen impressed on pottery and
shown in _a_, plate IX. Besides these pieces there is a bit of heavy,
compactly woven stuff, resembling the broad part of a sling, which shows
traces of a geometric pattern, and a piece of flattish rope 12 feet long
and 12 inches broad plaited very neatly of hempen twine.

Among a number of cave relics from Kentucky donated to the Museum by Mr.
Francis Klett, are some textile articles. Among these is a sandal or
moccasin woven or plaited very neatly of bast. It is shown in figure 9.
Prof. F. W. Putnam and other explorers of these caves have obtained
numerous textile articles of interest.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. V FRAYED
BAG AND SKEINS OF HEMP FIBER.]

CHARRED REMAINS OF FABRICS FROM MOUNDS.

That the well-preserved fabrics just illustrated represent fairly the
textile work of the mound-builders is practically demonstrated by the
evidence furnished by the mounds themselves. From hundreds of sources
come the same story; and it is not necessary here to enter into any
elaborate discussion of the subject or to multiply