Note 200 — Chapter XIII

“Many of the women wear cloaks of the bark of the mulberry tree, or of the feathers of swans, turkies, or India ducks. The bark they take from young mulberry shoots that rise from the roots of trees that have been cut down; after it is dried in the sun, they beat it to make all the woody part fall off, and they give the threads that remain a second beating, after which they bleach them by exposing them to the dew. When they are well whitened, they spin them about the coarseness of packthread, and weave them in the following manner: they plant two stakes in the ground, about a yard and a half asunder, and having stretched a cord from the one to the other, they fasten their threads of bark double to this cord, and then interweave them in a curious manner into a cloak, of about a yard square, with a wrought border round the edges.” Du Pratz. Hist. Louisiana. p. 363. Lond. Ed.

According to Adair also, the Choctaws formed blankets of the smaller feathers of the turkey. “They twist the inner end of the feathers very fast into a strong double thread of hemp, or the inner bark of the mulberry tree, of the size and strength of coarse twine, and they work it in the manner of fine netting.” Adair’s History of the American Indians. p. 423.—Nuttall.