Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/434

 422 General Obfervations on

doft thou equal the brave actions of the ScipiosJ If not, thou art a dif- -grace to them ; their virtue would renounce thee, and fhould make thee afhamed to own them.

Formerly, the Indians made very handfome carpets. They have .a wild hemp that grows about fix feet high, in open, rich, level lands, and which ufually ripens in July : it is plenty on our frontier fettlernents. When it is fit for ufe, they pull, fleep, peel, and beat it; and the old women fpin it off the diftaffs, with wooden machines, having fome clay on the middle of them, to haften the motion. When the coarfe thread is prepared, they put it into a frame about fix feet fquare, and inftead of a fhuttle, they thruft through the thread with a long cane, having a large firing through the web, which they fhift at every fecond courfe of the thread. When they have thus finilhed their arduous labour, they paint each fide of the carpet with fuch figures, of various colours, as their fruitful imaginations devife; particularly the images of thofe birds and beafts they are acquainted with; and likewife of them- felves, acting in their focial, and martial ftations. There is that due pro portion, and fo much wild variety in the defign, that would really ftrike a curious eye with pleafure and admiration. J. W t, Efq-, a moft fkilful linguift in the Mufkohge dialed, affures me, that time out of mind they pa(Ted the woof with a fhuttle ; and they have a couple of threddles, which they move with the hand fo as to enable them to make good difpatch, fomething after our manner of weaving. This is fufficiently confirmed by their method of working broad garters, fames, mot-pouches, broad belts, and the like, which are decorated all over with beautiful flripes and chequers. Probably, their method of weaving is fimilar to the prac tice of the eaftern nations, when they came from thence, during the in fant ftate of arts and fciences. People who were forced to get their daily bread in the extenfive defarts with their bows and arrows, and by gathering .herbs, roots, and nuts, would not be fond of making new experiments, but for the neceflities of common life ; and certainly they would not have chofen a more troublefome method of clothing themfelves, if they knew an eafier and quicker manner of effecting it whoever knows any thing of an Indian, will not accufe him of that fin.

The

�� �