Montezuma wore on his head “a _panache_ of plumes, ... the badge of military, rather than of regal rank.” And this is exactly what Montezuma was, a war-chief. But Prescott drew his material from the Spaniards, and where he describes what they saw, he is not, in all probability, far from the mark, although his language may be sometimes rather flowery. The feather-work was one of the remarkable products of the Aztecs. In an ornamental way it is still practised in Mexico, and the birds and other objects made from feathers exhibit a wonderful skill. Mantles of fur are mentioned as being used by the Aztecs, but these were probably constructed in much the same manner as the rabbit-skin robes of the Moki and the Pai Ute, that is, by twisting the skins into ropes and then tying them together. The cotton weaving was done on a loom similar to that now in use by the Navajos and the Pueblos. The feather-work was probably made in much the same way as that of Peru, specimens of which have been preserved in the tombs. The figure on page 137 shows the way the Peruvians attached the feathers to the cloth underground, but in many cases the feathers were woven in with the warp and woof, instead of being attached to the surface in this way. This use of feathers was not confined to any particular locality, but, like almost all the arts in use on the continent, was widely distributed. Turkey feathers were used in Virginia for this work, and in Louisiana the same bird was called upon. “The feather mantles,” writes Du Pratz in his history of Louisiana, “are made on a frame similar to that on which the peruke makers work hair; they spread the feathers in the same manner and fasten them on old fish-nets or old mantles of mulberry bark. They are placed, spread in this manner, one over the other and on both sides; for this purpose small turkey feathers are used; women who have feathers of swans or India ducks, which are white, make these feather mantles for women of high rank.”[114] Feather mantles of fine quality were also made by the Lenapé. Almost every Amerind tribe could make thread, cord, nets, mats, and some kind of woven stuff. The Mexicans, Mayas, and other tribes of the Central region excelled in these things, but the Pueblos, and Navajos, as we have seen, execute in modern times some admirable fabrics, which the Pueblos also constructed before the advent of the whites.