The decayed cloth, the fragments of skins and the curious, fine silt, usually about a handful, lying around copper objects, indicate that they were at one time carefully wrapped up. If we had preserved to us some of these wrappings, not a little light might be shed on the use of the more highly developed copper problematical forms in the United States. I am indebted to the directors of the Milwaukee Public Museum for making illustrations of the finest copper objects in their collections: Figs. 574, 579, 582–89, 595, 597, 599, 602, 605, 613. CHAPTER XXXI TEXTILE FABRICS It would be comparatively easy for one to write a lengthy chapter upon textile fabrics. But because of the limited space now at my disposal and for the further reason that “The Stone Age” is purposely restricted chiefly to descriptions of art in stone rather than in fabrics, this chapter must necessarily be brief. It is unfortunate that almost none of the fabrics of prehistoric times, made use of by the natives of that period, are in existence to-day, and aside from pieces of mats and here and there a bit of cloth from the dry caves of Kentucky and the Ozark Mountains, there is nothing in our museums to give a clue as to the nature and material of the garments, robes, blankets, etc. We are dependent chiefly on history for our knowledge of the use of textile fabrics. But in the Southwest the aridity of the climate, together with the fact that the walls of the cliff-houses kept out the occasional rains, and that the sands of the desert drifting over the ruined pueblos, worked in harmony to preserve a goodly number of fragments of textile fabrics. Some of these are in the American Museum, New York City, others in Washington, Denver, and Philadelphia museums. All are of great interest and were made use of by stone-age man. The copper plates found in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley sometimes contain impressions of cloth and other fabrics. There are occasionally bits of charred cloth, found in altars or ash-pits or between copper plates. Professors Holmes, Mills, Putnam, and others have described these in various reports. An inspection of the material illustrated in this chapter will acquaint readers with the fact that the natives of Kentucky made use of various plants, the favorite of which is the ordinary flag, for the manufacture of baskets, sandals, etc. In the Southwest, desert plants, such as the yucca, possessing elasticity and strength, were employed for a multitude of purposes. Could we have preserved for our inspection the textile fabrics made use of in the Mississippi Valley, we doubtless should observe that primitive man in this great region employed utensils, garments, weapons, tools, and other things made of perishable material. [Illustration: FIG. 625. (S. 1–4 to 1–5.) Sandals from Salts Cave, made of bark and wild hemp. Collection of Bennett H. Young, Louisville, Kentucky. ]