Flails of several shapes are found. These are from three to four feet long, and have one end wide and flat for a length of fifteen to eighteen inches. They were used for beating the yucca plant and cedar bark in making yarn or thread. Doubtless some of these wooden articles may have been used also for digging in the earth.
Two atlatls from this region have been described, one by Professor Otis T. Mason in 1892, and the second by the present writer in 1894. (See The Archæologist for November, 1894, “Prehistoric Man in Utah,” by Henry Montgomery.) The latter atlatl or throwing-stick had two loops of rawhide and a shallow groove upon it. There had been a piece broken off the upper part.
Wooden pipes were discovered in 1894, along with mummies and relics, in cave-house ruins in eastern Utah. These are nearly ovoid in shape; the passage is not curved or bent; and they have short bone stems cemented in position for use.
Textiles
Knitted and plaited articles occur.
Corn-sacks made of the fibre of the bark of the cedar tree have been obtained by me in the caves of some of the canyon Cliff-Dwellers.
Baskets, mats, and sandals, chiefly of yucca fibre, have been found with the bodies of half a dozen mummies and elsewhere in caves in eastern Utah. These show artistic skill in their manufacture. In January, February, and March, 1894, Mr. C. B. Lang made an important collection in three caves of San Juan County, Utah, which he asked the writer to examine at that time and to make report thereon to the scientific and other journals. With that end in view I made an examination and had a number of photographs of the collection made. Only a few of these were used in publication. Some of the remaining unpublished photographs are herein reproduced for the edification of our readers. (See Fig. 631, pair of leggings, and Fig. 634, birch bark.) Mr. George H. Pepper described a number of similar articles from other localities in Utah, and referred them to a distinct race or tribe to which he gave the name “basket-makers.” As sacks and mats of much the same character have been found by the writer in other caves along with the ordinary Cliff-Dweller’s artifacts and skeletons, the propriety of separating these people from the Cliff-Dwellers proper seems, for the present at least, somewhat doubtful.
Feather Objects
Robes and mantles or shawls made of the feathers of wild turkeys were also taken from cave-house ruins in eastern Utah. Several mummies were found clothed with such feather robes, and some wearing sandals of yucca fibre, and others having deerskin coverings upon their feet.