The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-12-02
INDIAN BABIES CRADLES.
Mode of Wrapping Up the Little Red
skins So That They Thrive.

skins So That They Thrive.
Fancy tiny coDper-colered pap
pooso buckled up snugly in queer
buckskin bag that resembles nothing
in nature SO much as the cosey cocoon
cradle of a baby butterfly, and then
draw upon your imagination still fur
Their. picturing this odd receptacle
swinging from the leafy canopy Of an
Indian wickiuD or brush arbor, and
you have before you an Indian baby
and his wonderful cradle, sas the Los
Angeles Times.
Gorgeous yellow butterflies and
brown Kiowa babies are seldom linked
together in song or story, yet in real
life their wrappings, while in the chry-
sails state. bear a remarkable resem-
blance to each other.
The cocoon cradle proper and it's
various notifications as found among
the different tribes Of North American
Indians are constructed from the skins
OF animals. And right here we may
pause and trace the orioin of another
famous nursery rhyme to the Indian
cocoon cradle For did not the father
of Baby Bunting go a-hunting to get
G little rabbits skin to wrap that
mythical baby in? All full-blood XII
owa babies are born into the Pho-li-yo-
We, or Rabbit Circle. and are taught
to dance in the mysterious Circle Of
Rabbits as soon as they learn to tod
die. belonging to the Rabbit Order Of
the Kiowa sOldiery.
Hence rabbit skin would be o
very appropriate wrapping for XII
owa Baby Bunting, though neither
largo enough nor strong enough for
his cradle. The red deer Of the for
est, quarry of the red-skinned hunter,
gives of his beautiful covering to make
the cradle that is to swing from the
treetop, literally treetops, cut from the
cottonwoods and elms that fringe the
clear little streams ripping through
the Kiowa reservation. and piled high
on framework of poles, to serve as
summer parlor' in front Of his faith
er's tepee.
The crude deer hide is carefully
dressed by a tedious ard secret proc
ess known only to these Indians, and
when finished is as soft and plant as
the most expensive chamois skin.
Then loving fingers skilfully embroid-
er with cuills beautiful beadwork de-
signs upon the delicately tinted deer
skin. Kiowa cradles are more orna-
mental than those Of other tribes, and
KSowa sQuaws excel in that marvellous
Indian beadworll now the popular fad
OF their Daleface sisters. Some of
Of this beadwork embroidery is not
only very beautiful, but very elaborate.
The Sioux squaws, who alone rival
their Kiowa sisters, ornament the era
deerskin, upon which are wrought, in
colored beads, gorgeous patterns OF
men. horses, birds, fish and flowers.
Instead of a wooden framework they
substitute basketwork frame Of |
reeds and sometimes they use seed |
and grasses instead of beads.
The Cheyenne, Apache and Conan
che Indians all use cocoon cradles,
patterned after the Kiowa cradles, but
theirs are not ornamented as elabor-
ately es those Of the Kiowas In
truth, the grim and warlike Comanche
OF the plains wastes very little time in
decorating the receptacle of his off.
spring. A stout piece of deerskin, |
fastened to an equally stout wooden |
frame and laced up securely with raw
hide thongs, sufices his simple need.