Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844 | Page 8

the body, except a wound between two
ribs near the back-bone; one of the eyes had also been injured. The
finger and toe nails were perfect and quite long. The features were
regular. I measured the length of one of the bones of the arm with a
string, from the elbow to the wrist joint, and they equalled my own in
length, viz: ten and a half inches. From the examination of the whole
frame, I judged the figure to be that of a very tall female, say five feet
ten inches in height. The body, at the time it was first discovered,
weighed but fourteen pounds, and was perfectly dry; on exposure to the
atmosphere, it gained in weight by absorbing dampness four pounds.
Many persons have expressed surprise that a human body of great size
should weigh so little, as many human skeletons of nothing but bone,
exceed this weight. Recently some experiments have been made in
Paris, which have demonstrated the fact of the human body being
reduced to ten pounds, by being exposed to a heated atmosphere for a

long period of time. The color of the skin was dark, not black; the flesh
was hard and dry upon the bones. At the side of the body lay a pair of
moccasins, a knapsack and an indispensable or reticule. I will describe
these in the order in which I have named them. The moccasins were
made of wove or knit bark, like the wrapper I have described. Around
the top there was a border to add strength and perhaps as an ornament.
These were of middling size, denoting feet of small size. The shape of
the moccasins differs but little from the deer-skin moccasins worn by
the Northern Indians. The knapsack was of wove or knit bark, with a
deep, strong border around the top, and was about the size of knapsacks
used by soldiers. The workmanship of it was neat, and such as would
do credit as a fabric, to a manufacturer of the present day. The reticule
was also made of knit or wove bark. The shape was much like a
horseman's valise, opening its whole length on the top. On the side of
the opening and a few inches from it, were two rows of hoops, one row
on each side. Two cords were fastened to one end of the reticule at the
top, which passed through the loop on one side and then on the other
side, the whole length, by which it was laced up and secured. The edges
of the top of the reticule were strengthened with deep fancy borders.
The articles contained in the knapsack and reticule were quite
numerous, and are as follows: one head cap, made of wove or knit bark,
without any border, and of the shape of the plainest night cap; seven
head-dresses made of the quills of large birds, and put together
somewhat in the same way that feather fans are made, except that the
pipes of the quills are not drawn to a point, but are spread out in
straight lines with the top. This was done by perforating the pipe of the
quill in two places and running two cords through these holes, and then
winding around the quills and the cord, fine thread, to fasten each quill
in the place designed for it. These cords extended some length beyond
the quills on each side, so that on placing the feathers erect on the head,
the cords could be tied together at the back of the head. This would
enable the wearer to present a beautiful display of feathers standing
erect and extending a distance above the head, and entirely surrounding
it. These were most splendid head dresses, and would be a magnificent
ornament to the head of a female at the present day,--several hundred
strings of beads; these consisted of very hard brown seed smaller than
hemp seed, in each of which a small hole had been made, and through

this hole a small three corded thread, similar in appearance and texture
to seine twine; these were tied up in bunches, as a merchant ties up
coral beads when he exposes them for sale. The red hoofs of fawns, on
a string supposed to be worn around the neck as a necklace. These
hoofs were about twenty in number, and may have been emblematic of
Innocence; the claw of an eagle, with a hole made in it, through which
a cord was passed, so that it could be worn pendent from the neck; the
jaw of a bear designed to be worn in the same manner as the eagle's
claw, and supplied with a cord to suspend it around the neck; two
rattlesnake-skins, one of these had fourteen rattles upon it, these were