624 swanton: catawba notes 



• Spoons, long trays, and other dishes were made of wood from 

 the dogwood and cedar trees. Pipes were of pottery or stone, 

 stone working having been a native industry as well as working 

 in clay. John Brown can make bone and flint arrow points 

 with one or more barbs, but I do not think he has acquired his 

 knowledge from the Indians, or at least from those of his own 



tribe. 



In making baskets they used the following dyes: (1) a red 

 dye from a plant called in Catawba wayuk, popularly "coon 

 roots;" (2) another red dye from the '4'ed root," Catawba tak- 

 tuwia; (3) a yellow dye from a plant called ItT wiye", '^ yellow 

 root;" and (4) black from the black walnut. There were prob- 

 ably others which have been forgotten. 



The ancient dress seems to have been practically identical 

 with that of other southeastern Indians. Margaret Brown 

 said she had seen aprons in use made of large hickory leaves 

 pinned together with broomstraw. Small knit caps or hoods for 

 children were fabricated out of the inside bark of the slippery 

 ehii, but nothing seems to be remembered about the old mul- 

 berry-bark textiles. It is, however, recalled that little bags of 

 sand were placed on the foreheads of infants to give them "a. 

 heap of sense," an evident reminiscence of the ancient custom of 

 head-flattening. Adult Indians made a hair-wash out of the 

 red sap from broken stems of young grapes. 



The Catawba had white, yellow, and blue corn, strawberry 

 corn — corn striped red all over — and popcorn. Which of these 

 were truly aboriginal it would be impossible to say. The old 

 native beans (I'^ye nuntce) are said to have been of the size of 

 lima beans, colored black with white spots. The native tobacco 

 is reputed to have been about 4 feet high but with broad leaves. 

 It is thought that the "sow weed" {Oxalis violacea), called by 

 the Catawba nupai°tare, was sometimes smoked. Like all of 

 the other southeastern Indians the Catawba pounded their corn 

 into meal in a wooden mortar, usually of hickory. The inside 

 was lined with tacks to keep the wood from fraying out and 

 leaving splinters in the meal. To take off the outer skin of the 

 corn they put it into a pot over the fire along with wood ashes. 



