BUSHNELL} THE CHOCTAW OF BAYOU LACOMB, LOUISIANA 13 



clay and carbonized by the intense heat. This process causes the 

 pottery to turn black and also adds a certain luster to the surface. 



Herein probably is to be found the explanation of the origin of the 

 rich black ware obtained from mounds and burials in Louisiana and 

 Mississippi. 



The use of white clay by the Choctaw is in harmony with a state- 

 ment made by Lawson "• concerning the Indians of Carolina, about 

 the year 1690: "Where they find a vein of white clay, fit for their 

 purpose, [they] make tobacco pipes." 



The Choctaw have a strange superstitious belief in connection with 

 the making of pottery. They say that no person except the one 

 who is making the object should see it until after it has been removed 

 from the fire. If another person chances to look on an object wliile 

 it is being made or before it is burned, the Choctaw believe that it 

 will crack as soon as placed near the fire. 



Pottery bowls are no longer made, although they are remembered 

 by the living Indians, who recall having seen bowls provided with 

 three small feet; consequently bowls must have been in use only a 

 short time ago. 



HORN 



Spoons are made by the Choctaw from cow horns 

 (wok lape'she sti'm/pa; literally, 

 cow horn spoon) , 



Two good examples are represented in plate 14. 



In describing the manners and customs of the Choctaw, Adair ^ 

 alluded to "their wooden dishes, and spoons made of wood and 

 buffalo horn;" consequently the making of spoons is a continuation of 

 an ancient art. 



BASKETS 



The Choctaw are excellent basket makers, although their work at 

 the present time is greatly inferior to that of a generation ago. The 

 best baskets are made of narrow strips of cane, Arundinaria macro- 

 Sferma (Choctaw, uske), though now, at Bayou Lacomb, they are 

 using the stems of palmetto, Serrenoa serrulata (Choctaw, tala), as 

 cane is no longer found near-by, and to obtain it a journey has to be 

 made to Pearl river, some fifteen or twenty miles away. 



The baskets now made, with few exceptions, are very crude and 

 rather poorly formed. Brilliant aniline d3^es are used in the place 

 of the more subdued native colors. Large numbers of small baskets 

 provided with handles are made and exchanged in the stores of the 

 near-by towns for various goods; these are purchased by strangers 

 and taken away as examples of native art. 



a The History of Carolina, London, 1714; reprint, 338, Raleigli, 1860. 

 b James Adair, History of tho American Indians. . . 421, London, 1775. 



