bwanton] EARLY HISTOR"? OF THE CREEK INDIANS 73 
oasty, and disgustful. In the hunting season they are eager and indefatigable in 
pursuit of i heir prey; when thai is over, they indulge themselves in" a kind of brutal 
slumber, indolence, and ease. In their distant excursions they can endure hunger 
long, and carry little with them for their subsistence; but in days of plenty they are 
voracious as vultures. While dining in company with their chieftains we were 
astonished at the vast quantity of meat they devoured. Agriculture they leave to 
women, and consider it as an employment unworthy of a man: indeed they seem 
amazingly dead to tender passions, and treat their women like slaves, or beings of 
Inferior rank. Scolding, insults, quarrels, and complaints are seldom heard among 
them; on solemn oeeasions they are thoughtful, serious, and grave; yet I have seen 
them free, open, and merry at feasts and entertainments. In their common deport- 
ment towards each other they are respectful, peaceable, and inoffensive. Sudden 
anger is looked upon as ignominious and unbecoming, and, except in Liquor, they 
seldom differ with their neighbour, or even do him any harm or injury. As for riches 
they have none, nor covet any; and while they have plenty of provisions, they allow 
none to suffer through want : if they are successful in hunting, all their unfortunate or 
distressed friends share with them the common blessings of life. 1 
This description has importance, not as a moral evaluation of these 
people but as a set of impressions to be interpreted with due regard 
to the standards and ideals in the mind of the observer himself. 
Another writer says that bear grease was used on the hair to make it 
grow and at the same time kill the vermin. 2 Another says of their 
head hair that it was "tied in various ways, sometimes oyl'd and 
painted, stuck through with Feathers for Ornament or Gallantry," 
and he adds that they painted their faces "with different Figures of a 
red or Sanguine Colour." 3 Their clothing consisted of bear or deer 
skins dressed, it is said, "rather softer, though not so durable as ours 
in England." 4 They were sometimes ornamented with black and 
red checks. 5 Locke notes that they "dye their deer skins of excel- 
lent colours." 6 Pearls were obtained from the rivers, and they 
knew how to pierce them, but the process spoiled their value for 
European trade. They made little baskets of painted reeds/ and the 
French found the house of Ouade, which was, it is true, in the Guale 
country, "hung with feathers (plumasserie) of different colors, to 
the height of a pike." "Moreover upon the place where the king 
slept were white coverings woven in panels with clever artifice and 
edged about with a scarlet fringe." 8 These must have been either 
cane mats or else textiles made of mulberry bark or some similar 
material, like those fabricated throughout the south. The "panels" 
were probably the typical diagonal designs still to be seen on southern 
baskets. The French add that Ouade presented them with six 
pieces of his hangings made like little coverings. 9 
• HewatinCarroll, Hist. Colls. S. Car., i, pp. 65-66. 6 S. Car. Hist. Soc. Colls., v,p. 462. 
'Carroll, op. cit., u, pp. 723. ■ Carroll, op. eit ., n, pp. 80-81. 
Ibid , p. 73. « Laudonniere, Hist. Not. do la Floride, p. 48. 
1 Ibid., p. SO. > [bid., p. 4'J. 
[bid., pp. 80-81. 
