348 



QYAN RACE NAMES 



[b. a. 



ftyan. The name of a place at the n. 

 point of Gray's harbor, coast of Wash- 

 ington (Gairdner, 1835, in Jour. Geog. 

 Soc. Lond., XI, 255, 1841). Unidentified. 



Rababou. See Rohhihoe. 



Rabbit Assiniboin. A small band of 

 Assiniboin living in 1829 in Assiniboia, 

 Canada, w. of the Red River band. — 

 Henry, Jour., ii, 522, 1897. 



Rabbit Lake Chippewa. A Chippewa 

 band on Rabbit lake, Minn. — Washington 

 treaty (1863) inU. S. Ind. Treat., 215, 1873. 



Rabbit stick. The flat, curved rabbit 

 club, puishkohu of the Hopi, often called 

 a boomerang, is not self- retrieving like the 

 Australian weapon, though it shares the 

 aeroplane nature of the latter; it is simi- 

 lar in form, but has not the delicate 

 curves shaped to cause a return flight. 

 Not all the Australian aeroplane clubs, 

 however, are self-retrieving, a property 

 probably discovered through practise 

 with sailing clubs. The Hopi rabbit 

 stick is delivered in the same way as the 

 Australian, and its course after it strikes 

 the ground often brings it to the right or 

 left of the throw'cr and nearer to him than 

 the farthest point reached in its flight. 

 It makes one or more revolutions in its 

 flight toward a rabbit, and if it does not 

 strike the animal directly, its rapid gyra- 

 tion when it touches the ground makes 

 probable the hitting of any object within 

 several feet. So far as is known this is 

 the only aeroplane club used in America. 

 The material is Gambell's oak [Quercus 

 gambelii), and a branch of the proper 

 curve is selected for its manufacture. 

 One end is cut out to form a handle, and 

 the club is usually varnished with resin 

 and painted with an invariable de.«ign in 

 black, red, and green. Of late years a 

 rabbit figure is frequently painted thereon. 

 The weapon has a religious significance, 

 probably arising from its use in cere- 

 monial rabbit hunts, and it is the symbol 

 of the sacred dance personage named 

 Makto, 'hunt.' 



The Gabrielenos of s. California used a 

 rabbit stick similar to that of the Hopi; 

 it was 2 ft in length in a straight line, 1} 

 in. across at the handle, and 1| in. across 

 at the broadest part, with an average 

 thickness of | in. It was made of hard 

 wood, and ornamented with markings 

 burnt in the surface. 



See Fewkes in 21st Rep. B. A. E., pi- 

 xlix, 1903; Dellenbaugh, North Amer- 

 icans of Yesterday, 270, 1901 ; Hoffman in 

 Bull. Essex Inst., xvii, 29, 1885; Parry in 

 Proc. Am. Asso. Adv. Sci. for 1872, 397- 

 400. (w. H.) 



Rabbit Trap. A Cherokee settlement in 

 upper Georgia about the time of the re- 

 moval of the tribe to the W. in 1 839. — Doc. 

 of 1799 quoted by Royce in 5th Rep. B. 

 A. E., 144, 1887. 



Raccoon. A well-known quadruped, 

 Procyon lotor, of the Ursidse, or bear 

 family, esteemed alike for its flesh and 

 its pelt, which was one of the skins used 

 bj-^the southern Indians for making their 

 loose winter mantles, or matchcoats. The 

 first mention of the name in a recogniz- 

 able form, that of arocoun, was made in 

 1610, and the second, in that of aroughcun, 

 in 1612. The animal, which is noctur- 

 nal in its habits, sleeps in the daytime in 

 some hollow tree (the sweet gum, Liguid- 

 ambar slyracifJua, in the S. ) during the 

 successive climbings of which to seek its 

 abode the sharp nails with which ita 

 forepaws are provided leave longscratches 

 upon the ]:)ark. Such a tree is hence 

 called by the Indians by a name signify- 

 ing 'raccoon tree.' It was from such tree- 

 scratching custom that the animal re- 

 ceived from the Virginia Indians the 

 name by which it is universally known 

 to English-speaking people, viz, drahm, 

 an apocopated form of drahmem, 'he 

 scratches with the hands.' The name is 

 sometimes applied in British Guiana to 

 the coatimondi (Xasuafiisca), and, along 

 with its apheretic form of ' coon ' ( which 

 also is a tmmorous name for a negro, and 

 in 1844 was a nickname applied to mem- 

 bers of the Whig party, that adopted 

 the raccoon as an emblem), enters into 

 several combinations, as, ' raccoon-berry,' 

 the fruit of Fodophyllum pchatnm and 

 Symphoricarpus racemosus, on which the 

 animal feeds; 'raccoon dog,' a kind of 

 dog {Nijcierentes procyonoides) of Japan 

 and China, and also a dog trained to hunt 

 raccoons; 'raccoon grape,' a species of 

 grape ( Vitis seslindis) of which the ani- 

 mal, and his relative the bear, are very 

 fond; 'raccoon (or coon) oyster,' a 

 small southern variety of the mollusk on 

 which the animal subsists when vege- 

 table food is scarce; 'raccoon perch,' 

 the yellow perch (^Perca flavescens), the 

 dark bands upon the sides of w^hich bear 

 a remote resemblance to those of a rac- 

 coon's tail; 'coon bear,' a large carni- 

 vore of Tibet, and 'coon-heel,' a name 

 in Connecticut for a long, slender oyster. 

 In the Presidential campaign of 1844, 

 ' Coonery ' was a derogative synonym for 

 Whiggery or Whiggism, meaning the doc- 

 trines of the Whig party. The animal has 

 the reputation of being very knowing; 

 hence the simile 'as sly as a coon,' and 

 the metaphor 'he is an old coon,' said of a 

 person who is very shrewd. Finally, 'to 

 coon ' is to creep, cling close, to creep as 

 a coon along a branch; a 'gone coon' 

 is a person whose case is hopeless, and a 

 'coon's age' is a southern figurative ex- 

 pression meaning a long time; while to 

 be ' as forlorn as an unmated coon ' is to 

 be extremely wretched. (w. h. g.) 



Race names. The names given to the 

 white man by the various Indian tribes 



