iiVLL. 30] 



TRAMASQUE A.C TRAPS 



801 



and Buffalo on the lakes. Farther s. 

 was the "trading" path from Richmond 

 to the Cherokee country. Two roads led 

 to the W., one down the Ohio, the other 

 through the Wilderness by way of Cum- 

 berland gap. The great highway leading 

 from Cumberland gap to the mouth of 

 the Scioto was known as the Warriors' 

 Path. The road from Philadelphia to 

 Kentucky by Cumberland gap was nearly 

 800 m. in length. Daniel Boone crossed 

 the mountains by following up the Yad- 

 kin to its headwaters, thence down the 

 mountains bj' easy grade to the W. 

 The Indian road, by the treaty of Lancas- 

 ter, ran from the Yadkin, crossed the 

 headwaters of the James, thence down 

 the Shenandoah, across the Potomac, 

 thence to Philadelphia by way of York 

 and Lancaster, a distance of 435 m. No 

 wagon passed by the Wilderness road, 

 which extended westward through Ken- 

 tucky, Indiana, and Illinois, before 1795. 

 The white man, whether hunter, trader, 

 or settler, blazed the trees along the In- 

 dian trails in order that seasonal changes 

 might not mislead him should he return. 

 The winter trails of the N. were over the 

 frozen rivers or lakes or along paths made 

 by snowshoes and sleds, which packed 

 the snow solidly. These trails of the In- 

 dians, first followed by the trapper and 

 trader, were later used by the missionary, 

 the hunter, the soldier, and the colonist 

 in their conquest of the wilderness. 

 See Commerce, Fur trade, Trading posts, 

 Travel, and the authorities thereunder 

 cited. (j. D. M.) 



Tramasqaeac (contr. of Renape Tera- 

 maskekok, ' people of the white-cedar 

 swamps.' The white cedar (Renape, te- 

 arar) referred to is Chamarcyparis spharoi- 

 dea, which grows in swamps from Maine 

 to Florida. — Gerard). A Secotan village 

 in 1585 on Alligator r., Tyrrell co., N. C. 

 Tamasqueac— Smith (1629). Va., I, map, repr. 

 1819. Tramasquecook.— Dutch map (1621) in 

 N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist., I, 1856. 



Transportation. See Boats, Commerce, 

 Trails and Trade Routes, Travel. 



Traps. Although devices for inducing 

 animals to effect self-imprisonment, self- 

 arrest, or suicide differ from hunting 

 weapons in that the victim is the active 

 agent, the two classes merge into each 

 other. The Indians had land, water, and 

 air traps, and these acted by tension, 

 ratchet, gravity, spring, point, or blade. 

 They were self-set, ever-set, victim-set, 

 or man-set, and were released, when nec- 

 essary, either by the hunter out of sight 

 or by the victim. The following list em- 

 braces all varieties of traps used by In- 

 dians N. of Mexico, and they were 

 very clever in making them effective 

 without the use of metal: A. Inclosing 



3456— Bull. 30, pt 2—07 51 



traps: (a) pen, (b) cage, (c) pit, {d) 

 door; B. Arresting traps: {e) meshes, 

 (f) hooks, (g) nooses, (/;) clutches; C. 

 Killing traps: (*') weights, {k) piercers, 

 (/) knives. Pen traps were of the sim- 

 plest kinds — dams placed in the water or 

 stockades on land. Some of these were 

 immense, covering many sijuare miles. 

 The cage was merely a pen for flying 

 creatures. Doors or gates for this whole 

 class were vertical shutters sliding be- 

 tween stakes and set free by some kind 

 of latch or trigger. Arresting traps were 

 all designed to take the place of the 

 human hand. Meshes were the opened 

 fingers; hooks, the bent forefinger; nooses, 

 the encircling closed fingers; the clutch, 

 the grasping hand. Killing traps were 

 weapons acting automatically. They 

 were complex, consisting of the working 

 part and the mechanism of setting and 

 release. The Eskimo and Indian devices 

 were of the simplest character, but very 

 effective with unwary game. The victim 

 was caught in a pound, deadfall, cage, 

 hole, box, toil, noose, or jaw; or upon a 

 hook, gorge, pale, knife, or the like. 

 The Indian 

 placed an un- 

 stable prop, 

 catch, or fas- 

 tening, to be re- 

 leased in pass- 

 ing, curiously 

 prying, gnaw- 

 ing, rubbing, 

 or even in di- 

 gesting, as 

 when the Eskimo doubled up a skewer of 

 baleen, inclosed in frozen fat, and threw 

 it in the snow for the bear to swallow. 

 Inclosing traps were common on land and 

 in waters abounding in fish. Parry de- 

 scribes traps of ice with doors of the same 

 material. The tribes of California and of 

 the plains dug pits and covered them with 

 brash on which a dead rabbit was tied, and 

 the hunter concealed beneath grasped the 

 bird by the feet, dragged it below, and 

 crushed it between his knees. Arresting 

 traps were most common, working by 

 meshes, barbs, nooses, or by means of 

 manual seizure. The aborigines were 

 familiar with the gill net, trawl lines, 

 gorge hook, snares, springs, trawl snares, 

 and birdlime. Killing traps included 

 ice, stone, and log deadfalls for crush- 

 ing, impaling devices, and set knives for 

 braining or for inciting mutual slaughter, 

 the object of perhaps the most ingenious 

 and efficient of Indian traps, consisting 

 of a sharp blade inclosed in frozen fat, 

 which was set up in the path of wolves. 

 When a wolf in licking the fat cut its 

 tongue the smell of blood infuriated the 



ESKIMO WOLF TRAP. (nELSOn) 



