BOURKE. ] THE SCRATCH STICK. 491 
comb they [the men] have a small stick hanging by a string from one 
of the locks [of hair], which they employ to alleviate any itching or irri- 
tation in the head.”! 
The Tlinkit of British North America use these scratchers made 
of basalt or other stone. 
“The pipe-stem carrier (i. e., the carrier of the sacred or ‘medicine’ 
pipe) of the Crees, of British North America, dares not scratch his own 
head, without compromising his own dignity, without the intervention 
of a stick, which he always carries for that purpose.”? 
Bancroft® quotes Walker as saying that ‘‘ a Pima never touches his 
skin with his nails, but always with a small stick for that purpose, 
which he renews every fourth day and wears 1m his hair.” 
As part of the ceremony of “initiating youth into manhood” among 
the Creeks, the young neophyte “ during the twelve moons - + ° is 
also forbidden to pick his ears or scratch his head with his fingers, but 
must use a small splinter to perform these operations.”* The Apache- 
Yuma men carry in their hair ‘‘a slender stick or bone about 8 inches 
long, which serves them as a comb.” 
The idea that these scratch sticks replace combs is an erroneous one; 
Indians make combs in a peculiar way of separate pieces of wood, and 
they are also very fond of brushing their long locks with the coarse 
brushes, which they make of sacaton or other grass. 
“One other regulation, mentioned by Schomburgk, is certainly quaint; 
the interesting father may not scratch himself with his finger nails, but 
may use for this purpose a splinter, especially provided, from the mid- 
rib of a cokerite palm.” ° 
When a Greenlander is about to enter into conversation with the 
spirits ‘‘no one must stir, not so much as to scratch his head.”* 
In the New Hebrides most of the natives ‘‘ wear a thin stick or reed, 
about 9 inches long, in their hair, with which they occasionally disturb 
the vermin that abound in their heads.”* 
Alarcon, describing the tribes met on the Rio Colorado, in 1541, says: 
“They weare certaine pieces of Deeres bones fastened to their armes, 
wherewith they strike off the sweate.”° 
In German folk-lore there are many references to the practice in 
which the giants indulged frequently in scratching themselves, some- 
times as a signal to each other. Just what significance to attach to 
these stories I can not presume to say, as Grimm merely relates the fact 
without comment.” 
1 Voyages, p. 323. 
2Kane, Wanderings of an Artist in North America, p. 399. 
3Native Races, vol. 1, p. 553. 
4Hawkins, quoted by Gatschet, Migration Legend of the Creeks, Philadelphia, 1834, vol. 1, p. 185. 
5 Corbusier, in American Antiquarian, September, 1886, p. 279. 
6 Everard F. im Thurn, Indians of Guiana, p. 218. 
7Crantz, History of Greenland, London, 1767, vol. 1, pp. 210-211. 
8 Forster, Voyage Round the World, vol. 2, pp. 275, 288. 
®’Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 508. 
10 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 2, p. 544. 
