SWANTONJ INDIANS OF THE S-OUTHEASTEKN UNITED STATES 245 



fences, rafts, litters, flageolets, counters, drills, and tubes through 

 which to blow into the medicines ; as pipes to blow the fire in burning 

 out mortars and in smoking; and sometimes a section was employed 

 to hold braids of the hair. 



Hickory was used in house frames, in backing for walls, as arrow 

 shafts, in making fishing crails and drags, and as firewood. From 

 it was obtained some of the punk used in kindling fires, and the bark 

 was employed in covering houses and making fires for burning pot- 

 tery. Pestles were made out of "red hickory," and the Choctaw say 

 they used white hickory or "switch hickory," which they cut in the 

 fall, in the manufacture of bows. 



The inner bark of the mulberry was employed as thread and rope, 

 in making textiles, nettings worn by girls, and netting for women's 

 hair. This was one of the sources of tinder along the lower Missis- 

 sippi; from the roots a yellow dye was obtained, and Lawson says 

 that of the "white mulberry" bows were sometimes made, perhaps 

 after the introduction of the white mulberry through Mexico. 



Walnuts supplied a dye widely used in basketry and an oil with 

 which the hair was anointed. 



From the sumac, according to one informant, a black dye was made ; 

 according to another, a yellow dye; and according to a third, yellow 

 and red dyes. It is said that berries of the common sumac were 

 rubbed in the hair, and, according to a Natchez informant, an in- 

 fusion of leaves of the Rhus truphydon was poured over pots to give 

 them a bluish tint. 



Cypress was the favorite wood for the manufacture of canoes. 

 Drums were made out of cypress knees. Split shingles and bark 

 from this tree were used as house coverings. At a place where a 

 limb had come out, punk was obtained to be used as tinder. 



We find pine employed in making house frames, canoes, frames 

 for skin boats or rafts, and bows. It was used for torches, especially 

 in fire-fishing, and as tinder; and houses were covered with its bark, 

 while pitch-pine soot was used in making tattoo marks. 



Bass bark was used in the manufacture of ropes and thread, some- 

 times including bowstrings. 



The wood of the black gum or tupelo gum was employed in making 

 drums, and gum wood was worked into dishes and spoons. 



Oak trees supplied the favorite firewood, and the four logs forming 

 the sacred fires of the Creeks were usually oak. Mortars were also 

 made of it. White oak withes formed the backing of wattle walls, 

 and they were employed in putting fish traps together, in the tops 

 of beds, and in the frames of leather boats. Sticks of this wood 

 were also used in kindling fires. White-oak bark was employed in 

 covering houses, while red-oak bark was used as a dye, and skins 



