246 BXJREiAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 187 



undergoing tanning were soaked in an infusion of this bark. Gar- 

 cilaso de la Vega is our sole authority for the employment of oak 

 bows. 



Locust wood is said to have been used sometimes in frames for 

 houses, and black locust was the favorite bowwood east of the 

 Mississippi. 



West of the Mississippi Osage-orange, the bois d'arc, was the great 

 bowwood. 



Sassafras wood was used for house frames, fire sticks, and some- 

 times for bows, and from it was made a deep yellow dye. 



House frames and bows were also made of cedar, while cedar bark 

 was employed in covering houses. 



House frames in Florida were made of palmetto {Sdbal palmetto) <f 

 and in the southern sections generally, palmetto leaves were widely 

 used as roof coverings. They were also employed in baskets and 

 panniers and even for clothing, while arrow points were made from 

 the harder sections. Whitf ord has identified the material of which a 

 Cherokee basket was made as palmetto. 



The largest canoes were of poplar, and poplar was used in the man- 

 ufacture of stools and the doors of houses ; also fire sticks were some- 

 times of this wood. 



Ash splints sometimes formed the tops of beds, and in Virginia there 

 is mention of ash leaves as an extemporized towel. 



Prickly ash is said to have been a favorite material for canoe poles. 



Slippery-elm bark was one of the sources for cordage, and threads 

 are said to have been obtained from it out of which textiles were 

 woven. 



Maple bark is mentioned as another source of cordage, and there are 

 at least two notices of a dye extracted from a variety of maple, appar- 

 ently the red maple, but said to be a dark purple dye. Maple was not 

 used in the manufacture of mortars, as it gave a bad taste to the flour. 



When beech trees were to be found, mortars were made from them. 



Fire sticks were sometimes of willow, and the Alabama made a deer 

 call out of the button willow. 



Elm wood was made into spoons and elm bark into canoes. 



Some of the bark canoes used in the northern interior of this sec- 

 tion were probably of birch, but most of these were made outside of it. 



From the box elder spoons were made. 



Wood of the tulip tree was employed for the same purpose. 



Another wood of which spoons were made was the sycamore. 



The seat of the litter in which the Great Sun of the Natchez was 

 carried about was covered with leaves of the "tulip laurel." 



The horse chestnut or buckeye was one of the main sources of fish 

 poison. According to some, the nuts were used ; according to others, 



