SWANTONJ INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTEOflN UNITED STATES 249 



ANIMAL KINGDOM 



The most important food animal was the deer, and deerhide prob- 

 ably formed the most important single material entering into native 

 dress. One of the bones from a deer's foot was used to remove the 

 hair from skins. The head and neighboring parts were turned into 

 a decoy for stalking other members of the deer tribe. The ribs were 

 made into bracelets, part of the horn mounted on a club, and tips of 

 the horns formed one of the commonest types of arrow points. The 

 heads of drums were usually made by stretching a deer skin over a 

 pot, keg, or cypress knee. Balls used in the great southern ball 

 game were covered with deer hide, and the rattles which women 

 wore about their ankles in dances were sometimes made of the hoofs 

 of deer. Flutes or flageolets were sometimes made of the deer's 

 tibia. The sinews, skin, or entrails were employed as thread or string, 

 and bowstrings, fish nets, and the cords to fasten ballsticks together 

 were constructed by their means. According to Strachey, bows were 

 scraped by the use of a twisted deer hide. Parts of the horns and 

 bones were made into needles, and the brains were employed in 

 tanning skins. Ornaments were made from the horn, deer bones 

 were worn stuck through the hair in Florida, and toward the north 

 stained deer's hair was metamorphosed into crests for warriors. 

 Deer horn was also boiled to make glue, and glue was extracted 

 from deerskins to dilute coloring matter. 



The bear was probably the next most useful animal. It was 

 hunted for its flesh, but still more for its fat, which was preserved 

 in skins. Heavy winter robes and bed coverings were made of the 

 skins, and moccasins were also cut out of them. Thongs of twisted 

 bear guts were utilized as bow strings, and bows were sometimes 

 finished by dipping them in bear's oil. This oil was used constantly to 

 anoint the hair and indeed the entire body. Bear claws were thrust 

 through the ears as ornaments. 



In spite of the fact that bison disappeared from the Gulf region 

 rather rapidly in colonial times, they were formerly much relied 

 upon as raw material for many purposes, and a knowledge of many 

 of these has come down to us. The flesh was, of course, highly 

 prized as food and the skins as clothing and robes to sit upon or 

 throw over beds. Shields were also made of bison hide. The horns 

 were used as ornaments on headdresses, and they were worked into 

 dishes and spoons. The shoulder blade was used as a hoe and in 

 dressing skins. Bison hair was woven into cords with which the 

 native wooden boxes were tied together, and ribbons were made of 

 it which the women used in tying up their hair, and out of which 

 they made garters, belts, and other articles of adornment. 



