SwANTONj m'DIAN'S OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 315 



Only Romans describes the custom in the middle Gulf region, 

 among the Chickasaw and Choctaw: 



They (the Chickasaw) hunt like all their neighbours with the skin and 

 frontal bone of a deer's head, dried and stretched on elastic chips ; the horns 

 they scoup out very curiously, employing so much patience on this, that such 

 a head and antlers often do not exceed ten or twelve ounces; they fix this on 

 the left hand, and imitating the motions of the deer in sight, they decoy them 

 within sure shot. I cannot forbear to mention a merry accident on this occa- 

 sion ; a Choctaw Indian, who was hunting with one of these decoys on his 

 fist, saw a deer, and thinking to bring it to him, imitated the deer's motions 

 of feeding and looking around in a very natural way, another savage within 

 shot, mistaking the head for a real one, shot the ball through it, scarcely 

 missing the fingers of the first; the affair ended in fisty cuffs, but was not 

 is populous. (Lawson, 1860, p. 44; Catesby, 1731^3, vol. 2, p. xii.) 



Historians of the Natchez furnish us with two accounts. The 

 first is by Dumont de Montigny: 



When a savage has succeeded in killing a deer he first cuts off its head a3 

 far down as the shoulders. Then he skins the neck without cutting the skin, 

 and, having removed the bones and the flesh from it, he draws out all the 

 brains from the head. After this operation he replaces the bones of the neck 

 very neatly and fixes them in place with the aid of a wooden hoop and some 

 little sticks. Then he re-covers them with their skin, and having dried this 

 head partly in the shade and partly in the smoke, he thus has an entire deer's 

 head, which is very light, and which with its skin preserves also its hair, its 

 horns, and its ears. He carries it with him hung to his belt when he goes 

 hunting, and as soon as he perceives a bison or a deer he passes his right 

 hand into the neck of this deer, with which he conceals his face, and begins 

 to make the same kind of movements as the living animal would make. He 

 looks ahead, then turns the head rapidly from one side to the other. He lowers 

 it to browse on the grass and raises it immediately afterward. In fact, always 

 concealing his face with his head, he deceives by means of his gestures the 

 animal which he wishes to approach, and, if during this time it happens that 

 the animal stops to gaze at him, the savage, though he has his leg in the air 

 to move forward, stays it there, and has enough patience to remain in this 

 posture until the living animal, taking him for another animal of his species, 

 begins to approach him. Then the savage, seeing him within gunshot, lets the 

 deer head fall to the earth, passes his ready gun from his left hand to his right 

 with admirable skill and rapidity, shoots the animal, and kills it, for he rarely 

 misses it. (Dumont, 1753, pp. 150-151 ; Swanton, 1911, pp. 69-70.) 



Du Pratz's parallel narrative follows : 



The hunter who goes out alone provides himself for this purpose with the 

 dried head of a deer, the brain having been removed and the skin of the neck 

 left hanging to the head. This skin is provided with hoops made of cane 

 splints, which are kept in place by means of other splints lengthwise of the 

 skin so that the hand and arm can easily pass inside. Things being so ar- 

 ranged, the hunter goes into those parts where he thinks there are likely to be 

 deer and takes such precautions not to be discovered as he thinks necessary. 

 As soon as he sees one he approaches it with the step of a wolf, hiding him- 

 self behind one thicket after another until he is near enough to shoot it. But 

 if, before that, the deer shakes its head, which is a sign that it is going to 

 caper about and run away, the hunter, foreseeing his fancy, counterfeits this 



