SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 317 



the palm of the hand over the opening of the horn. Much individual skill is 

 shown by the hunters in using this instrument. ( Speck, 1909, p. 23 and his fig. 5. ) 



My informants also remembered this style of hunting. They said 

 that, as it was usually undertaken in October or November when the 

 bucks seek the does or seek each other to fight, either the head of a 

 buck or the head of a doe could be used. Wonderful skill was claimed 

 for some hunters. One is said to have deceived a panther, while 

 another very young hunter was clever enough to "take in" a man of 

 age and experience. 



A deer call was used in spring to imitate the cry of a fawn and 

 entice does within gunshot. It was made of two pieces of button 

 willow, round in cross section. The extreme end was covered with a 

 piece of silver in which was a sort of pin with a knob at the end made 

 of cane. It is claimed that, at times, a wildcat, panther, wolf, fox, or 

 even a snake would be attracted by it. 



Adair (1775, p. 402) says that in rambling through the woods in 

 search of deer they would "frequently walk twenty-five or thirty miles 

 through rough and smooth grounds, and fasting, before they return 

 back to camp, loaded." But they brought back the spoils of the chase 

 only when it was impossible to send their wives after them. When it 

 was necessary to carry the deer some distance, they used two bison 

 hide or rawhide straps about 2 inches wide, one of which passed over 

 the forehead and the other around the chest. 



It is rumored that deer were occasionally hunted with spears, but 

 there is little to substantiate the claim. 



For descriptions of deer stalking among the Caddo, see Swanton 

 (1942, pp. 135-136). 



The communal method of hunting, by surrounds, is described by 

 the Virginia writers and Lawson, while Du Pratz tells us of a 

 Natchez "sport" strongly resembling a surround. We will begin 

 with Smith : 



At their huntings in the deserts they are commonly 2 or 300 together. Hav- 

 ing found the Deare, they environ them with many fires and betwixt the 

 fires they place themselves. And some take their stands in the midst. The 

 Deare being thus feared by the fires and their voices, they chace them 

 so long within that circle, that many times they kill 6, 8, 10, or 15 at a hunt- 

 ing. They use also to drive them into some narrowe point of land, when 

 they find that advantage, and so force them into the river, where with their 

 boats they have Ambuscadoes to kill them. When they have shot a Deare by 

 land, they follow him like blood hounds by the blood and straiue, and oftentimes 

 so take them. (Smith, Tyler ed., 1907, p. 104.) 



Strachey parallel's the above, but Beverley amplifies considerably, 

 and his remarks are probably based on information drawn from a 

 wider geographical area : 



But they had a better Way of killing the Elks, Buffaloes, Deer, and greater 

 Game, by a Method which we call Fire-Hunting. That is, a Company of 

 them wou'd go together back into the Woods, any time in the Winter, when the 



