318 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHXOLOCIY [Boll. 137 



Leaves were fallen, and so dry, that they wou'd burn; and being come to the 

 Place design'd, they wou'd Fire the Woods, in a Circle of Five or Six Miles 

 Compass; and when they had compleated the first Round, they retreated in- 

 ward, each at his due Distance, and put Fire to the Leaves and Grass afresh, 

 to accelerate the Work, which ought to be finished with the Day. This they 

 repeat, till the Circle be so contracted, that they can see their Game herded 

 all together in the Middle, panting and almost stifled with Heat and Smoak ; for 

 the poor Creatures being frighten'd at the Flame, keep running continually 

 round, thinking to run from it, and dare not pass through the Fire; by which 

 Means they are brought at last into a very narrow Compass. Then the Indians 

 let flie their Arrows at them, and (which is very strange) tho' they stand all 

 round quite clouded in Smoak, yet they rarely shoot each other. By this 

 means they destroy all the Beasts, collected within that Circle. They make 

 all this Slaughter only for the sake of the Skins, leaving the Carcases to 

 perish in the Woods. (Beverley, 1705, bk. 2, p. 39.) 



Spelman contributes the following: 



Ther maner of ther Huntinge is thiss wher they meett sum 2 or 300 togither 

 and hauinge ther bowes and arrows and euery one with a fier sticke in ther 

 hand they besett a great thikett round about which y** Deare seinge fleeth from 

 y* fier, and the menn comminge in by a litell and litle incloseth ther game in 

 a narrow roome, so as with ther Bowes and arrowes they kill them at ther 

 pleasuer takinge ther skinns which is the greatest thinge they desier, and sume 

 flesh for their prouision. ( Spelman in Smith, 1884, Arber ed., p. cvii. ) 



Possibly the slaughter of animals merely for their skins, as related 

 by Beverley, is to be laid to the door of the white man and was one 

 result of the stimulation of trade in furs which followed upon their 

 advent. This seems to be confirmed by Lawson, whose account 

 follows : 



When these savages go a hunting, they commonly go out in great numbers, 

 and oftentimes a great many days' journey from home, beginning at the coming 

 in of the winter; that is, when the leaves are fallen from the trees and are 

 become dry. Tis then they burn the woods by setting fire to the leaves and 

 withered bent and grass, which they do with a match made of the black-moss 

 that hangs on the trees in Carolina, and is sometimes above six feet long. This, 

 when dead, becomes black, though of an ash color before, and will then hold fire 

 as well as the best match we have in Europe. In places where this moss is not 

 found, as towards the mountains, they make lintels of the bark of cypress beaten, 

 which serve as well. Thus they go and fire the woods for many miles, and drive 

 the deer and other game into small necks of land and isthmuses where they kill 



and destroy what they please Here it is that they get their compliment 



of deer skins and furs to trade with the English (the deer skins being in season 

 in winter which is contrary to England). (Lawson, 1860, pp. 335-336.) 



Lawson (1860, p. 25) also discovered the Sewee Indians engaged in 

 a deer drive in January by firing the canes, and Catesby enlarges upon 

 this as a custom presumably shared by most of the Siouan Indians 

 at least : 



Their annual custom of fire hunting is usually in October. At this sport 

 associate some hundreds of Indians, who, spreading themselves in length through 

 a great extent of country, set the woods on fire, which with the assistance of 

 the wind is driven to some peninsula, or neck of land, into which deers, bears. 



