SwANTON] INiDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 321 



gether. Owing to the disappearance of game toward the east, their 

 hunting expeditions in Oklahoma came to be directed more and more 

 toward the west and were sometimes well rewarded, as one man is 

 said to have killed sometimes as many as 130 deer in a single season. 



BEAR HUNTING 



There are incidental notes regarding the use of bearskins by Elvas 

 and Garcilaso and mention by Elvas of "an abundance of butter in 

 gourds [among the Chiaha Indians], in melted form like olive oil," 

 which the inhabitants said was bear's grease (Robertson, 1933, p. 104). 

 Later writers make incidental mention of the same uses for the bear, 

 but it is surprising how few descriptions of bear hunting have 

 been preserved. A short note by Hariot, and accounts by Adair, 

 Dumont de Montigny, and Du Pratz are about all we have. Hariot 

 says: 



Beares . . . are all of black colour. The beares of this countrey are good 

 meat: the inhabitants in time of winter do vse to take & eate manie, so also 

 sometime did wee. They are taken commonlie in this sort. In some Hands 

 or places where they are, being hunted for, as soone as they haue spiall of a 

 man they presently run awaie, & then being chased they clime and get vp 

 the next tree, or with those wounds that they may after easily be killed; we 

 sometime shotte them downe with our caleeuers. (Hariot, 1893, p. 30.)" 



No one else mentions the hunting of bear except when they were 

 in their winter quarters, and, if the account just given is correct, it 

 may indicate a chase peculiar to the North Carolina coast. The 

 descriptions of Dumont and Du Pratz were derived from observa- 

 tions of hunting customs among the tribes of the lower Mississippi. 

 Both of these writers were particularly interested in the Natchez, 

 but the attention of the former was focused upon them less intently 

 than was that of Du Pratz. Dumont says : 



In this province of Louisiana instead of using caverns these animals choose 

 for their retreats hollow trees, and it may be observed that these domiciles 

 are raised more than 30 or 40 feet above the earth and two bears never lodge 

 there together. Towards the end of March or the first of April the females 

 bear their young before quitting their retreat. Then, in spite of their long 

 fast, they are not at all thin, and it is in this season that thte natives pay 

 them a visit, either to capture their cubs or make use of their fat. In order 

 to find them, they go through the woods looking for the imprint of this animal's 

 claws on the bark of the trees. When they have found one with these 

 marks, they do not rest content with this indication, but in order to make 

 the matter certain, they imitate the cry of a bear cub. The mother bear, 

 hearing the cry at the foot of her tree and thinking it is caused by one of 

 her little ones who has fallen to the ground, looks out of the hole and so 

 discloses her presence. Then the savages, sure of their prey, prepare to 

 dislodge her, but how is it to be accomplished? To uproot a big, tall tree or 



"A caleeuer or caliver was "a light kind of musket or harquebus" (Murray). 

 464735—46 ^22 



