324 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



the torch stand at the cave's mouth and wave his torch back and 

 forth there until the bear was located, when his companion shot it. 

 If the bear made a break past them, they usually succeeded in killing 

 it outside. Sometimes a bear was shot in the open by a kind of 

 surround, several men driving the animal toward a hunter so sta- 

 tioned as to have a good shot at it. 



It will have been noted that, in Adair's description, mention is 

 made of the use of dogs. My Alabama informant stated that his 

 people sometimes chased bears with dogs until they turned to bay 

 or climbed a tree. He also stated that dogs were employed in hunting 

 deer and rabbits, while the Creeks used them in hunting squirrels, 

 opossums, and raccoons. In many Southeastern myths dogs appear 

 as the assistants of human beings in hunting wild animals, but 

 there are few references to this in the narratives of explorers, and 

 some writers say that dogs were not employed at all. Such uses of 

 them may have occurred sporadically or as the result of white contact. 



For Caddo bear hunting, see S wanton (1942, p. 137). 



BISON HUNTING 



A game animal next in importance to the deer and bear, in some 

 places probably of more importance, was the bison. Our information 

 regarding the economic status of this animal in the lives of the 

 Southeastern tribes is very perplexing because the animal is often 

 represented as if well known and commonly hunted, and indeed 

 mention is made of herds consisting of thousands of individuals, yet 

 few herds were actually seen by Europeans in this section and there 

 are comparatively few notices of encounters with them. This cannot 

 be attributed entirely to destruction occasioned by the whites, because 

 De Soto and his followers had the same experience. Only as his 

 army approached the Plains, some distance west of the Mississippi, 

 did he find indications of bison in any considerable numbers. It will 

 be of interest to note the references to this animal in various parts 

 of the Gulf area. 



Garcilaso reports that the Spaniards with De Soto found "cow 

 horns" at a town near Savannah River, and he adds : 



They were unable to learn where the Indians could have got these, because 

 in all the places these Spaniards went in La Florida they never found cattle, 

 and though it is true that in some places they found fresh beef they never 

 saw the cattle, nor were they able by cajolery or threats to get the Indians 

 to tell them where they were. (Garcilaso, 1723, p. 121.) 



Ran] el saw "breastplates and head-pieces of rawhide" in the temple 

 of Talimeco near the present Augusta, Ga. When the army was at 

 Chiaha on the Tennessee River, two messengers sent toward the 

 north returned with a cowskin as soft as the skin of a kid. (Bourne, 



