SWANTON] IN'DIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 343 



the buckeye, and this was the poison best known to the Alabama In- 

 dians who called it ayona, though I was told that it was the small 

 branches which they mashed up. Others, like Speck's Taskigi in- 

 formant, say the fruit was used. 



I obtained another account of fish "poisoning" as practiced among 

 the Creeks from Zach Cook, a Tukabahchee Indian : 



When a fishing party of this kind had been decided upon, a crowd 

 of people set out to dig roots of the devil's shoestring, and some miko 

 hoyanidja (red willow) was also obtained. The party was under 

 two leaders, and a medicine maker accompanied them. After the 

 medicines had been gathered, the managers appointed two boys to 

 assemble them and put some of the devil's shoestring in one pot and 

 miko hoyanidja in the other. A cane was then given to the medicine 

 maker, who blew through it into the medicines and repeated the usual 

 formulae, and every man drank a little of this and rubbed a little on 

 his face. If he did not, it was believed the fish would go down into 

 their holes and could not be caught. An old man was appointed to 

 watch this operation and make sure that everyone used the medicine. 

 The object of the medicine maker in this and later activities was to 

 make the fish drunk. If a medicine maker would not go with them, 

 they took their chances and painted their faces in the same manner 

 as when there had been a death. After the medicine had been taken, 

 posts were set in the water and devil's shoestring pounded up on the 

 tops of these by means of wooden mallets and allowed to fall into the 

 pool. A man was appointed to watch for the fish and report when 

 they began to float up to the surface. He took the first four fish to 

 the medicine man, and all had a grand feast on the remainder. Later, 

 they might move to another pond and do the same thing over again. 

 To season their fish they used a kind of mint called kaf u"tska. 



A Choctaw informant, Simpson Tubby, stated that in poisoning 

 fish his people used buckeye and devil's shoestring, but the last in 

 particular was very weak, and much stronger than either were the 

 berries of a certain plant which was identified for me as probably 

 CocGiilus carolinus. My informant asserted that the berries of this 

 last in places where it grows, if they happened to drop into the water, 

 would drive fish away. He added that, when his people poisoned 

 a pool, they cut down bushes and piled them about it to keep the stock 

 away and cautioned their people not to drink from it. 



Cook added that the Creeks sometimes dragged brush about in a 

 pool of water until it became so muddy that the fish came to the surface 

 for air, when they were shot with arrows or speared. Or sometimes 

 a dozen boys in a neighborhood would go down into the water and 

 scare the fish out of their holes so that they could be shot when they 

 came to the surface. When De Soto was traveling through certain 



