SwANTON] INDIANS OP THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 375 



up into chunks somewhat larger than baseballs. Withes or sticks 

 were passed through these and they were placed over a fire until nearly- 

 cooked, by which time the meat had shrunk to about the size of a base- 

 ball. It had also shrunk away from the stick leaving a large hole, 

 and by means of these holes a great many such chunks of meat were 

 strung together for transportation. The meat of 10 deer was all that 

 could be gotten upon 1 horse. Bartram (1909, pp. 242-243) men- 

 tions meeting an Indian family having horses loaded down with meat 

 so prepared. If a hunter had no ponies, he and his family, according 

 to another informant, could carry home from 300 to 500 pounds of 

 meat. 



Charlie Thompson, afterward made chief of the Alabama Indians 

 in Texas, gave a slightly different account. According to him one 

 piece was made of the ribs and the flesh adhering to them, a thin, flat 

 piece was stripped off of the ribs and breast, and two separate pieces 

 were made of the loins and thighs. Sticks were run through these 

 and they were placed on a low scaffold about 3 feet high and 3-4 feet 

 each way, where they were roasted. Sometimes a much higher 

 scaffold was used, depending probably upon the weather and the size 

 of the fire. Pieces intended for immediate consumption might be 

 impaled on a single stick over the fire, the other end of the stick being 

 planted in the ground. The dried meat was strung together and car- 

 ried home from camp packed on either side of the hunter's horse along 

 with the deerhides, the hunter himself walking and driving the animal. 

 Finally, the meat was stored in the corncrib, where it would usually 

 keep for an entire year. If it had not been dried sufficiently, screw- 

 worms would breed in it. (From what I was told by some old white 

 settlers, however, it would appear that the Indians did not have in- 

 superable objections to wormy meat.) When dried venison was to be 

 eaten, it was washed, pounded in a mortar, mixed with bear's grease, 

 and partaken of with bread. 



If deer were very plentiful, they sometimes threw away the ribs, 

 shoulders, and other less desirable cuts, and occasionally are said to 

 have hunted the deer for their hides alone, but on other occasions they 

 might eat even the marrow and liver. When an unusually large num- 

 ber of deer had been killed, or there was to be a special feast at the 

 ballground, they would sometimes string the tongues and hearts by 

 themselves on cords of bass fiber (bakca) . 



Jackson Lewis remembered that bison meat was cut into squares 

 about a foot and a half each way and 2 inches thick, and dried on a 

 scaffold over a fire. In preserving this meat, they sometimes made 

 use of the salt on the salt plains (the Cimarron). The flesh of the 

 young bison and the cows was most desired. It is claimed that a bison 

 calf would sometimes mistake a horse for a cow and follow it all the 

 way back to camp. 



