440 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



used as bed coverings. The Chickasaw sometimes made moccasins 

 out of them and bear-hide thongs are mentioned among the Natchez. 

 (Adair, 1775, p. 8; Le Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, p. 184; Swanton, 

 1911, p. 65.) 



In northern sections, where elk were to be found, their skins prob- 

 ably took the place of deerskins, and the Chickasaw made their 

 heavier moccasins of elk hide (Adair, 1775, p. 8) . 



Garcilaso de la Vega speaks of the use, among other animal pelts, 

 of the skins of cats of different kinds, deer, bear, and lions (i.e., 

 panthers), and according to the same writer the Indians about Tampa 

 Bay esteemed the slaughter of a "lion" a deed of bravery (Garcilaso, 

 1723, p. 6, 27). Ranjel reports blankets of wildcat skins among the 

 Indians of Cofitachequi (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, p. 99). In the town 

 of Pacaha on the west bank of the Mississippi, probably in the terri- 

 tory of the present State of Arkansas, the Spaniards found, according 

 to Elvas, many skins of lions and cats (Robertson, 1933, p. 172) . In 

 a native house in Virginia Strachey saw the claws of a panther, while 

 Lawson tells us that the Siouan tribes used their skins as robes 

 (Strachey, 1849, p. 124; Lawson, 1860, p. 195). 



The De Soto chroniclers are authorities for a wide use of cloaks 

 and robes worn by the upper classes made of the skins of an animal 

 called in the narratives of Elvas and Garcilaso "marten" and in those 

 of Biedma and Ranjel "sable." They are always said to be "fragrant" 

 or to have a strong odor; Garcilaso says "a very agreeable musk 

 odor." Specific mention is made of a very fine one brought by 

 Maldonado from the neighborhood of Pensacola or Mobile. Such a 

 cloak was worn by the lieutenant of a chief on Ocmulgee River. 

 They were found at Cofitachequi (S. C), Coga (Ala.), in posses- 

 sion of Tascalusa, at Mabila (Ala.), and at Anilco (La.). (Garcilaso, 

 1723, pp. 115, 142; Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, pp. 81, 99; Robertson, 1933, pp. 

 115, 130-131, 210.) Mention has already been made of "a piece of 

 marten's skin about eight ells long by three wide" found in a village 

 near the lower Mississippi by the Spaniards in 1543. It was "double 

 alike on both sides, and decorated in places with clusters of seed 

 pearls," and they thought it must have been used as a standard in 

 native festivals (Garcilaso, 1723, p. 242). These animals were prob- 

 ably muskrats. At any rate, later writers place considerable em- 

 phasis on the use of their skins along the lower Mississippi, and 

 Louisiana is today famous for them. 



The "conies" of Spanish writers are evidently rabbits, but it is 

 somewhat confusing to read of "conies and hares" on the coast of 

 North Carolina (Burrage, 1906, p. 233) and one wonders whether 

 these names were not applied to the same animal. The De Soto chron- 

 iclers refer to "conies" only as a source of food, but Hariot informs 

 us that in North Carolina at least clothing was made of their skins : 



