SwANTON] INlDIAlSrS OF THE SOUTHEiASTEfRN UNIITET) STATES 479 



the supposed holiest, and then puts some white beads on it, that are given him 

 by the people. Then the Archi-magus wraps around his shoulders a consecrated 

 skin of the same sort, which reaching across under his arms, he ties behind his 

 back, with two knots on the legs, in the form of a figure of eight. Another cus- 

 tom he observes on this solemn occasion, is, instead of going barefoot, he wears a 

 new pair of buck-skin white moccasins made by himself, and stitched with the 

 sinews of the same animal. The upper leather across the toes, he paints, for the 

 space of three inches, with a few streaks of red — not with vermilion, for that is 

 their continual war-emblem, but with a certain red root, its leaves and stalk 

 resembling the ipecacuanha, which is their fixed red symbol of holy things. These 

 shoes he never wears, but in the time of the supposed passover ; for at the end of 

 it, they are laid up in the beloved place, or holiest, where much of the like sort, 

 quietly accompanies an heap of old, broken earthen ware, conch-shells, and other 

 consecrated things. . . . The American ArcM-magics wears a breast-plate, made 

 of a white conch-shell, with two holes bored in the middle of it, through which he 

 puts the ends of an otter-skin strap, and fastens a buckhorn white button to the 



outside of each The Indian wears around his temples either a wreath of 



swan-feathers, or a long piece of swan-skin doubled so as only the fine snowy 

 feathers appear on each side. . . . [and he] wears on the crown of his head, a 

 tuft of white feathers, which they call Yat^ra. He likewise fastens a tuft of 

 blunted wild Turkey cock-spurs, toward the toes of the upper part of his mocca- 

 senes. (Adair, 1775, pp. 82-83.) 



Strangely enough, in spite of the high development of ritualism 

 among the Natchez, we have no good description of the priestly 

 costume. 



BAGS AND PURSES 



The southern Indian male often carried a bag or pouch hung at 

 one side in which were kept tobacco, knives, pipes, and all sorts 

 of small personal belonging, and which the doctors used for their 

 medicines. They were, indeed, particularly necessary to the latter, 

 and the earliest mention is by Hariot in his description of a typical 

 "conjurer" of the Sound region of North Carolina. The accompany- 

 ing illustration by White (reproduced here as plate 95) shows it worn 

 at the right side, fastened to the belt and ornamented with a number 

 of strings probably of hide (Hariot, 1893, pi. 11). Beverley repro- 

 duces this figure (1705, bk. 3, p. 6, pi. 4, fig. 1) , and he helps us to under- 

 stand the nature of the bag a little better by introducing it also in 

 his plate 10 (1705, bk. 3, p. 17), which in other respects is closely like 

 one of White's drawings. Here the strings at the lower end of the bag 

 are clearly seen to be leather ends made into a fringe. A "leather 

 pouch," very likely similar to this, is mentioned by Lawson (1860, 

 p. 85). 



An Alabama informant stated that the bag was carried on the 

 right side, the strap passing over the left shoulder, and this was 

 probably the more usual way, but the illustrations of Creek and 

 Seminole chiefs given by McKenney and Hall show that it was 



