SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE &OUTHEASTE1RN UNHTED STATES 489 



lesse worth then 3 or 400 li had the pearle ben taken from the Muskle 

 as it ought to be" (Smith, John, Arber ed., 1884, p. li). 



La Salle found pearls in use among the tribes of the lower Mis- 

 sissippi when he descended to the sea in 1682, and Nicolas de la Salle 

 purchased 14 of them from a Koroa Indian "for a mean little box- 

 wood comb" (Margry, 1875-86, vol. 1, p. 328). Many were kept by 

 the Taensa and Natchez in their temples, and infant Natchez nobles 

 wore 2 or 3, taken from the temple, from birth until they were about 

 10 years old, when they were replaced (Penicaut in Margry, 1875-86, 

 vol. 5, p. 452 ; Swanton, 1911, p. 56) . In spite of these facts, one gets 

 the impression that there were more pearls among the eastern tribes, 

 between the Chesapeake and Florida, than among those on the "Father 

 of Waters." 



Pearls were obtained from the river mussels, and from bivalves 

 along the Atlantic coast. Mention has been made of the fishery at 

 Chiaha on the Tennessee River, probably at Burns Island. Cofita- 

 chequi, near the present Augusta, Ga., was another pearl center, and 

 the Suwannee in Florida was a third, though probably not superior 

 to the St. Johns. Near the mouth of Appamattox River, Va., the 

 Indians showed Captain Smith and his companions "the manner- of 

 their diving for Mussels, in which they finde Pearles" (Smith, John, 

 Tyler ed., 1907, p. 34). An early chronicler says that Pearl River, 

 Miss., received its name from the fact that the Natchez obtained pearls 

 near its head which they "put around the necks of their idols," but 

 there is no record of pearl hunting operations at points much nearer 

 the mouth of this stream. Daniel Coxe speaks of two great pearl 

 fisheries in the south, one up Red River and the other on the Tal- 

 lapoosa, but his remarks are very general and no other writer refers 

 to these (Coxe in French, 1850, pp. 227, 234). (See also Burrage, 

 1906, p. 127.) 



PORCUPINE-QUILL WORK 



Du Pratz is the only writer who describes porcupine-quill work, 

 and, though he speaks as if he had witnessed the process, one wonders 

 whether it was as worked by the hands of southern Indians or by some 

 band from the north paying a visit to the French posts on the lower 

 course of the Mississippi. If Natchez Indians actually did such work, 

 we must suppose that they obtained their material in trade from up- 

 river tribes. Du Pratz says : 



For this purpose they take off the quills of the porcupine which are white and 

 black. They split them fine enough to use in embroidery. They dye a part of 

 the white red, another part yellow, while a third part remains white. Ordinarily 

 they embroider on black skin, and then they dye the black a reddish brown. 

 But if they embroider on the tree bark the black always remains the same. 



