SwANTON] INDIAN'S OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 505 



however, we learn of a tribe called Tamahitan, almost certainly Yuchi, 

 who "keepe theire haire close cut to ye end an enime may not take an 

 advantage to lay hold of them by it" (Alvord, 1912, p. 222). 

 Speaking of the period of 30 years ago. Speck says : 



The Yuchi men as a rule allow the hair to grow long all over the head until 

 it reaches the neck. It is then cropped off even all around and worn parted 

 in the middle . . . Something is usually bound about the forehead to keep the 

 hair back from the face ; either a turban, silver head band or strip of some kind. 

 The beadwork hair ornaments used to be tied to a few locks back of the crown. 

 Some of the older men state that a long time ago the men wore scalp locks 

 and roached their hair, removing all but the comb of hair along the top of the 

 crown, in the manner still practiced by the Osage. Men of taste invariably 

 keep the mustache, beard and sometimes the eyebrows from growing by pulling 

 them out with their finger nails. The hair was formerly trimmed by means of 

 two stones. The tresses to be cut were laid across a flat stone and were then 

 sawed off, by means of a sharp-edged stone, to the desired length (Speck, 1909. 

 p. 52.) 



As to hair ornaments : 



Fastened in the hair near the crown and falling toward the back, the men 

 used to wear small strips of beadwork, tsutsetsV, "little bead", avowedly for 

 ornament. They were woven like the neckband on horsehair or sinew with 

 different colored beads. One which I collected is about eight inches long and one 

 half an inch wide, having three-fold dangling ends ornamented with yarn. The 

 designs on these ornaments are representative of topographical and celestial 

 features. (Speck, 1909, p .50.) 



This is in line with what Timberlake tells us regarding the 

 Cherokee ; 



The hair of their head is shaved tho' many of the old people have it plucked 

 out by the roots, except a patch on the hinder part of the head, about twice 

 the bigness of a crown-piece, which is ornamented with beads, feathers, wampum, 

 stained deer's hair and such like baubles. (Timberlake, Williams ed., 1927, p. 75.) 



The Cherokee deer's hair "crown" is described by Grant as similar to 

 a wig and "made of Possum's hair Dyed Ked or Yellow" (Crane, 1928, 

 p. 279). 



Bartram, whose description is supposed to apply to both the Cher- 

 okee and the Creeks, says : 



The men shave their head, leaving a narrow crest or comb, beginning at the 

 crown of the head, where it is about two inches broad and about the same 

 height, and stands f rized upright ; but this crest tending backwards, gradually 

 widens, covering the hinder part of the head and back of the neck: the lank 

 hair behind is ornamented with pendant silver quills, and then joined or arti- 

 culate silver plates; and usually the middle fascicle of hair, being by far the 

 longest, is wrapped in a large quill of silver, or the joint of a small reed, curiously 

 sculptured and painted, the hair continuing through it terminates in a tail 

 or tassel. (Bartram, 1792, p. 499.) 



This central lock sometimes hung forward as observed by Ogle- 

 thorpe in the case of six men who danced before him at the Lower Creek 

 town of Coweta, "their hair cut short except three locks one of w*=^ 



