SwANTON] INDIANS OP THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 513 



to it, by its weight extends this cartilege an Incredible length, which after- 

 wards being craped, or bound in brass or silver wire, extends semicircularly 

 like a bow or crescent ; and it is then very elastic, even so as to spring or 

 bound about with the least motion or flexure of the body : this is decorated 

 with soft white plumes of heron feathers. (Bartram, 1792, p. 499; see also pi. 31, 

 fig. 1, herein.) 



From Timberlake it is plain that the custom was shared in equal 



measure by the Cherokee : 



The ears are slit and stretched to an enormous size, putting the person who 

 undergoes the operation to incredible pain, being unable to lie on either side 

 for near forty days. To remedy this, they generally slit but one at a time; 

 so soon as the patient can bear it, they are wound round with wire to expand 

 them, and are adorned with silver pendants and rings, which they likewise 

 wear at the nose. This custom does not belong originally to the Cherokees, 

 but [was] taken by them from the Shawnese. or other northern nations. (Timber- 

 lake, Williams ed., 1927, pp. 75-76; see also pi. 9 herein.) 



Whether the custom came to this tribe through the Shawnee or 

 not, there are indications that it had a northern origin. At all events, 

 it had extended to the Chickasaw, for Adair gives us one of our best 

 descriptions of it : 



The young heroes cut a hole round almost the extremity of both their ears, 

 which till healed, they stretched out with a large tuft of buffalo's wool mixt 

 with bear's oil: then they twist as much small wire round as will keep them 

 extended in that hideous form . . . 



I have been among the Indians at a drinking match, when several of their 

 beaus have been humbled as low as death, for the great loss of their big ears. 

 Being so widely extended, it is as easy for a person to take hold of, and pull 

 them off, as to remove a couple of small hoops were they hung within reach ; but 

 if the ear after the pull, stick to their head by one end, when they get sober, 

 they pare and sew it together with a needle and deer's sinews, after sweating 

 him in a stove. Thus the disconsolate warrior recovers his former cheerfulness, 

 and hath a lasting caution of not putting his ears a second time in danger with 

 bad company: however, it is not deemed a scandal to lose their ears by any 

 accident, because they become slender and brittle, by their virtuous compliance 

 with that favourite custom of their ancestors. (Adair, 1775, p. 180.) 



This type of ornamentation was "wearing off apace" in his time. 



He says that the women only bored "small holes in the lobe of their 

 ears for their rings," and it would seem that similar borings were in 

 vogue with both sexes at an earlier period, for he remarks that 

 anciently they used native hard stones ("such coarse diamonds, as 

 their own hill country produced") fastened with a deer's sinew. 

 But when the Europeans supplied them with ornaments, they "used 

 brass and silver ear-rings, and finger-rings" (Adair, 1775, pp. 179- 

 180). 



Coming down to more recent times, we find that Alabama silver- 

 smiths pounded silver quarters out thin to use as ear ornaments, the 

 ornament being tied by a piece of braid through a hole in the lobe of 

 the ear. They also used 10-cent pieces. Sometimes a small piece of 

 silver wire was run through the earlobe. An earring was known as 



464735 — i6 34 



