514 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



icta'taka', "something taken and hung." Alabama women used to in- 

 sert silver ornaments called atcitaka sawa', "small earrings," in holes 

 around the edges of their ears above the lobes. A long time ago a 

 woman is said to have bought such ornaments in New York, but the 

 actual wearing of them is one sin against good taste that cannot be 

 charged up against the metropolis. 

 MacCauley says: 



Ear rings are not generally worn by the Seminole. Those worn are usually 

 made of silver and are of home manufacture. The ears of most Indians, however, 

 appear to be pierced, and, as a rule, the ears of the women are pierced many 

 times ; for what purpose I did not discover. Along and in the upper edges of the 

 ears of the women from one to ten or more small holes have been made. In 

 most of these holes I noticed bits of palmetto wood, about a fifth of an inch in 

 length and in diameter the size of a large pin. Seemingly they were not placed 

 there to remain only while the puncture was healing. (MacCauley, 1887, p. 489.) 



The Natchez warriors, according to Du Pratz, had "the lower parts 

 of the ears slit, in order to pass through them iron or brass wire in the 

 form of worm screws, a full inch in diameter" (Le Page du Pratz, 

 1758, vol. 2, p. 200 (190) ; Swanton, 1911, p. 55). This custom was 

 probably suggested by the Chickasaw and Creek ear wiring, but, since 

 only the lower part of the ear was pierced by the Natchez, it was not 

 developed to the same extent. On the other hand, the Natchez women 

 appear to have had a spike-shaped ear ornament different from any 

 reported from the tribes farther east though current enough along the 

 Mississippi, and very far inland in archeological deposits. (See p. 486.) 



Another writer speaks as if these ear bobs were sometimes replaced 

 by beads. The Bayogoula women were observed to have wooden ear- 

 rings or rather wooden plugs "of the size of the little finger," though 

 it is possible these were the shell spikes above described and that 

 the visitors were deceived as to the material of which they were made 

 (Swanton, 1911, pp. 55-56, 276; Margry, 1875-86, vol. 4, pp. 259-262). 

 Both male and female Chitimacha wore earrings, though the material 

 of which these were made is not reported. (Gatschet, 1861, pp. 5-6; 

 Swanton 1911, p. 345). For the Caddo, see Swanton (1942, p. 146). 



NOSE ORNAMENTS 



There is no evidence, either in Le Moyne's drawings or in his and 

 other texts dealing with the Florida Indians, that they wore nose 

 ornaments, and I find but one reference to such ornamentation among 

 Virginia and Carolina tribes. This, curiously enough, is of relatively 

 late date, in Francis Louis Michel's account of the Siouan Indians of 

 Monacantown, as he observed them in 1701-2. He says : "There were 

 also some who had a narrow spangle drawn through their nose" 

 (Michel, 1916, p. 131). The fullest references are by Adair and so we 

 know that the nose was a subject for ornamentation among the Chicka- 



