522 BUREAU OF AMERICAX ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



bracelets (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, p. 100). Timberlake (Williams ed., 

 1927, pp. 75-76) says that the Cherokee wore bracelets on their arms 

 and wrists, which seems to indicate that they had both bracelets and 

 armbands. Similarly Bartram (1792, p. 501) informs us that both 

 Creeks and Cherokee arms "are ornamented with silver bands, or brace- 

 lets, and silver and gold chains." An Alabama informant seemed to 

 think that armbands (sakbatka') were used by men and bracelets 

 (ista'lbai'ka) by women, but my best Creek informant spoke as if they 

 were employed by both sexes indifferently. Adair (1775, p. 170) men- 

 tions strings of beads worn around their wrists by the Chickasaw and 

 apparently by persons of both sexes. 



MacCauley says of the Seminole Indians seen by him in Florida 60 

 years ago : 



Silver wristlets are used by the men for their adornment. They are fastened 

 about the wrists by cords or thongs passing through holes in the ends of the metal, 

 (MacCauley, 1887, p. 489.) 



It seems probable that bead bracelets and armbands were used ex- 

 tensively on the lower Mississippi, yet there are very few references 

 to them. Du Pratz, for instance, while failing to assert specifically 

 that bead bracelets were w^orn, says that young men sometimes 



put on bracelets made of the ribs of deer which they have worked down very thin 

 and bent in boiling water. These bracelets are as white and smooth as polished 

 ivory outside. (Le Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, pp. 197-198 ; S wanton, 1911, p. 55.) 



From the Journal of Le Marin, we learn that the Bayogoula wore 

 quantities of rings (manilles) around their arms (Margry, 1875-86, 

 vol. 4, pp. 169-170 ; Swanton. 1911, p. 276) . Gatschet was told that the 

 Chitimacha men and women both used bracelets and that some of these 

 were hammered out of copper (Gatschet, 1861, pp. 5-6; Swanton, 

 1911, p. 345). 



FINGER RINGS 



Copper rings have been found on archeological sites dating from 

 pre-Columbian times, and Adair, in commenting on the wearing of 

 both earrings and finger rings says "they followed the like custom 

 before they became acquainted with the English." In his time the 

 favorite materials seem to have been brass and silver (Adair, 1775, 

 pp. 170-171). Finger rings are mentioned by Gatschet's Chitimacha 

 informants and by my own native informants, but are absent from 

 the drawings of both White and Le Moyne (Gatschet, 1861, pp. 5-6; 

 Swanton, 1911, p. 345). Creek rings consisted of a shield welded on 

 to the ring proper. Their name for a ring was stinge wi'sakx padi'ka, 

 while the Alabama called it i'lbi sawa'tali a'lbita. Several Yuchi 

 rings, evidently of the same type as those of the Creek and Alabama 



