SwANTON] INDIAl^S OF THE SOUTHEASTEKN UNITED STATES 557 



Lawson has more references to these articles than any other in- 

 formant. He notes that the Congaree Indians had large wooden 

 spoons "as big as small ladles," but showed little disposition to use 

 them instead of their fingers. He also quotes the narrative of certain 

 explorers who entered Cape Fear River in 1G63 and broke up the 

 "pots, platters, and spoons" found in a native house, but some of these 

 may have been of earthenware. In his general discussion of the 

 Indian tribes, he informs us that the Indians who were not partic- 

 ularly skillful as hunters made "dishes and spoons of gumwood, and 

 the tulip tree," among other things, to trade to other Indians, and 

 he himself met two Tuscarora who were going to the Shakori and 

 Occaneechi to sell wooden bowls and ladles for raw skins (Lawson 

 1860, pp. 56, 122, 101, 337). 



At least until recently, some of the Alabama knew how to make 

 wooden spoons. They were in one piece and were of the wood of a 

 tree called itukamo', which grows near the water. These Indians 

 also remember that in olden times spoons were made out of cow and 

 bison horn. The horn was first immersed in hot water in order to 

 soften it, and after that it could be cut easily. 



According to a Creek informant, the best spoons were made of box- 

 elder, but sycamore, elm, or other woods might be employed. 



At Key Marco, Cushing found a great many wooden dishes : 



The trays were also very numerous and exceedingly interesting; compara- 

 tively shallow, oval in outline and varying from a length of six and a half 

 or seven inches and a width of four or five inches, to a length of not less than 

 five feet and a width of quite two feet. The ends of these trays were nar- 

 rowed and truncated to form handles, the upper faces of which were usually 

 decorated with neatly cut-in disc-like or semilunar figures or depressions. 

 Looking at the whole series of them secured by us — no fewer than thirty in 

 all — I was impressed with their general resemblance to canoes, their almost 

 obvious derivation from such, as though through a sort of technologic inheri- 

 tance they had descended from the vessels which had brought not only the 

 first food, and the first supplies of water, to these outlying keys, but also the 

 first dwellers thereon as well. (Cushing, 1896, p. 364.) 



He found also "spoons made from bivalves, ladles made from the 

 greater halves of hollowed-out well-grown conch shells; and cups, 

 bowls, trays, and mortars of wood" (idem) . 



Spoons, pot stirrers, and gourd vessels, as used by the Yuchi 30 

 years ago, are thus described by Speck : 



Spoons, ydda ctlnd, showing some variation in size and relative proportions, 

 are found commonly in domestic service. They are all made of wood, said to 

 be maple. The size of these varies from six or seven to fourteen inches. The 

 bowl is usually rather deep and is widest and deepest near the handle. The 

 latter is squared and straight with a crook near the end upon which an owner- 

 ship mark consisting of a few scratches or incisions is frequently seen. . . . 

 This type is said to represent, in the shape of the bowl, a wolf's ear and to be 

 patterned after it 



