S WANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 559 



to hominy or to the impalpable flour of which I have spoken. (MacCauley, 1887, 

 p. 517.) 



The Chickasaw mortar like the others was 



wide at the mouth, and gradually narrows to the bottom. The Indians 

 always used mortars, instead of mills, and they had them, with almost 

 every other convenience, when we first opened a trade with them — they cau- 

 tiously burned a large log, to a proper level and length, placed fire a-top, and 

 wet mortar round it, in order to give the utensil a proper form ; and when 

 the fire was extinguished, or occasion required, they chopped the inside with 

 their stone-instruments, patiently continuing the slow process, till they finished 

 the machine to the intended purpose. (Adair, 1775, p. 437 ; Swanton, 1918, p. 57.) 



The anonymous relation barely mentions their use among the 

 Choctaw but one of my informants declared that in early times mor- 

 tars were made by burning holes in the side of a prostrate tree, and 

 it was only after European axes were obtained that they excavated 

 the ends. This seems to be an error, and it would hardly deserve 

 serious notice except that MacCauley mentions and figures the same 

 sort of mortar in use among the Seminole 60 years ago. The Choc- 

 taw esteemed most mortars made of hickory as conveying the best 

 taste to the flour. The second choice was usually oak. Beech was 

 good, but beech trees were scarce. Some woods were rejected, how- 

 ever, because they communicated a bad taste to anything prepared 

 in mortars made of them, and this was particularly true of maple 

 (Swanton, 1931a, p. 48). 



According to Du Pratz, when the Natchez made these mortars, 

 they used 



a pad of kneaded earth [which they placed] on the upper side, that which 

 they wished to hollow. They put fire in the middle and blew it by means of 

 a reed pipe, and if the fire consumed more rapidly on one side than on the 

 other they immediately placed some mud there. They continued this until the 

 mortar was sufficiently wide and deep. (Le Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, p. 177 ; 

 Swanton,1911, p. 67.) 



A similar method was pursued down to recent times by the Chi- 

 timacha (Swanton, 1911, p. 347) and all of the other tribal remnants 

 of the Southeast, though steel tools facilitated the operation very 

 considerably. 



Joutel describes the use of mortars of the common type among the 

 Caddo made in the same way (Joutel in Margry, 1875-86, vol. 3, pp. 

 363, 367). As many as four women might be assigned to the task 

 of making flour in these, by which he probably means that they 

 struck one after the other. It was common practice for two women 

 to do this, but Joutel's reference is the only suggestion that more than 

 that number took part. 



In his discussion of the Yuchi Indians, Speck gives us an insight 

 into the social and religious significance of the mortar : 



