SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 561 



chequi Garcilaso's informants saw "great wooden boxes without 

 locks" containing the bones of the dead and he tells us that "they 

 were astonished that, w^ithout tools, the Indians had been able to 

 make them so well." He continues : 



Besides these great boxes, they had smaller ones, and cane baskets very 

 well made. These last boxes were filled with clothing of men and women, 

 and the baskets with pearls of all sorts. (Garcilaso, 1723, p. 361.) 



Mention of baskets is important as showing that by boxes some- 

 thing other than basket hampers is meant. Three rows of chests 

 were seen in the temple of Talomeco, and coffins in the temples of 

 Ucita, Pacaha, and Anilco. 



Most of our later references are to the boxes or coffins constructed 

 by Choctaw "bone-pickers" for the bones of the deceased. The anony- 

 mous Frenchman says that the bodies of common Choctaw were 

 placed in cane hampers, only those of chiefs being put into chests, 

 and these are said to have been "locked with keys" (Swanton, 1931 a, 

 p. 65). This suggests an imported affair but the word "key" may 

 not be used in the European sense, since Milfort describes the native 

 coffin as "a kind of chest the opening of which they shut with a 

 plank" (Milfort, 1802, pp. 293-294; Swanton, 1918, p. 174). Bart- 

 ram calls this receptacle "a curiously wrought chest or coffin, fabri- 

 cated of bones and splints," while Romans refer to it merely as "a 

 neatly made chest." (Bartram, 1792, pp. 614-515; Romans, 1775, 

 pp. 89-90; Swanton, 1931 a, pp. 173-174.) Such chests are mentioned 

 also by Bossu and Adair, and the latter describes a native chest which 

 was used for other purposes but may have been constructed similarly. 

 He says it was "made of clapboards sewed to cross bars with scraped 

 wet buffalo strings." (Bossu, 1768, vol. 2, pp. 95-96; Adair, 1775, 

 p. 452; Swanton, 1931 a, pp. 171-172.) Thus they may have been put 

 together like the sewed boxes of the North Pacific coast Indians. 

 H. S. Halbert was told that the burial chest was made by the bone- 

 picker and ornamented "to the best of his taste and ability," but 

 perhaps certain individuals became particularly skillful coffin makers 

 since the name of Tombigbee River is said to have been derived from 

 a man who specialized in this work, itombi signifyng "box," or 

 "chest," and ikbi, "maker" (Swanton, 1931 a, p. 188). 



Du Pratz says that the Natchez constructed "little boxes" of 

 cane (Le Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 3, pp. 23-24; Swanton, 1911, p. 

 143). Caddo wooden receptacles are noted in Bureau of American 

 Ethnology Bulletin 132 (Swanton, 1942, p. 155). 



A box of a slightly different pattern was that which contained 

 the medicine of a war party. Adair says of this : 



It is made with pieces of wood securely fastened together in the form of a 

 square. The middle of three of the sides extends a little out, but one side is 



464735—46 .37 



