564 BURElAU OF AMERICAN ETICsOLOOY [Bull. 137 



COMBS 



We laiow that combs were used in pre-Columbian times because 

 numerous examples of them have been found on undisturbed sites, 

 but early writers give few notices of them. In speaking of the Choc- 

 taw, however, Romans says : 



They are very ingenious in making tools, utensils and furniture; I have seen 

 a narrow tooth comb made by one of these savages with a knife only out of 

 the root of the Diospyros [persimmon] that was as well finished as I ever saw 

 one with all the necessary tools. (Romans, 1775, p. 83.) 



SCRATCHERS 



l^Hien Lawson was among the Esaw, i. e., the Catawba Indians, 

 he observed that in treating a lame man they used a scratcher, "an 

 instrument somewhat like a comb, which was made of a split reed, 

 with fifteen teeth of rattlesnakes, set at much the same distance as in 

 a large horn comb" (Lawson, 1860, p. 76). One might suspect that 

 it was probably set with gar teeth, like most of the scratchers used in 

 this section in aboriginal times, but the use of rattlesnake fangs is 

 reaffirmed on a later page (Lawson, 1860, p. 363). 



Swan (1855, p. 274) speaks of the scratcher used b}^ the Creek 

 Indians "as a jaw-bone of a gar-fish, having two teeth." Adair (1775, 

 p. 120), however, again speaks of snakes' teeth. Its use among the 

 Creeks was particularly widespread. 



IMPLEMENTS USED IN HUNTING, FISHING, AND WAR 



KNIVES 



Elvas makes mention of some "copper hatchets" seen in Cofitachequi 

 the metal of which was said to have a mixture of gold in it (Robert- 

 son, 1933, p. 109). If of pure copper, these would have been ineffi- 

 cient tools and the objects in question may have been ceremonial. 

 Knives made of "the splinter of a reed" are noted by John Smith 

 (1907, p. 101) and Strachey (1849, p. 106), and Beverley (1705, bk. 3, 

 p. 60) says that when the English first went among the Indians of 

 Virginia "they had no sort of Iron or Steel Instruments: but their 

 knives were either Sharpen'd Reeds, or Shells." Foreman quotes a 

 missionary report to the effect that the Indians anciently used the 

 beaver tooth as a knife, and it was certainly employed as a tool though 

 it is doubtful whether it should be classed as a knife (Foreman, 1934, 

 p. 18). Undoubtedly knives of shell, stone, and perhaps bone were 

 employed, but cane or reed knives are the only aboriginal instruments 

 of this kind to be widely noted. They appear to have been in use 

 everywhere throughout the section. Speaking of the varieties of cane 

 in Louisiana, Du Pratz says : 



