568 BUREL\U OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



The swords mentioned by Percy "beset with sharpe stones, and pieces 

 of yron able to cleave a man in sunder" certainly recall Garcilaso's 

 fourth type of club (Narr. Early Va., Tyler ed., 1907, pp. 14, 16) . The 

 "Swords like Pollaxes," used apparently by the Susquehanna Indians, 

 again recall the spatula-shaped clubs (Narr. Early Va., Tyler ed., 1907, 

 p. 49). 



Their swordes be made of a kind of heavy wood which they have, much like 

 such wooden instruments as our English women swingle their flax withall, and 

 which they call monococks, as the salvadges in Bariena (Darien), in the West 

 Indies, call their (s) macanas, and be alike made; but oftentymes they use for 

 swordes the home of a deare put through a piece of wood in forme of a 

 pickaxe. Some use a long stone sharpened at both ends, thrust through a handle 

 of wood in the same manner, and these last they are wont to use instead of 

 hatchetts to fell a tree, or cut any massy thing in sonder ; but now, by trucking 

 with us, they h^ve thowsands of our iron hatchetts, such as they be. (Strachey, 

 1849, p. 106.) 



Smith says the same not quite so elaborately (Smith, John, Tyler 

 ed,, 1907, pp. 102-103). The first of these again seems like the trunch- 

 eons. The second is like the clubs with stone or iron set into them, 

 and is the "weapon like a hammer" of Spelman (Smith, John, Arber 

 ed., 1884, p. cxiii). This type of club, then, must be regarded as 

 the ancestor of the tomahawk, and the supposition is confirmed by 

 Catesby's short description : 



These [tomahawks] were of two kinds: one was a staff about three feet 

 long, with a large knob at the end ; the others were made of stone ground to 

 an edge, of the form and size of a small hatchet, and fixed to a strong handle ; 

 these would cut, and were of most use, as well for war as for hollowing their 

 canoes, and other mechanick uses; with' these they fought and worked, but 

 since the introduction of iron hatchets, which they still call Tommahaivks, they 

 have wholly laid aside their stone ones. (Catesby, 1731-43, vol. 2, p. ix; 

 Swanton, 1911, p. 127.) 



They corresponded to Garcilaso's first and second types. Du Pratz 

 tells us of something similar on the lower Mississippi : 



In order that the costume be complete, the warrior must have in his hands 

 a war club. If it is made by the French, this will be a little ax, the edge of 

 which is ordinarily 3 inches long. This ax is light, and is placed in the belt 

 when one is loaded or traveling. The war clubs which the natives make for 

 themselves are of hard wood and have the shape of a cutlass blade, 2i/^ inches 

 broad and V/y feet long. They have an edge and a back. Toward the end 

 of the back is a ball 3 inches in diameter, which is part of the same piece. 

 (Le Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, pp. 413-414; Swanton, 1911, p. 127.) 



From Stiggins' description it appears that this was the type known 

 as atasa, and, from the fact that a similar word is applied to it by all 

 of the principal Southeastern tribes, it would seem that it was intro- 

 duced from some one tribe and spread to the rest. Stiggins says it 

 was "shaped like a small gun about 2 feet long, and at the curve near 

 where the lock would be is a thin square piece of iron or steel with a 



