576 BUREiAU OF AME-RICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



to native doctors as "the medicine for poisoned arrows" (Le Page 

 du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, p. 56; Swanton, 1911, p. 84), though it is 

 not clear whether he means that poison was obtained from it to use 

 on arrows or whether it was an antidote for such poison. But 

 Du Pratz himself makes no positive affirmation that poisoned arrows 

 were employed. Father Padilla, in his narrative of the De Luna 

 expedition, mentions the practice, but in a very incidental way, and 

 the reference by itself is worth little (Padilla, 1919, pp. 205-217; 

 Swanton, 1922, p. 233) . Garcilaso (1723, p. 189) tells us that De Soto's 

 Spaniards were told that the Indians of a province called Colima, 

 which must have been in central Arkansas, used poison in this way, 

 but on entering that province they found the accusation to be false. 

 Finally Ranjel makes a sweeping statement to the effect that none of 

 the Indians in the region traversed by De Soto employed poison 

 (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, p. 69), and no one has even suggested that 

 their blowgun arrows were poisoned. In Virginia, however, a certain 

 plant was used to poison individuals and there seems to be some 

 ground for supposing that poisoned arrows were used, for one of 

 Newport's party (1607) says: "One gaue me a Roote wherewith they 

 poison their arrows" (Smith, John, Arber ed., 1884, xlviii). 



They used arrows often in setting fire to enemy houses or other 

 buildings. Garcilaso (1723, p. 166) says that the Chickasaw fastened 

 a certain inflammable herb to their arrows and with these set fire 

 to the houses in a village where the Spaniards spent the winter of 

 1540-41. Le Moyne describes and illustrates the same custom as 

 common in the Florida peninsula, except that they utilized some 

 of the long Spanish moss common in the country instead of the herb 

 reported by Garcilaso (Le Moyne, 1875, p. 12; Swanton, 1922, pp. 

 379-380). 



Elvas and Garcilaso both state that the Indian bow was "very 

 long," and the latter is somewhat detailed regarding the construc- 

 tion and use of it : 



The arms which these Indians carry are bows and arrows, and although it 

 is true that they are skillful in the use of the other weapons which they 

 have . . . they do not [ordinarily] use any other arms except the bow and 

 arrow, because for those who carry them they are the greatest embellishment 

 and ornament. . . . For all these reasons, and because of the effectiveness of 

 these arms which are superior to all others at both short and long range, in re- 

 treating or attacking, in fighting in battle or in the recreation of the chase, these 

 Indians carry them, and these arms are much used throughout the New World. 



The bows are of the same height as he who carries them, and as the Indians 

 of La Florida are generally of tall stature, their bows are more than two 

 varas in length and thick in proportion. They make them of oak and of various 

 other hard and very heavy woods which they have. They are so hard to bend 

 that no Spaniard, however much he might try, was able to pull the cord back 

 so that his hand touched his face, but the Indians through tlieir long experience 



