582 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



took readily to firearms so that Adair, writing in the middle of the 

 eigtheenth century, is able to assert: 



No people are more expert than the Indians in the use of fire-arms, and 

 the bow and quiver: they can fresh stock their guns, only with a small 

 hatchet and knife, and straighten the barrels, so as to shoot with proper 

 direction. They likewise alter, and fix all the springs of the lock, with others 

 of the sort they may have out of use; but such a job costs the red artist 

 about two months work. (Adair, 1775, p. 425.) 



As to their skill with this imported weapon, Lawson (1860, p. 51) 

 tells us that his Indian guide in South Carolina "always shot with a 

 single ball, missing but two shots in about forty ; they being curious 

 artists in managing a gun to make it carry either ball or shot, true." 



LANCES, SPEARS, AND JAVELINS 



Fish spears were in use throughout the region under discussion, 

 and Hariot describes those of the coast Indians of North Carolina 

 as follows: 



They fasten vnto their Reedes or longe Rodds, the hollowe tayle of a cer- 

 taine fishe like to a sea crabb in steede of a poynte, wherewith by nighte or 

 day they stricke fishes, and take them opp into their boates. They also know 

 how to vse the prickles, and pricks of other fishes. [Hariot, 1893, pi. 14.] 



According to Smith and Strachey, in the Virginia tidewater coun- 

 try fish were generally shot with arrows, but the Accomack Indians 

 of the eastern shore used "staves like unto Javelins headed with 

 bone" (Smith, John, Tyler ed., 1907, p. 103; Strachey, 1849, p. 75). 

 A very primitive kind of fish spear is indicated by Beverley (1705, 

 bk. 2, p. 32) in the following words : 



Before the Arrival of the English there, the Indians had Fish in such vast 

 Plenty, that the Boys and Girls wou'd take a pointed Stick, and strike the lesser 

 sort, as they Swam upon the Flats. 



He also mentions "a gig, or pointed spear" in use during the night 

 in "fire-fishing" (Beverley, 1705, bk. 2, p. 34) . On a branch of Broad 

 River, an Indian in Bartram's party (1773) caught a fish by means 

 of "a reed harpoon, pointed very sharp, barbed, and hardened by the 

 fire" (Bartram, 1792, p. 44). Adair mentions this type of spear and 

 the use to which it was put, and so does Speck in his account of the 

 Yuchi, the material being cane whittled to a sharp point, or a 

 wooden spear with the point hardened in the fire (Speck, 1909, pp. 

 24-25). 



There are also references to the use of pikes, lances, javelins, and 

 similar weapons in war. In 1528 the Indians near Mobile Bay at- 

 tacked Narvaez and his companions with "slings and darts" 

 though possibly we have to deal here with spear-throwers (Cabeza 

 de Vaca, Bandelier ed., 1905, p. 49; Swanton, 1922, p. 146). The 



