584 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



Spear throwers have been found in the deposits at Key Marco, Fhi., 

 among the remains of the Bluff Dwellers of Arkansas, and along the 

 Tennessee, but there is, to my knowledge, only one certain historical 

 reference to their employment in this section, though spear throwers 

 may have figured in the attack upon Narvaez near modern Pensacola. 

 The special reference is by Garcilaso, the weapon in question being 

 observed among Indians at the mouth of the Mississippi, and is as 

 follows : 



One Spaniard was wounded by a weapon that the Castilians in the Indies 

 call a tiraclera (javelin), which we shall call more accurately a lohoi'do because 

 it is shot with a stock {amiento) of wood or a cord. The Spaniards had not seen 

 this weapon in all the places they had visited in Florida until that day. In Peru 

 the Indians use it a great deal. It is a weapon a fathom long made of a firm 

 rush, though spongy in the center, of which they also make arrows. They make 

 heads for them of deer horn, fashioned in all perfection with four points or 

 harpoons of palm or other wood that they have, as strong and heavy as iron. 

 So that the part of the arrow or dart made of the rush will not split by the barb 

 when it hits its mark, they make a knot where the head or harpoon joins it and 

 another one at the other end, which the crossbowmen call hatalla on their darts, 

 where it receives the cord of the bow or the stock with which they shoot it. The 

 stock is of wood two tercias long, and they shoot the dart with it with extreme 

 force, so that it has been known to pass through a man armed with a coat of mail. 

 The Spaniards in Peru feared this weapon more than any other the Indians had, 

 for their arrows are not so terrible as those of Florida. 



The dart or long arrow with which they wounded our Spaniard of whom we 

 were speaking had three barbs in the place of one, similar to the three longest 

 fingers of the hand. The barb in the center was a hand-breadth longer than the 

 two on the sides, and thus it went through the thigh from one side to the other. 

 (Garcilaso, 1723, pp. 249-250.) 



Gushing describes the atlatls found at Key Marco as follows : 



It was significant that no bows were discovered in any portion of the court, but 

 of atlatls or throwing sticks, both fragmentary and entire, four or five examples 

 were found. Two of the most perfect of these were also the most characteristic, 

 since one was double-holed, the other single-holed. The first . . . was some 

 eighteen inches in length, delicate, slender, slightly curved and originally, quite 

 springy. It was fitted with a short spur at the smaller end and was unequally 

 spread or flanged at the larger or grasping end. The shaft-groove terminated in 

 an ornamental device, whence a slighter crease led quite to the end of the handle, 

 and the whole implement was delicately carved and engraved with edge-lines 

 and when first taken from the muck exhibited a high polish and beiiutiful rosewood 

 color. The other . . . was somewhat longer, slightly thicker, wider shafted, 

 more curved, and, as I have said before, furnished with only a single finger-hole. 

 At the smaller end was a diminutive but very perfect carving of a rabbit, in the 

 act of thumping, so placed that his erect tail formed the propelling spur. This 

 instrument also was fitted with a short shaft-groove and was carved and decorated 

 with edge and side lines, and the handle-end was beautifully curved down and 

 rounded so as to form a volute or rolled knob, giving it a striking resemblance 

 to the ornate forms of the atlatl of Central America; a resemblance that also 

 applied somewhat to the double-holed specimen, and to various of the fragmentary 

 spear-throwers. (Gushing, 1896, p. 371.) 



