598 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETEQ«>LOGT [Bult. 137 



across the keel, turning up their ends, expanded the hull of the boat, which 

 being fastened by thongs to two other poles bent round, the outside of the 

 rim formed the gunwhales: thus in an hour's time our bark was rigged, to 

 which afterwards we added two little oars or sculls. (Bartram, 1792, p. 457.) 



Later they crossed the Oconee in the same manner (Bartram, 1792, 

 p. 458). 



This is represented as a device of white traders, but the following 

 experience of Swan shows that something similar was also used by 

 Indians, whether or not it was of Indian origin : 



The Indians killed a stray cow in the woods, and stretched her skin over 

 hoops, into the shape of a bowl, with which to make the experiment of getting 

 over the [Alapaha] river . . . Early in the morning tne Indians commenced the 

 business by swimming and towing the skin boat by a string, which they held in 

 their teeth, getting up a general war-hoop, to frighten away the voracious alligators 

 that inhabit this river in vast numbers. (Swan, 1855, p. 253.) 



LITTERS 



There is no evidence in the Southeast of any device similar to a 

 travois, but chiefs were carried about on occasions of political, social, 

 or ceremonial importance in litters borne on the shoulders of a num- 

 ber of their most distinguished subjects. The De Soto chroniclers 

 tell us that the Lady of Cofitachequi, the chief of Coga, the Chickasaw 

 chief, and seemingly the Apalachee chief, were carried about in this 

 way. In all cases except the last, the notables concerned were being 

 brought to meet the Spaniards. Garcilaso tells us that Capasi, the 

 Apalachee chief, was so fat that his subjects had to carry him every- 

 where on a litter. (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, pp. 16, 22, 98-99 ; Kobertson, 

 1933, pp. 91, 115; Garcilaso, 1723, p. 316.) When the people of 

 Pacaha were trying to escape from their town in anticipation of the 

 arrival of the Spaniards, Elvas speaks of "the abundance of clothing 

 which the Indians had in hurdles and on wooden rafts in order to 

 take it across from the other side" (Eobertson, 1933, p. 177). This 

 suggests the possibility that such litters may in the Gulf region have 

 taken the place of the travois. Two of the principal descriptions of 

 the use of this litter are appended. 



Kanjel thus describes the approach of the Coga chief : 



The chief came out to receive the Governor in a litter covered with the white 

 mantles of the country, and the litter was borne on the shoulders of sixty or 

 seventy of his principal subjects, with no plebeian or common Indian among 

 them ; and those that bore him took turns by relays with great ceremonies after 

 their manner. (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, p. 112.) 



Elvas adds that he was sitting on a cushion (Kobertson, 1933, 

 p. 115). The latter also speaks thus of the approach of the "Lady of 

 Cofitachequi" : 



