628 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Roll. 187 



Thus terrapin shells may have taken the place of deer hoofs after 

 the deer became scarce. Farther east we find European bells used as 

 rattles on the clothing of some of the Siouan Indians (Lawson, 1860, 

 pp. 68-69). 



My Natchez informant, Watt Sam, used a rattle made out of a 

 coconut (pi. 76, fig. 2). 



FLAGEOLETS 



Over much of the Gulf area, when it was first visited by Europeans, 

 it was customary to welcome strauij^ers of quality coming in peace by 

 sending men forward, usually including the cliief himself, blowing 

 upon flutes, or rather flageolets. This custom is first alluded to by 

 Cabeza de Vaca in his account of the Narvaez expedition to Florida. 

 After Narvaez and his companions had left the coast and advanced 

 inland, on June 17, 1528, they were met by a chief "whom an Indian 

 carried on his shoulders. He wore a painted deerskin, and many 

 people followed him, and he was preceded by many players on flutes 

 made of reeds'' (Cabeza de Vaca, Bandelier ed., 1905, p. 21). This 

 was in the Timucua territory. 



The custom was again observed by the followers of De Soto among 

 the same people. Flageolets are probably to be understood by the 

 "trumpets" in the hands of Indians near the Withlacoochee River, 

 since conch-shell horns are mentioned separately (Garcilaso, 1723, 

 p. 45). When the army left Aguacaleyquen, Ranjel states that "mes- 

 sengers were coming and going from Ucnchile, a great chief, playing 

 upon a flute for ceremony," and Elvas, who also notes the circumstance. 

 says it was "their sign by which they make known that they come 

 in peace." (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, pp. 72-73: Robertson, 1933, p. 58.) 

 Flageolets were probably among the instruments in the train of the 

 great Coca chief and in that of Tascalusa on similar occasions, although 

 the instrument is not specifically mentioned (Robertson, 1933, pp. 115, 

 128). They were evidently the "fifes" to the sound of which, along 

 with other instruments, the Chicksaw launched their attack some 

 months later (Garcilaso, 1723, p. 166). On another occasion, the 

 Casqui Indians, west of the Mississippi, came to De Soto "singing" 

 but nothing is said regarding instruments. 



A little later the French also note wind instruments in the Florida 

 peninsula. Le Moyne describes how the chief Saturiwa once came to 

 visit him accompanied by a considerable military force, and 



next to himself were twenty pipers, who produced a wild noise without musical 

 harmony or regularity, but only blowing away with all their might, each trying 

 to be the loudest. Their instruments were nothing but a thick sort of reed or 

 cane, with two oi>enings, one at the top to blow into and the other end for the 

 wind to come out of, like organ pipes or whistles. (Le Moyne, 1875, p. 3; Swan- 

 ton, 1922, p. 375.) 



