692 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Rum. 137 



^ve notice of the return of a party commanded by Willinawaw, who went to 

 war towards the Shawnese country some time after my arrival . . . About 

 eleven o'clock the Indians, about forty in number, appeared within sight of 

 the town; as they approached, I obsen^ed four scalps, painted red on the flesh- 

 side, hanging on a pole, and carried in front of the line, by the second in com- 

 mand, while Willinawaw brought up the rear. When near the town-house, the 

 whole marched round it three times, singing the war-song, and at intervals 

 giving the Death Halloiv; after which, sticking the pole just by the door, for 

 the crowd to gaze on, they went in to relate in what manner they had gained 

 them. (Timberlake, Williams ed., 1927, pp. 112-113.) 



Timberlake has also provided us with the translation of a war 

 song into which he has, unfortunately, thought it necessary to intro- 

 duce English rhythms. Elsewhere he adds: 



The prisoners of war are generally tortured by the women, at the party's 

 return, to revenge the death of those that have perished by the wretch's coun- 

 trymen. This savage custoin has been so much mitigated of late, that the 

 prisoners were only compelled to marry, and then generally allowed all the 

 privileges of the natives. This lenity, however, has been a detriment to the 

 nation ; for many of these returning to their countrymen, have made them 

 acquainted with the country-passes, weakness, and haunts of the Cherokees ; 

 besides that it gave the enemy greater courage to fight against them. (Timber- 

 lake, Williams ed., 1927, p. 82.) 



Timberlake's judgment cannot, however, be trusted here. This 

 very custom of adoption was in large measure responsible for the 

 rise to power of the great Iroquois Confederation. 



Though it is not mentioned by Timberlake, a war medicine or 

 "ark," similar to those used by other Southeastern tribes was car- 

 ried by a Cherokee war party. Mooney, and Washburn whom 

 Mooney cites, regarded this as a tribal palladium, and the latter says 

 that it was captured by the Delaware Indians and that the old priests 

 of the Cherokee ascribed to this circumstance the later degeneracy 

 of their people (Washburn, 1869, pp. 191, 221; Mooney, 1900, p. 503). 

 Whether there was one or several, however, they were treated in much 

 the same manner, '\yhen the Overhill Cherokee under Ostenaco (or 

 Outasite) were on a campaign in 1756 in aid of the British and col- 

 onial forces, Adair was informed by a white man who accompanied 

 it that 



he saw a stranger there very importunate to view the inside of the Cheerake 

 ark, which was covered with a drest deer-skin, and placed on a couple of short 

 blocks. An Indian centinel watched it, armed with a hiccory bow, and brass- 

 pointed barbed arrows, and he was faithful to his trust; for finding the 

 stranger obtruding to pollute the supposed sacred vehicle, he drew an arrow 

 to the head, and would have shot him through the body, had he not suddenly 

 withdrawn; the interpreter when asked by the gentleman (Adair's informant) 

 what it contained, told him there was nothing in it but a bundle of conjuring 

 traps. (Adair, 1775, p. 161, footnote.) 



Timucua weapons consisted of bows and arrows, darts, and clubs, 

 the last-mentioned differing from those used bv the Creeks. War 



