SwANTON] INDIANS OP THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 823 



CENTRAL INTRUSION 



As I pointed out in the Forty-second Annual Report (Swan ton, 

 1928 b), there are evidences that at least some Creeks were rather late 

 intruders from the northwest and had wedged apart certain usages 

 which had formerly extended over the area more evenly. Among 

 these I mentioned frontal head deformation, which was found among 

 the eastern Siouans and western tribes but not among the Creeks, and 

 ossuaries and reburial customs similarly divided by the Creeks. It 

 should be added, however, that we seem to have evidence of the use of 

 ossuaries by some eastern Creeks in 1540. A third difference appears 

 in the manner of dressing the hair by males. It was shaved at the 

 sides of the head by the central tribes, but allowed to grow long by the 

 Choctaw and some of the tribes of Virginia, Carolina, Florida, and 

 the Mississippi Valley. We read of ceremonial bathing of strangers 

 in North Carolina and again among the Caddo. On the other hand, 

 the wearing of nasal ornaments, though limited or entirely wanting 

 among the eastern tribes, was in vogue from the Creeks westward and 

 had barely entered Virginia. The Creeks may have been responsible 

 for the severe treatment of adulterers, which reached a maximum 

 among them and appears to have died out east and west. This is 

 rendered all the more likely by Hawkins' remark that the Abihka 

 Creeks were responsible for the laws governing it. These same In- 

 dians may have been the late Muskogee arrivals which introduced the 

 other changes just commentated upon, including also perhaps the use 

 of rectangular hot houses. Nevertheless, we know that the Abihka 

 Indians were in the Upper Creek country as early as the time of 

 De Luna, 1560. 



COMPARISON OF THE SOUTHEAST WITH CORRESPONDING AREAS IN OTHER 



PARTS OF THE WORLD 



In the classification of J. Russell Smith, Professor of Economic 

 Geography at Columbia University, the Gulf region finds its climatic 

 counterparts in northeastern China, and small areas in southeastern 

 South America, southeastern Africa, and southeastern Australia. He 

 characterizes the type as follows : 



Warm temperate, eastern margin or China type of climate is found in areas 

 in the same latitude as those having the Mediterranean type, but on the eastern 

 side of continents. These areas have abundant summer rains, thus providing 

 vegetation with heat and moisture at the same time. Of the six areas which 

 have this climate the Asiatic, peopled by the Chinese, the Japanese and the 

 Koreans, supports greater populations than any other. Southeastern United 

 States, with about 700,000 square miles of this type of climate, is one of the 

 great potential food reserves of the world. The South American, the African 

 and the Australian areas are much smaller, not so well supplied with rain and 



