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SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEEEMONIAL LIFE 49
The old-time Indians did not like milk and many of them would
not take coffee.
An early authority says
In years of scarcity when the corn crop has failed, all of the savages leave
the villages and go with their families to camp in the woods at a distance of
30 or 40 leagues, in places where bison (boeufs sauvages) and deer are to be
found, and they live there by hunting and on (wild) potatoes."
Choctaw culture thus partook of the handicap of the culture of the
rest of the New World outside of the Andean region of South
America in the lack of a domestic animal which could be used as
food. The ill effects of this were twofold. The tribe was compelled
to scatter at certain seasons of the year in search of game,
and in consequence of having no animals upon or near their farms
they did not learn the value of fertilizer. This also tended to ob-
struct the permanent occupation of any one locality and to inhibit
advancement toward a higher civilization. As has been pointed
out, the Choctaw did, in spite of these obstacles, reach a relatively
high position among North American tribes, though this was rather
on the economic than the social or ceremonial side. Considerable
has been said in previous papers regarding the hunting customs of
the southeastern Indians. Those of the Choctaw were essentially
the same, though Vv^e do not find any reference to the communal
hunt which was reported among the Natchez and in some other
quarters, nor of bear preserves such as were maintained by the
Creeks. It is probable that both institutions were known and occasionally
resorted to, but everything connected with the economic
life of the people had become centered so completely about the corn
complex that hunting occupied a wholly secondary position.
Anciently the bow and arrow were of course the principal hunting
implements. In recent times I am told that bows were made of
white hickory or " switch hickory," which they cut in the fall,
allowed to season all winter and made up in the spring. The string
was of rawhide and a piece of dressed hide was used as a wrist
guard. White hickory was also used for the arrow shafts because
when it seasons it does not warp. As to the points, my informant,
Simpson Tubby, remembers that they used the steel from women's
corsets. In olden times they were of flint, cane, and perhaps bone,
but nothing is now remembered regarding these. It is claimed that
a hard yellow or white flint is to be had on Nanih Waiya Creek
about 12 miles from Philadelphia, but the principal places of resort
for flints were along Tallapoosa River, the name of which is said to
refer to them."^ Simpson Tubby says the Choctaw used to go in
" Miss. State Arch., French Dominions.
"« It is probably from Alabama or Choctaw tali pushi, " pulverized rock."