siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

50 BUEEAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 103
crowds to a number of places on that river, including Eclectic,
Horseshoe Bend, Talasi, and a place named after Tecumseh.
The present Choctaw apparently assume that the primary arrow
release was the one in vogue.
However, Adair says:
'Till they were supplied by the English traders with arms and ammuni-
tion, they had very little skill in killing deer; but they improve very fast in
that favourite art: no savages are equal to them in killing bears, panthers,
wild cats, etc., that resort in thick cane-swamps ; which swamps are sometimes
two or three miles over, and an hundred in length, without any break
either side of the stream."
It seems that the French allowed them only a small number of
guns and a limited amount of ammunition.
The French allowed none of them arms and ammunition, except such who
went to war against our Chikkasah friends. One of those outstanding companies
was composed also of several towns; for, usually one town had not
more than from five, to seven guns. "When the owners therefore had hunted
one moon, they lent them for hire to others, for the like space of time; which
was the reason, that their deerskins, by being chiefly killed out of season,
were then much lighter than now.°*
The following quotations from Cushman will give some idea of
individual hunting as practiced by the Choctaw.
Seventy years ago,°°" the Choctaw hunter generally hunted alone and on foot
and when he killed his game, unless small, he left it where it had fallen, and
turning his footsteps homeward, traveled in a straight line, here and there
breaking a twig leaving its top in the direction he had come, as a guide to
his wife whom he intended to send to bring it home. As soon as he arrived, he
informed her of his success and merely pointed in the direction in which the
game lay. At once she mounted a pony and started in the direction indicated
and guided by the broken twigs, she soon arrived at the spot, picked up and
fastened the dead animal to the saddle, mounted and soon went home again
then soon dressed and prepared a portion for her hunter lord's meal, while he
sat and smoked his pipe in meditative silence. No animal adapted for food
was ever killed in wanton sport by an Indian hunter. . . .
Years ago I had a Choctaw (full-blood) friend as noble and true as ever man
possessed. . . . Oft in our frequent hunts together, while silently gliding
through the dense forests ten or fifteen rods apart, he would attract my atten-
tion by his well known ha ha (give caution) in a low but distinct tone of
voice, and point to a certain part of the woods where he had discovered an
animal of some kind; and though I looked as closely as possible I could see
nothing whatever that resembled a living object of any kind. Being at too
great a distance to risk a sure shot, he would signal me to remain quiet, as he
endeavored to get closer. To me that was the most exciting and interesting
part of the scene ; for then began those strategic movements in which the most
skillful white hunter that I have ever seen, was a mere bungler. With deepest
interest, not unmixed with excitiment. I closely watched his every movement as
he slowly and stealthily advanced, with eyes fixed upon his object ; now crawling
noiselessly upon his hands and knees, then as motionless as a stump ; now
5° Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 309. ^e j^i^j^ pp 284-285. ^a About 1830.