Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Particularly of the Georgia Tribes

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER IV. :Music and Musical Instruments.-Dancing.-Games.-Gambling.-Festivals.Divisions of the Year.-Counting.-Funeral Customs. THE Southern Indians were nluch addicted to GAllES, DIVERSIONS, FESTIVALS, and DANCING. It has been quaintly remarked that man is the only animal that laughs, and we find in all ages, and among all peoples, how limited soever their res·ources, or narrow their avenues to pleasure, special attention has ever been paid to the subject of pastimes alid amusements. During periods when the physical development and active training of the human body were eminently necessary for individual protection, subsi~tence, and a toleration of the dangers and privations incident to the precarious and exposed mode of life, the games in vog'ue were decidedly muscular in their character, and ",rere conducted in the open air. On occasions of feasting and dancing, the music, both instrumental and vocal, ,vas ofthat simple, primitive kind, adapted to mark the time required for the saltatory movements in which the performers indulged. Measured souncls there were, but melody and harmony were wanting. The cane flute, the drunl and the rattle, constituted the principal musical illstruments in vogue among the Southern MUSIC AND MUSIC.A.L INSTRUMENTS. 91 tribes. The form ofthe decoratecl reed.flute or recorder 1 has been preserved for our information, and ,ve are also familiar ,vitll the shape of the hand~rattle.2 "For tlleir lnusicl{e," says Captain John Smith,S" they vse a thicke Cane on which they pipe as on a Recorder. For their ,varres they haue a great deepe platter of wood. They co,Ter the lTIouth thereof with a skin, at each corner they tie a walnut, which meeting on the backside neere the bottome, with a sIllall rope they twitch them together till it be so taught and stiffe, that they ll1ay beat vpon it as vpon a drumme. But their cbiefe instruments are Rattles made of small gourds or PUlnpeon's shels. Of these they haue Base, Tenor, Countertenor, Mealle and Treble. These, mingled with their voyces s01netimes tv{enty or thirtie together, make such a terrible l10ise as would rather affright then deligllt allY man." Mr. Bartram 4 asserts that the Southern Indians were all fond of music and dancing, the music being bothvocal andinstrumental. Among the ffil1sical instruments he enumerates the tambour, the rattle-gourd, and a kind of flute made of the joint of a reed, or of a deer's tibia. The last he pronounces a ho\vling instrument, producing, instead of harmony, " a hideous, melancholy discord." With the tambour alld rattle, however, accompallied by s"reet, low voices, he confesses himself well pleased. 'l'hese gourd-rattles contained corn, beans, or small pebble3, and were shaken by· hand or struck against the ornalnental posts which marked the dancing-ri.ng, in exact time with the movements of the performers. Large eart.hen pots, tightly covered ft with 1 "Brevis Narratio," plate xxxvii. 2 ".A.dmirandaNarratio," plate xviii. 3" True TravelS," etc., vol. L, p. 136. Richmond reprint, 1819. 4 " TravelS," etc., p. 502. London, 1792. 5 Brickell's" Natural History of North Carolina," p. 328. Dublin, 1737. Beverly says that these earthen drumA were half-full of water. "History of ,-rir ginia," book iii., p 55. London, 1705 92 ANTIQUITIES OF THE SOUTHERN INDIANS. dressed deer-skins, answered as clrums. The shells of terrapins were also fastened to the ankles or suspended from the waist-belts. These being partially fill~d with small stones or beans, with every motion of the body, ga\re utterance to rattling sounds. The leather stockings of the young dancing-women of the Creeks were " hung full of the hoofs of the roe-deer, in form of bells, in so much as to nlake them sound exactly like castagnettes ." Captaill Romans counted four hundred and ninetytllr ~e of these horn-bells attached to one pair of stoc~­ ings. Nine women, whose hose were similarly furnished , were present at the dance. Allowing the same number of these tinkling ornalnents to each, we will perceive, by easy calculation, that one thousantl one hundred and ten deer must have been killed to furnish these women "ritll their dancing-bells. These musical instruments were supplemented by voices plaintive or Y"ehement, slow or rapid,· as best accorded with the cl1aracter of the dance. Their songs, whether of war or d.evotioIl, harvest or hunting, consisted of but fe,v...