ABSTRACT
Although Millspaugh (1892) attributes the name “devil’s bit” to “an aboriginal legend,” the name was in use in the Old World during the Middle Ages (A.D. 500-ca. 1500), well before the New World was discovered. However, Millspaugh was alluding to the legend recounted in Jonathan Carver’s book Travels through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768 (Vogel 1970). The concept of “devil” did not exist among indigenous people; that is a European belief.
