sewels

Noun

sewel (plural sewels)

1. A scarecrow, generally made of feathers tied to a string, hung up to prevent deer from breaking into a place.
   • Their sewels are made by tying a tassel of birch rind , formed like the wing of a paper kite , to the small end of a slight stick , about six feet in length. These sticks are pricked into the ground about ten or a dozen yards apart1768, John Cartwright, Remarks on the Situation of the Aborigines of Newfoundland …