Chapter II: The Maskoki Family (2)

Some Hitchiti Indians trace their mythic origin to a fall from the sky, but my informants, Chicote and G. W. Stidham, gave me the following tale: "Their ancestors first appeared in the country by coming out of a canebrake or reed thicket (útski in Hitchiti) near the sea coast. They sunned and dried their children during four days, then set out, arrived at a lake and stopped there. Some thought it was the sea, but it was a lake; they set out again, traveled up a stream and settled there for a permanency." Another tradition says that this people was the first to settle at the site of Okmulgi town, an ancient capital of the confederacy.

The tribe was a member of the Creek confederacy and does not figure prominently in history. The first mention I can find of it, is of the year 1733, when Gov. Oglethorpe met the Lower Creek chiefs at Savannah, Ga., to conciliate their tribes in his favor. The "Echetas" had sent their war-chiefs, Chutabeeche and Robin with four attendants (Ch. C. Jones, Tomochichi, p. 28). The Yutchitálgi of our legend, who were represented at the Savannah council of 1735 by "Tomehuichi, dog king of the Euchitaws," are probably the Hitchiti, not the Yuchi. Wm. Bartram calls them (1773) "Echetas" also.

The dialect spoken by the Hitchiti and Mikasuki once spread over an extensive area, for local names are worded in it from the Chatahuchi river in an eastern direction up to the Atlantic coast. To these belong those mentioned under "the name Maskoki," p. 58.

According to Wm. Bartram, Travels, pp. 462-464, the following towns on Chatahuchi river spoke the "Stincard" language, that is a language differing from Creek or Muscogulge: Chíaha (Chehaw), Hitchiti (Echeta), Okóni (Occone), the two Sáwokli (Swaglaw, Great and Little). From this it becomes probable, though not certain, that the dialect known to us as Hitchiti was common to them all. The Sáwokli tribe, settled in the Indian Territory, have united there with the Hitchiti, a circumstance which seems to point to ancient relationship.

Like the Creeks, the Hitchiti have an ancient _female_ dialect, still remembered and perhaps spoken by the older people, which was formerly the language of the males also. The woman language existing among the Creek Indians is called by them also the _ancient_ language. A thorough study of these archaic remnants would certainly throw light on the early local distribution of the tribes and dialects of the Maskoki in the Gulf States.

HUNTER'S SONG.

The following ancient hunting song may serve as a specimen of the female dialect of Hitchiti; the ending _-i_ of the verbs, standing instead of _-is_ of the male dialect, proves it to be worded in that archaic form of speech. Obtained from Judge G. W. Stidham:

Hántun talánkawati ā′klig; éyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap'hú!
aluktchabakliwáti ā′klig; éyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap'hú!
aluktigonknawáti ā′klig; áyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap'hú!
aluk'hadshá-aliwati ā′klig; éyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap'hú!
hántun ayawáti ā′klig; áyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap'hú!

Somewhere (the deer) lies on the ground, I think; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It is raising up its head, I believe; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It attempts to rise, I believe; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
Slowly it raises its body, I think; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It has now risen on its feet, I presume; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!

At every second line of this song the singer kicks at a log, feigning to start up the deer by the noise from its recesses in the woods. The song-lines are repeated thrice, in a slow and plaintive tune, except the refrain, which is sung or rather spoken in a quicker measure, and _once_ only. For the words of the text and of the refrain, cf. the Hitchiti Glossary.

THE HITCHITI DIALECT

of the Maskoki language-family is analogous, though by no means identical with the Creek dialect in its grammatic outlines. Many points of comparison will readily suggest themselves to our readers, and enable us to be comparatively short in the following sketch.

The female dialect is an archaic form of Hitchiti parallel to archaic Creek; both were formerly spoken by both sexes. Only the common form (or male language) of Hitchiti will be considered here.

PHONETICS.

The _phonetic system_ is the same as in Creek, except that the sonant mutes, b, g, are more distinctly heard (d is quite rare). The processes of alternation are the same in both dialects. Many vowels of substantives are short in Creek, which appear long in Hitchiti: ă′pi _tree_: H. ā′pi; hă′si _sun, moon_: H. hā′si; nĭ′ta _day_: H. níta etc.

MORPHOLOGY.

_Noun._ The case inflection of the substantive, adjective, of some pronouns and of the nominal forms of the verb is effected by the suffixes: -i for the absolute, -ut for the subjective, -un for the objective case: yáti _person_, yátut, yátun; náki _what, which_, nákut, nákun. A few verbals inflect in -a, -at, -an; for instance, those terminating in -hunga.

The diminutive ending is the same as in Creek: -odshi, -udshi.

To the Creek collective suffix -algi corresponds -a'li, which is, in fact, the third person of a verbal plural: míki _chief_, miká'li _the class of chiefs_ and: "_they are chiefs_." Maskóki: Maskoká'li _the Creek people_; fápli'hitchi wind, fápli'htcha'li _wind clan, wind gens_.

Hitchiti has a greater power of verbifying substantives than Creek: míki _chief_, mikólis _I am chief_; tchóyi _pine-tree_, tchóyus _it is a pine tree_.

There is no real substantive verb in the language, and adjectives, when becoming verbified, are turned into attributive verbs, as in Creek: wánti _strong, hard_; tsawántus _I am strong_; wántus _he, it is strong, hard_; wántatik _not strong_; wántigus _he is very strong_; wántatis he is not strong; wanta'hlátis _he is not strong at all_.

The gradation of the adjective is expressed either by the attributive verb, to which isi-, is- is prefixed, or in some other ways syntactically:

Kúdsuni tchátu-kunáwun isínwantûs _iron is harder than silver_.

ukitchúbi okilósi ihayuχkíki o'latíwats a _lake is deeper
than a river_; lit. "to river the lake in its depth does not
come up." This may also be expressed: okilósi (u)kitchóbi
isihayuχkúwats; lit. "a lake (than) a river more-deepens."

yá hali'hlósăka lápkun uⁿweíkas _this boy is the tallest_;
lit. "this boy all surpasses in height."

yát yákni tchäíh'-apiktchaχáyus _this is the highest
mountain_; lit. "this ground-high stands ahead."

The numeral has two forms for the cardinal number: one used attributively, and another, abbreviated from it, used exclusively for counting; there are, outside of this, forms for the ordinal, for the distributive, and for the adverbial numeral. The list of the numerals is as follows:

_Cardinals._ _Ordinals._ _Distributive._ _Adverbial._
1 `lámin `láhai'h índshuatki `láhamin a`la'hmi
"_beginning_."
2 túklan tukā′ satóklaka tuklákan satúkla'h
3 tutchínan tutchi satotchínaka tutchinákan atutchína'h
4 sitákin síta'h isítagika sitahákin asítagi
5 tchaχgípan tchá'hgi istchaχgípaka tchaχgipákan atsá'hgipi
6 ípagin ípa isipágaka ipahákan isípagi
7 kulapákin kúlapa iskulapákika kulapáhakan iskulapáki
8 tusnapákin tusnapá istusnapákika tusnapáhakan istusnapáki
9 ustapákin ustapá isustapákika ustapáhakan isustapáki
10 pokólin pukú ispokólika pukúlakan ispukúli
20 pokóli túklan ispokol-túklaka pokó-tukúlakan ispukúli-túklan
100 tchúkpi `lámin istchukpi-`lámika tchukpi-`lámakan istchukpi-`lámin

_Folded four times_ is expressed by the cardinal: po`lótki sítaki;
_folded eight times_: po`lótki tusnapákin.

The _personal pronoun_ appears in different forms: subjective absolute; subjective prefixed to verbs and objective pronoun.

Subjective absolute: Subj. prefixed: Objective:
_I_ ā′ni tcha-, am-, an-, a- tcha-
_thou_ tchí'hni tchi- tchi-
_he, she, it_ í'hni im-, in-, i-
_we_ pú'hni pu-, po- pu-
_ye_ tchi'hnitáki tchi-, inverted: ítch- tchi-, w. suffix
_they_ i'hnitáki im-, in-, i-

ánāli (usually ánalut) _myself_, 2 s. tchí'hnāli, 3 s. í'hnāli; pú'hnāli _ourselves_, 2 pl. tchi'hnālitáki, 3 pl. i'hnalitáki.

_The possessive pronoun._

_my_ am-, an-, a- tcha-, inverted: atch-
_thy_ tchi-, tchi-, inverted: itch-
_his, her, its_ im-, in-, i- im-, in-, i-
_our_ pú'hni, pu- pun-, pu-, po-
_your_ tchíχtchi, tchi- tchi-, with suffix
_their_ im-, in-, i- i- etc., with suffix.

tchálbi _my hand_ or _hands_, tchílbi, ílbi; púlbi _our hand_
or _hands_, tchílbuχtchi, ílbi.

ántchiki _my house_ or _houses_; tchíntchiki, íntchiki;
púntchiki, tchíntchigoχtchi, íntchigoχtchi.

_Demonstrative pronouns_: ma, mût, mûn (Cr. ma); yá, yát, yán
or yûn (Cr. hía); yákti, yáktut, yáktun (Cr. ása); má'hmali
_the same_.

_Demonstr.-relat. pronoun_: náki, nákut, nákun _which, what_.

_Interrogative pronouns_: nó`li? nó`lut or nó`lut i? nó`lun or
nó`lun i? _who?_ náki? nákut? nákun? _which? what?_ nákon
i? _what is it_?

_The Hitchiti verb_ equals the Creek verb in the abundance of inflectional forms. In order to show the inflection of a verb (or rather a part of it), going parallel to the one chosen as the Creek paradigm, we select ísiki _to take, to carry_; áwiki being used when a plurality of objects is concerned; Creek: ísita, tcháwita.

ísilis _I take_, 2 s. ísitskas, 3 s. ísis; 1 pl. ísikas, 2 pl.
isátchkas, 3 pl. ísa`li.

áwalis _I take_, pl. of obj., 2 s. awitskas, 3 s. áwas; 1 pl.
áwikas, 2 pl. áwatskas, 3 pl. áwa`lis.

í'hsilis _I took_ a short time ago (Cr. ísayanks); á'hwalis.

ísānis _I took_ several days ago (Cr. isāímatas); also _I
had taken_; áwānis.

ísiliktas _I have taken_ many years ago (Cr. īsáyantas);
áwaliktas.

ísilālis _I shall take_ (Cr. isá`lis); áwalālis.

ísis! pl. ísitis! _take it_! ā′wis! ā′witis! (or ā'watis!)

ísiχtchi _having taken, holding in one's hands_; áwiχtchi.

í'hsik (object) _taken_, part. pass.; á′hwak.

ísigi, ísiki _to take, the taking_; áwigi, áwiki.

ísi, ísut, ísun _one who takes, carries_; áwi, áwut, áwun.

isihúnka, -at, -an _one who took, has taken_; awihúnka, -at, -an.

isáhika, -at, -an _one who is going to take_; awáhika, -at, -an.

From this verb ísiki, áwiki the language does not form any passive, reciprocal, reflective and causative voice, but employs verbs from other radices instead. The interrogative and negative inflection is as follows:

ísatas _I do not take_, 2 s. ísitskatis, 3 s. ísitis; 1 pl.
isíkatis, 2 pl. isátskatis, 3 pl. (?); áwatas _I do not
take_, pl. of obj., awítskatis etc.

ísilus? _do I take_? 2 s. ísitskus? 3 s. ísus? 1 pl. ísigō?
2 pl. ísatskō? 3 pl. (?). áwalus? _do I take_? etc.

isatä′sōs? _do I not take_? 2 s. isitskatibōs? 3 s. isitísōs?
1 pl. isikatíbōs? 2 pl. isatskatíbōs? 3 pl. (?). awatä′sōs?
_do I not take_? etc.

A form for the 3. pl. was remembered by none of my informants, who state that the Hitchiti render it by a circumscriptive sentence.

A specimen of the objective or compound conjugation of the verb _I strike_, batā′plilis, runs as follows:

_I strike thee once_ tchibatáplilis, _repeatedly_ tchibátaspilis
_I strike him, her once_ batā′plilis batáspilis
_ye_ tchibatap'hólilis tchibatas'hópilis
_them_ batas'húpilis batas'húpilis
_He, she strikes me once_: tchábataplis, _repeatedly_: tchabátaspis
_thee_ tchíbataplis tchibátaspis
_him, her_ batáplis batáspis
_us_ púbataplis pubátaspis
_ye_ tchibatap'hólis tchibatas'hópis
_them_ batáspis batas'hópis

The same verb _to strike_ gives origin to the following _genera verbi_, each appearing under two different forms, and all being quoted in the present tense of the declarative mode, affirmative voice:

_Active_: batā′plilis _I strike_ (now) _by one blow_
batā′spilis _I strike_ (now) _by several blows_
_Passive_: tchabátapkas _I am struck once, by one blow_
tchabátaspkas _I am struck more than once_ (obsolete)
_Reciprocal_: itibatáplikas _we strike each other once_
itibatáspigas _we strike each other repeatedly_
_Reflective_: ilbatā′plilis _I strike myself by one blow_
ilbatáspilis _I strike myself by several blows_
_Causative_: bataplídshilis _I cause to strike once_
bataspídshilis _I cause to strike repeatedly_.

_Postpositions_ govern the absolute case of the noun just as
they do in Creek:

kónut tchígi í-aχnun i-aulídshis _the skunk stays under the
house_.

sáwut áhi ígapun untchóχolis _the racoon sits on the top of
the tree_.

ótaki labáki _near_ or _around an island_.

ótagi apálu-un _on the other side of the island_.

yántuntun hitchkátigan _beyond sight_, is an instance of a
postposition figuring as preposition, and is connected with
the objective case of a noun. It is not a real postposition,
but an adverb used in this function.

ALIBAMU.

The disconnected remarks on the Alibamu Indians which we find in the documents and chronicles represent them as early settlers on Alabama river, at a moderate distance from the confluence of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers. In our legend they are introduced among the four tribes contending for the honor of being the most ancient and valorous.

D. Coxe, Carolana, p. 24 mentions their tribal name in the following connection: "On Coussa river[50] are the Ullibalies[51], Olibahalies, Allibamus; below them the Tallises." Allen Wright derives Alibamu (also written Allibamous, Alibami, Albámu, incorrectly Alibamon) from Cha'hta: álba _thicket_ and áyalmu, _place cleared_ (of trees, thickets): álba ayamúle _I open_ or _clear the thicket_. If this derivation is correct, the name, with its generic definition, could apply to many localities simultaneously. Let us hear what Sekopechi or "Perseverance," an old man of that tribe, related to Agent Eakin concerning their early migrations and settlements. (Schoolcraft, Indians I, 266 sqq):

[Footnote 50: Anciently Coosa, Coussa river was a name given to
our Coosa river, as well as to its lower course below the
junction of Tallapoosa, now called Alabama river. Wright's Ch.
Dictionary has: alua _a burnt place_.]

[Footnote 51: In the report of the Fidalgo de Elvas, Ullibahali,
a walled town, is not identical with Alimamu. Ullibahali is a
name composed of the Alibamu: óli _village, town_ and the
Hitchiti: báhali _down stream_, and _southward_, which is the
Creek wáhali _South_.]

"The Great Spirit brought the Alabama Indians from the ground between the Cahawba and Alabama rivers, and they believe that they are of right possessors of this soil. The Muscogees formerly called themselves Alabamians ("thicket-clearers"?), but other tribes called them Oke-choy-atte, "life."[52] The earliest oral tradition of the Alibamu of a migration is, that they migrated from the Cahawba and Alabama rivers to the junction of the Tuscaloosa (?) and Coosa rivers, where they sojourned for two years. After this they dwelt at the junction of the Coosa and Alabama rivers, on the west side of what was subsequently the site of Fort Jackson. It is supposed that at this time they numbered fifty effective men. They claimed the country from Fort Jackson to New Orleans for their hunting grounds."

[Footnote 52: Oktchóyi is the Cha'hta term for _living, alive_.]

Whatever may be the real foundation of this confused narrative, it seems that the Alibamu reached their later seats from a country lying to the west or southwest, and that they showed a preference for river-junctions, for this enabled them to take fish in two rivers simultaneously. Another migration legend of this tribe, as related by Milfort, will be given and accounted for below.

Biedma relates that H. de Soto, when reaching the "Alibamo province," had to fight the natives entrenched within a palisaded fort (fuerte de Alibamo, Garc., de la Vega) and the Fidalgo of Elvas: that the cacique of Chicaça came with the caciques of Alimamu and of Nicalasa,[53] whereupon a fight took place. But that Alibamo province lay _northwest_ of Chicaça town and province, and was reached only after passing the Chocchechuma village on Yazoo river; it was probably not the Alibamu tribe of the later centuries. In the report of Tristan de Luna's expedition no mention is made of the Alibamu Indians, though it speaks of "Rio Olibahali."

[Footnote 53: Gallatin, Syn. p. 105, proposes to read Nita-lusa,
_Black Bear_.]

In 1702 five French traders started with ten Alibamu natives from Mobile, for the country where the tribe resided. They were killed by these guides when at a distance of ten leagues from the Alibamu village, and M. de Bienville, then governor of the French colony, resolved to make war on the tribe. He started with a force of seventy Frenchmen and eighteen hundred Indian auxiliaries; the latter deserted after a march of six days, and finally the party was compelled to return. A second expedition, consisting of Frenchmen only, was not more successful, and had to redescend Alabama river in canoes. Mr. de Boisbriand, the leader of a third expedition, finally succeeded in destroying a camp of Alibamu, sixty-five miles up the river, in killing the inmates and capturing their women and children, who were given to the Mobilians, their allies.[54] This action was only the first of a series of subsequent troubles.

[Footnote 54: Relation of Pénicaut, in Margry V, 424-432.]

An alliance concluded by the Alibamu with the Mobilians did not last long, for in 1708 they arrived with a host of Cheroki, Abika and Kataba Indians, in the vicinity of the French fort on Mobile Bay, where Naniabas, Tohomes and Mobilians had settled, but were foiled in their attack upon the Mobilians through the watchfulness of the tribe and of the French colonists. The whole force of their aggressors and their allies combined was estimated at four thousand warriors (_id._, Margry V, 477-478; cf. 427).

In 1713, after the Alibamu had made an inroad into the Carolinas with a host of Kataba and Abika Indians, their confederates, the head-chief of the first-named tribe besought the French commander at Mobile bay to erect a fort in his own country. The offer was accepted, and the tribe was helpful in erecting a spacious fort of about three hundred feet square, on a bluff overlooking the river, and close to their village (_id._, Margry V, 510-511). This fort, built near the junction of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, was called Fort Toulouse, and by the British colonists Fort Albamu, or Alebama garrison.

When Fort Toulouse was abandoned in 1762, some Alibamu Indians followed the French, and established themselves about sixty miles above New Orleans, on Mississippi river, near the Huma village. Th. Hutchins (1784), p. 39. estimates the number of their warriors settled there at thirty. Subsequently they passed into the interior of Louisiana, where some are hunting and roving in the woods at the present time. The majority, however, settled in Polk county, in the southeastern corner of Texas, became agriculturists, and about 1862 numbered over two hundred persons. Some Alibamu reside in the Indian Territory. Cf. Buschmann, Spuren d. azt. Spr., p. 424.

The former seats of the tribe, near the site of the present capital, Montgomery, are described as follows:

Colonel Benj. Hawkins, United States Agent among the Creeks, saw four Alibamu towns on Alabama river, below Koassáti. "The inhabitants are probably the ancient Alabamas, and formerly had a regular town." (Sketch of the Creek Country, pp. 35-37, 1799.) The three first were surrounded by fertile lands, and lay on the eastern bank of Alabama river. Their names were as follows:

Ikan-tcháti or "Red Ground," a small village, with poor and indolent inhabitants.

Tawássa or Tawasa, three miles below Ikan-tcháti, a small village on a high bluff. Called Taouacha by the French, cf. Tohome. The Koassáti word tabasa means _widower, widow_.

Pawókti, small town on a bluff; two miles below Tawássa.

A′tagi, a village four miles below the above, situated on the western bank, and spreading along it for two miles. Also written At-tau-gee, Autaugee, Autobi. Autauga county is named after it.

These Alibamu could raise in all about eighty warriors; they did not conform to Creek custom, nor did they apply the Creek law for the punishment of adultery. Although hospitable to white people, they had very little intercourse with them. Whenever a white person had eaten of a dish and left it, they threw the rest away, and washed everything handled by the guest immediately. The above towns, together with Oktchoyúdshi and Koassáti were, upon a decree of the national council at Tukabatchi, November 27th, 1799, united into one group or class under one "warrior of the nation." The dignitary elected to that post of honor was Hu`lipoyi of Oktchoyúdshi, who had the war titles of hádsho and tustĕnúggi. (Hawkins, pp. 51. 52.) Cf. Witumka.

KOASSÁTI.

The ancient seat of this tribe was in Hawkins' time (1799), on the right or northern bank of Alabama river, three miles below the confluence of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers. Coosada, Elmore county, Alabama, is built on the same spot. "They are not Creeks," says Hawkins (p. 35), "although they conform to their ceremonies; a part of this town moved lately beyond the Mississippi, and have settled there." G. W. Stidham, who visited their settlement in Polk county, Texas, during the Secession war, states that they lived there east of the Alibamu, numbered about 200 persons, were pure-blooded and very superstitious. Some Creek Indians are with them, who formerly lived in Florida, between the Seminoles and the Lower Creeks.

Their tribal name is differently spelt: Coosadas, Koösati, Kosádi, Coushatees, etc. Milfort, Mém. p. 265, writes it Coussehaté. This tribe must not be confounded with the Conshacs, q. v.

From an Alibamu Indian, Sekopechi, we have a statement on the languages spoken by the people of the Creek confederacy (Schoolcraft, Indians, I, 266 sq.): "The Muskogees speak six different dialects: Muskogee, Hitchitee, Nauchee, Euchee, Alabama and Aquassawtee, but all of them generally understand the Muskogee language." This seems to indicate that the Alibamu dialect differs from Koassáti, for this is meant by Aquassawtee; but the vocabularies of General Albert Pike show that both forms of speech are practically one and the same language.

Historic notices of this tribe after its emigration to western parts were collected by Prof. Buschmann, Spuren d. aztek. Sprache, p. 430. Many Koassáti live scattered among the Creeks in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory, at Yufála, for instance.

_Witumka_, on Coosa river, spoke, according to Bartram, the "Stincard" language, and was a town of the Alibamu division. Cf. List of Creek Settlements.

CHICASA.

The northern parts of Mississippi State contain the earliest homes of the warlike tribe of Chicasa Indians which historical documents enable us to trace. Pontotoc county was the centre of their habitations in the eighteenth century, and was so probably at the time of the Columbian discovery; settlements of the tribe scattered along the Mississippi river, in West Tennessee and in Kentucky up to Ohio river, are reported by the later chroniclers.

In the year 1540 the army of Hernando de Soto crossed a portion of their territory, called by its historians "Chicaça provincia," and also visited a town of this name, with a smaller settlement (alojamiento) in its vicinity named Chicaçilla.

Two rivers anciently bore the name of "Chicasa river," not because they were partially or exclusively inhabited by tribes of this nationality, but because their headwaters lay within the Chicasa boundaries. This gives us a clue to the topographic position of the Chicasa settlements. Jefferys (I, 153), states that "Chicasa river is the Maubile or Mobile river, running north and south (now called Lower Alibama river), and that it takes its rise in the country of the Chicasaws in three streams." When L. d'Iberville traveled up the Yazoo river, the villages on its banks were referred to him as lying on "la rivière des Chicachas."[55]

[Footnote 55: Margry IV, 180.]

The most lucid and comprehensive account of the Chicasa _settlements_ is found in Adair's History.

James Adair, who was for several years a trader among the Chicasa, gives the following account of their country and settlements (History, p. 352, sq.): "The Chikkasah country lies in about thirty-five degrees N. Lat., at the distance of one hundred and sixty miles from the eastern side of the Mississippi ... about half way from Mobille to the Illinois, etc. The Chikkasah are now settled between the heads of two of the most western branches of Mobille river and within twelve miles of Tahre Hache (Tallahatchie).... In 1720 they had four contiguous settlements, which lay nearly in the form of three parts of a square, only that the eastern side was five miles shorter than the western, with the open part toward the Choktah. One was called Yaneka, about a mile wide and six miles long ...; another was ten miles long ... and from one to two miles broad. The towns were called Shatara, Chookheereso, Hykehah, Tuskawillao, and Phalacheho. The other square, Chookka Pharáah or "the long-house," was single and ran four miles in length and one mile in breadth. It was more populous than their whole nation contains at present ... scarcely 450 warriors." From Adair's text it appears that the three towns were but a short distance from the fortified places held by them at the time when he composed his History (published 1775). They were about Pontotoc or Dallas counties, Mississippi.

The Chicasa settlements are referred to in detail by B. Romans, East and West Florida, p. 63: "They live in the centre of an uneven and large nitrous savannah; have in it one town, long one mile and a half, very narrow and irregular; this they divide into seven (towns), by the names of Melattaw 'hat and feather,' Chatelaw 'copper town,' Chukafalaya 'long town,' Tuckahaw 'a certain weed,' Ashuck hooma 'red grass.' Formerly the whole of them were enclosed in palisadoes." Unfortunately, this list gives only five towns instead of the seven referred to.

D. Coxe, Carolana (1741) says, when speaking of the Tennessee river (p. 13. 14): "River of the Cusates, Cheraquees or Kasqui river ...; a cataract is on it, also the tribe of the Chicazas." An early French report alludes to one of their villages, situated thirty leagues inward from a place forty leagues above the mouth of Arkansas river. "From Abeeka to the Chickasaw towns the distance is about one hundred and fifty-nine miles, crossing many savannahs;" B. Romans, E. and W. Florida, p. 313.

Through all the epochs of colonial _history_ the Chicasa people maintained their old reputation for independence and bravery. They were constantly engaged in quarrels and broils with all their Indian neighbors: sometimes with the cognate Cha'hta and with the Creeks, at other times with the Cheroki, Illinois, Kickapu, Sháwano, Tonica, Mobilians, Osage and Arkansas (Kapaha) Indians. In 1732 they cut to pieces a war party of the Iroquois invading their territory, but in 1748 coöperated against the French with that confederacy. J. Haywood, in his Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee (1823), p. 240, alludes to a tradition purporting that the Chicasa had formerly assisted the Cheroki in driving the Shawanese from the Cumberland river; the Cheroki desired war, and attacked the Chicasa shortly before 1769, but were utterly defeated by them at the "Chicasa Old Fields," and retreated by way of Cumberland river and the Cany Fork. On the authority of chief Chenubbee, the same author states (p. 290) that a part of the Chicasa established themselves on Savannah river, opposite Augusta, but that misunderstandings with the Creeks made them go west again. In 1795 the Chicasa claimed the land opposite Augusta, and sent a memorial to the United States Government to substantiate that claim. Another fraction of the tribe, called the Lightwood-Knots, went to war with the Creeks, but were reduced by them, and have lived with them in peace ever since. These facts seem to have some reference to the settlement of a Chicasa band near Kasíχta, and east of that town; cf. Kasí'hta.

Pénicaut mentions an intertribal war between them and the Cha'hta, and relates a case of treason committed by a Cha'hta chief in 1703.[56] A war with the Creeks occurred in 1793, in which the Americans stood on the Chicasa side.

[Footnote 56: Margry V, 433 sqq.]

The policy of the Chicasa in regard to the white colonists was that of a steady and protracted enmity against the French. This feeling was produced as well by the intrigues of the British traders residing among them as by their hatred of the Cha'hta, who had entered into friendly relations with the French colonists, though they could not, by any means, be called their trusty allies. By establishing fortified posts on the Yazoo and Little Tombigbee rivers,[57] the French threatened the independence of these Indians, who began hostilities against them in 1722, near the Yazoo post, and urged the Naktche to a stubborn resistance against French encroachments. They sheltered the retreating Naktche against the pursuing French,[58] besieged the commander Denys at Fort Natchitoches, though they were repulsed there with considerable loss, defeated the French invading their country at Amalahta (1736), at the Long House, or Tchúka faláya (Adair, p. 354), and other points, and in the second attack of 1739-40 also baffled their attempts at conquering portions of Chicasa territory.

[Footnote 57: The site once occupied by Fort Tombigbee is now
called Jones' Bluff, on Little Tombigbee river. Cf. Dumont in B.
F. French, Histor. Coll. of La., V, 106 and Note.]

[Footnote 58: Adair, History, p. 353, asserts that the real
cause of the third Naktche-French war lay in the instigations of
the Chicasa. On the causes and progress of the hostilities
between the French and the Chicasa, cf. pp. 353-358. They
attacked there his own trading house, cf. p. 357. Cf. also
Naktche, in this vol., pp. 34-39.]

The relations of these Indians with the United States were regulated by a treaty concluded at Hopewell, 1786, with Pio mico and other Chicasa chiefs. Their territory was then fixed at the Ohio river on the north side, and by a boundary line passing through Northern Mississippi on the south side. They began to emigrate to the west of Arkansas river early in this century, and in 1822 the population remaining in their old seats amounted to 3625. Treaties for the removal of the remainder were concluded at Pontotoc creek, October 20th, 1832, and at Washington, May 24th, 1834.

After their establishment in the Indian Territory the political connections still existing between them and the Cha'hta were severed by a treaty signed June 22d, 1855. The line of demarcation separating the two "nations," and following the meridian, is not, however, of a binding character, for individuals of both peoples settle east or west of it, wherever they please (G. W. Stidham).

No plausible analysis of the _name_ Chicasa, which many western tribes, as well as the Chicasa themselves, pronounce Shikasa, Shíkasha, has yet been suggested. Near the Gulf coast it occurs in many local names, and also in Chickasawhay river, Mississippi, the banks of which were inhabited by Cha'hta people.

In language and customs they differ but little from their southern neighbors, the Cha'hta, and must be considered as a northern branch of them. Both have two phratries only, each of which were (originally) subdivided, in an equal manner, into four gentes; but the thorough-going difference in the totems of the 8-12 gentes points to a very ancient separation of the two national bodies.

The Chicasa _language_ served as a medium of commercial and tribal intercourse to all the nations inhabiting the shores of the great Uk-'hina ("water road"), or Lower Mississippi river. Jefferys (I, 165), compares it to the "lingua franca in the Levant; they call it the vulgar tongue." A special mention of some tribes which spoke it is made by L. d'Iberville[59]: "Bayagoula, Ouma, Chicacha, Colapissa show little difference in their language;" and "The Oumas, Bayogoulas, Theloël, Taensas, the Coloas, the Chycacha, the Napissa, the Ouachas, Choutymachas, Yagenechito, speak the same language and understand the Bilochy, the Pascoboula." As we have seen before, three of the above tribes, the Naktche portion of the Théloël settlements, the Taensa and the Shetimasha had their own languages, but availed themselves of the Chicasa for the purposes of intertribal barter, exchange and communication. The most important passages on this medium of trade are contained in Le Page du Pratz, _Histoire_ (II, 218. 219): "La langue Tchicacha est parlée aussi par les Chatkas (sic!) et (corrompue) par les Taensas; cette langue corrompue est appelée _Mobilienne_ par les Français," etc., and in Margry V, 442, where Pénicaut alleges to have studied the languages of the Louisiana savages pretty thoroughly for five years, "surtout le Mobilien, qui est le principal et qu'on entend par toutes les nations." Cf. the article Naktche.

[Footnote 59: Margry IV, 412 and 184.]

A few terms in which Chicasa differs from main Cha'hta are as follows:

Chicasa kuíshto _panther_, Cha'hta kuítchito
kóe _domestic cat_, káto (Spanish)
ísto _large_, tchíto
iskitinúsa _small_, iskitinĕ
húshi _bird_, fúshi

The Chicasa trade language also adopted a few terms from northern languages, as:

píshu _lynx_, from Odshibwē pishīu; also an Odshibwē totem-clan.

piakímina _persimmon_, changed in the French Creole dialect to
_plaquemine_.

shishikushi _gourd-rattle_ or _drum_, Margry IV, 175.

sacacuya _war-whoop_, la huée.

Lewis H. Morgan published in his _Ancient Society_ (New York, 1877). p. 163, a communication from Rev. Chas. C. Copeland, missionary among the Chicasa Indians, on the totemic _gentes_ observed by him. Copeland states that the descent is in the female line, that no intermarriage takes place among individuals of the same gens, and that property as well as the office of chief is hereditary in the gens. The following list will show how considerably he differs from Gibbs' list inserted below:

_Panther phratry_, kóa. Its gentes: 1. kó-intchush, _wild cat_; 2. fúshi, _bird_; 3. nánni, _fish_; 4. issi, _deer_.

_Spanish phratry_, Ishpáni. Its gentes: 1. sháwi _racoon_; 2. Ishpáni _Spanish_; 3. míngo _Royal_; 4. huskóni; 5. túnni _squirrel_; 6. hotchon tchápa _alligator_; 7. nashóba _wolf_; 8. tchú'hla _blackbird_.

Further investigations will show whether the two gentes, Ishpáni and mingo, are not in fact one and the same, as they appear in Gibbs' list. This list is taken from a manuscript note to his Chicasa vocabulary, and contains nine "clans" or iksa, yéksa:

Spáne or _Spanish_ gens; míngos or chiefs could be chosen from
this gens only, and were hereditary in the female line;
shă-é or _racoon_ gens; second chiefs or headmen were
selected from it; kuishto or _tiger_ gens; ko-intchūsh or
_catamount_ gens; náni or _fish_ gens; íssi or _deer_ gens;
halóba or? gens; foshé or _bird_ gens; huⁿshkoné or
_skunk_ gens, the least respected of them all.

An account in Schoolcraft, Indians I, 311, describes the mode of tribal government, and the method by which the chiefs ratified the laws passed. Sick people, when wealthy, treated their friends to a sort of donation party (or pótlatch of the Pacific coast) after their recovery; a custom called tonshpashúpa by the tribe.

TRIBES ON THE YAZOO RIVER.

Along the Yazoo river existed a series of towns which seem to have been independent at the time of their discovery, but at a late period, about 1836, were incorporated into the Chicasa people. Some were inhabited by powerful and influential tribes, but it is uncertain whether any of them were of Maskoki lineage and language or not.[60] During the third Naktche-French war, the Yazoo tribes suffered considerably from attacks directed upon them by the Arkansas Indians. The countries along Yazoo river are low and swampy grounds, subject to inundations, especially the narrow strip of land extending between that river and the Mississippi.

[Footnote 60: I have treated of some of these tribes (Tonica,
Koroa) in separate articles. Moncachtape said to du Pratz, that
the Yazoo Indians regarded the Chicasa as their elders, "since
from them came the language of the country."]

The Taensa guide who accompanied Lemoyne d'Iberville, up the Yazoo river in March 1699, enumerated the villages seen on its low banks in their succession from southwest to northeast, as follows (Margry IV, 180):

1. Tonica, four days' travel from the Naktche and two days'
travel from the uppermost town, Thysia. Cf. Tonica, p. 39 sqq.

2. Ouispe; the Oussipés of Pénicaut.

3. Opocoulas. They are the Affagoulas, Offogoula, Ouféogoulas
or "Dog-People" of the later authors, and in 1784 some of
them are mentioned as residing eight miles above Pointe
Coupée, on W. bank of Mississippi river.

4. Taposa; the Tapouchas of Baudry de Lozière.

5. Chaquesauma. This important tribe, written also Chokeechuma,
Chactchioumas, Saques'húma, etc., are the Saquechuma visited
by a detachment of de Soto's army in their walled town
(1540). The name signifies "red crabs." Cf. Adair, History,
p. 352: "Tahre-hache (Tallahatchi),[61] which lower down is
called Chokchooma river, as that nation made their first
settlements there, after they came on the other side of
Mississippi.... The Chicasaw, Choktah and also the
Chokchooma, who in process of time were forced by war to
settle between the two former nations, came together from
the west as one family," etc. Cf. B. Romans, p. 315. _Crab,
crawfish_ is sóktchu in Creek, sáktchi in Hitchiti.

[Footnote 61: A large northern affluent of Yazoo river, in
northern parts of Mississippi State.]

6. Outapa; called Epitoupa, Ibitoupas in other documents.

7. Thysia; at six days' canoe travel (forty-two leagues) from
the Naktche. They are the Tihiou of Dan. Coxe (1741).

Pénicaut, who accompanied d'Iberville in this expedition, gives an account of the Yazoo villages, which differs in some respects from the above: Going up the river of the Yazoux for four leagues, there are found on the right the villages inhabited by six savage nations, called "les Yasoux, les Offogoulas, les Tonicas, les Coroas, les Ouitoupas et les Oussipés." A French priest had already fixed himself in one of the villages for their conversion.[62]

[Footnote 62: Cf. Margry V, 401 and Note.]

D'Iberville was also informed that the Chicasa and the Napissas formed a union, and that the villages of both were standing close to each other. The term Napissa, in Cha'hta naⁿpissa, means _spy, sentinel, watcher_, and corresponds in signification to Akolapissa, name of a tribe between Mobile Bay and New Orleans, q. v. Compare also the Napochies, who, at the time of Tristan de Luna's visit, warred with the Coça (or Kusa, on Coosa river?): "Coças tenian guerra con los Napochies"; Barcia, Ensayo, p. 37.

D. Coxe, Carolana, p. 10, gives the Yazoo towns in the following order: The lowest is Yassaues or Yassa (Yazoo), then Tounica, Kouroua, Samboukia, Tihiou, Epitoupa. Their enumeration by Baudry de Lozière, 1802, is as follows: "Yazoos, Offogoulas, Coroas are united, and live on Yazoo river in one village; strength, 120 men. Chacchioumas, Ibitoupas, Tapouchas in one settlement on Upper Yazoo river, forty leagues from the above." Cf. Koroa.

Another Yazoo tribe, mentioned at a later period as confederated with the Chicasa are the Tchúla, Chola or "Foxes."

Yazoo is not a Cha'hta word, although the Cha'hta had a "clan" of that name: Yā′sho ókla, Yáshukla, as I am informed by Gov. Allen Wright.[63] T. Jefferys (I, 144) reports the Yazoos to be the allies of the "Cherokees, who are under the protection of Great Britain." He also states that the French post was three leagues from the mouth of Yazoo river, close to a village inhabited by a medley of Yazoo, Couroas and Ofogoula Indians, and mentions the tribes in the following order (I, 163): "Yazoo Indians, about 100 huts; further up, Coroas, about 40 huts; Chactioumas or "red lobsters", about 50 huts, on same river; Oufé-ouglas, about 60 huts; Tapoussas, not over 25 huts."

[Footnote 63: Cf. article on Yuchi, p. 24.]

CHA'HTA.

The southwestern area of the Maskoki territory was occupied by the Cha'hta people, and in the eighteenth century this was probably the most populous of all Maskoki divisions. They dwelt in the middle and southern parts of what is now Mississippi State, where, according to early authors, they had from fifty to seventy villages; they then extended from the Mississippi to Tombigbee river, and east of it.

The tribes of Tuskalusa or Black Warrior, and that of Mauvila, which offered such a bold resistance to H. de Soto's soldiers, were of Cha'hta lineage, though it is not possible at present to state the location of their towns at so remote a period.

On account of their vicinity to the French colonies at Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans, and on other points of the Lower Mississippi, the Cha'hta associated early with the colonists, and became their allies in Indian wars. The French and British traders called them Têtes-Plattes, Flatheads. In the third French war against the Naktche a large body of Cha'hta warriors served as allies under the French commander, and on January 27, 1730, before daylight, made a furious onslaught on their principal village, killing sixty enemies and rescuing fifty-nine French women and children and one hundred and fifty negro slaves previously captured by the tribe (Claiborne, Mississippi, I, 45. 46). In the Chicasa war fourteen hundred Cha'hta Indians aided the French army in its attack on the Chúka p'háraah or Long-House Town, as auxiliaries (Adair, History, p. 354).

They continued friends of the French until (as stated by Romans, Florida, p. 74) some English traders found means to draw the eastern party and the district of Coosa (together called Oypat-oocooloo, "small nation") into a civil war with the western divisions, called Oocooloo-Falaya ("long tribe"), Oocooloo-Hanalé ("six tribes"), and Chickasawhays, which, after many conflicts and the destruction of East Congeeto, ended with the peace of 1763.

The Cha'hta did not rely so much on the products of the chase, as other tribes, but preferred to till the ground extensively and with care. Later travelers, like Adair, depict their character and morality in very dark colors. In war, the Cha'hta east of the Mississippi river were less aggressive than those who resided west of it, for the policy of keeping in the defensive agreed best with their dull and slow disposition of mind. About 1732, the ordinary, though contested boundary between them and the Creek confederacy was the ridge that separates the waters of the Tombigbee from those of the Alabama river. Their principal wars, always defensive and not very sanguinary, were fought with the Creeks; in a conflict of six years, 1765-1771, they lost about three hundred men (Gallatin, Synopsis, p. 100). Claiborne mentions a battle fought between the two nations on the eastern bank of Noxubee river, about five miles west of Cooksville, Noxubee County, Mississippi. Charles Dobbs, the settler at the farm including the burying-ground of those who fell in that battle, opened it in 1832, and found many Spanish dollars in the graves. It was some three hundred yards northeast of the junction of Shuqualak creek with the river. A decisive victory of the Cha'hta took place at Nusic-heah, or Line creek, over the Chocchuma Indians, who belonged to the Chicasa connection; the battle occurred south of that creek, at a locality named Lyon's Bluff.[64]

[Footnote 64: Claiborne, Mississippi, Appendix, I, p. 485. 486.]

Milfort establishes a thorough distinction between the northern and the southern Cha'hta as to their pursuits of life and moral character. The Cha'hta of the northern section are warlike and brave, wear garments, and crop their hair in Creek fashion. The southern Cha'hta, settled on fertile ground west of Mobile and southwest of Pascogoula, are dirty, indolent and cowardly, miserably dressed and inveterate beggars. Both sections could in his time raise six thousand warriors (p. 285-292). The mortuary customs, part of which were exceedingly barbaric, are spoken of with many details by Milfort (p. 292-304); their practices in cases of divorce and adultery (p. 304-311) are dwelt upon by several other writers, and were of a revolting character.[65]

[Footnote 65: Cf. B. Romans, E. and W. Florida, p. 86-89.]

No mention is made of the "great house" or "the square" in Cha'hta towns, as it existed in every one of the larger Creek communities, nor of the green corn dance. But they had the favorite game of chunké, and played at ball between village and village (B. Romans, p. 79. 80). The men assisted their wives in their agricultural labors and in many other works connected with the household.[66] The practice of flattening the heads extended to the male children only; the Aimará of Peru observed the same exclusive custom.

[Footnote 66: B. Romans, p. 86. He describes education among the
Cha'hta, p. 76. 77; the sarbacane or blow-gun, p. 77.]

The collecting and cleaning of the bones of corpses was a custom existing throughout the southern as well as the northern Indians east of Mississippi river, and among some tribes west of it. Every tribe practiced it in a different manner; the Cha'hta employed for the cleaning: "old gentlemen with very long nails," and deposited the remains, placed in boxes, in the bone houses existing in every town.[67] Tombigbee river received its name from this class of men: itúmbi-bíkpi "coffin-maker." The Indians at Fort Orange or Albany (probably the Mohawks) bound up the cleaned bones in small bundles and buried them: De Vries, Voyages (1642) p. 164; the Nanticokes removed them to the place from which the tribe had emigrated (Heckewelder, Delawares, p. 75 sq.) Similar customs were observed among the Dakota-Santees, Shetimashas and several South American tribes. Captain Smith mentions the quiogozon or burial place of Virginia chiefs.[68]

[Footnote 67: B. Romans, p. 89. 90.]

[Footnote 68: Cf. Lawson, History of Carolina (Reprint 1860), p.
297. More information on Cha'hta burials will be found in H. C.
Yarrow, _Indian mortuary customs_; in First Report of U. S.
Bureau of Ethnology, 1879-1880; especially p. 185.]

The Cha'hta also had the custom, observed down to the present century, of setting up poles around their new graves, on which they hung hoops, wreaths, etc., for the spirit to ascend upon. Around these the survivors gathered every day at sunrise, noon, sunset, emitting convulsive cries during thirty to forty days. On the last day all neighbors assembled, the poles were pulled up, and the lamentation ended with drinking, carousing and great disorders.[69]

[Footnote 69: Missionary Herald of Boston, 1828 (vol. xxiv) p.
380, in an article on Religious Opinions, etc., of the Choctaws,
by Rev. Alfred Wright.]

The Chicasa are not known to have settled _west_ of the Mississippi river to any extensive degree, but their southern neighbors and relations, the Cha'hta, did so at an early epoch, no doubt prompted by the increase of population. The Cha'hta emigrating to these western parts were looked at by their countrymen at home in the same light as the Seminoles were by the Creeks. They were considered as outcasts, on account of the turbulent and lawless elements which made up a large part of them.

On the middle course of Red river Milfort met a body of Cha'hta Indians, who had quitted their country about 1755 in quest of better hunting grounds, and were involved in frequent quarrels with the Caddos (p. 95).

The French found several Cha'hta tribes, as the Bayogoula, Huma and Acolapissa, settled upon Mississippi river. In the eighteenth century the inland Shetimasha on Grand Lake were constantly harassed by Cha'hta incursions. About 1809 a Cha'hta village existed on Washita river, another on Bayou Chicot, Opelousas Parish, Louisiana. Morse mentions for 1820 twelve hundred Cha'hta Indians on the Sabine and Neche rivers, one hundred and forty on Red river near Nanatsoho, or Pecan Point, and many lived scattered around that district. At the present time (1882), encampments of Biloxis, who speak the Cha'hta language, exist in the forests of Louisiana south of Red river.

The Cha'hta nation is formally, though not locally, divided into two íksa (yéksa) or _kinships_, which exist promiscuously throughout their territory. These divisions were defined by Allen Wright as: 1. Kasháp-úkla or kashápa úkĕla (ókla) "part of the people;" 2. Úkla iⁿhulá'hta "people of the headmen."

Besides this, there is another formal division into three ókla, districts or _fires_, the names of which were partly alluded to in the passage from B. Romans:

ókla fálaya "long people";

áhepat ókla "potato-eating people";

ókla hánnali "Sixtown people," who used a special dialect.

The list of Cha'hta gentes, as printed in Lewis H. Morgan, _Ancient Society_,[70] stands as follows:

[Footnote 70: Published New York, 1877. pp. 99. 162.]

_First phratry:_ kúshap ókla or Divided People. Four gentes: 1. kush-iksa, _reed gens_. 2. Law okla. 3. Lulak-iksa. 4. Linoklusha.

_Second phratry:_ wátaki huláta or Beloved People, "people of head-men": Four gentes: 1. chufan íksa, _beloved people_. 2. iskuláni, _small (people)_; 3. chito, _large (people)_; 4. shakch-úkla, _cray-fish people_.

Property and the office of chief was hereditary in the gens.

As far as the wording is concerned, Morgan's list is not satisfactory, but being the only one extant I present it as it is.

Rev. Alfred Wright, missionary of the Cha'hta, knows of six gentes only, but states that there were two great families who could not intermarry. These were, as stated by Morgan, the reed gens and the chufan gens. Wright then continues: "Woman's brothers are considered natural guardians of the children, even during father's lifetime; counsel was taken for criminals from their phratry, the opposite phratry, or rather the principal men of this, acting as accusers. If they failed to adjust the case, the principal men of the next larger division took it up; if they also failed, the case then came before the itimoklushas and the shakch-uklas, whose decision was final. This practice is falling in disuse now." A business-like and truly judicial proceeding like this does much honor to the character and policy of the Cha'hta, and will be found in but a few other Indian communities. It must have acted powerfully against the prevailing practice of family revenge, and served to establish a state of safety for the lives of individuals.

More points on Cha'hta ethnography will be found in the Notes to B. F. French, Histor. Collect, of La., III, 128-139.

The _legends_ of the Cha'hta speak of a giant race, peaceable and agricultural (nahúllo)[71], and also of a cannibal race, both of which they met east of the Mississippi river.

[Footnote 71: Nahúllo, nahúnlo means: greater, higher race,
eminent race; though the original meaning is that of "more
sacred, more honorable." A white man is called by the Cha'hta:
nahúllo.]

The Cha'hta trace their _mythic origin_ from the "Stooping, Leaning or Winding Hill," Náni Wáya, a mound of fifty feet altitude, situated in Winston county, Mississippi, on the headwaters of Pearl river. The top of this "birthplace" of the nation is level, and has a surface of about one-fourth of an acre. One legend states, that the Cha'hta arrived there, after crossing the Mississippi and separating from the Chicasa, who went north during an epidemic. Nanna Waya creek runs through the southeastern parts of Winston county, Miss.

Another place, far-famed in Cha'hta folklore, was the "House of Warriors," Taska-tchúka, the oldest settlement in the nation, and standing on the verge of the Kúshtush[72]. It lay in Neshoba county, Mississippi. It was a sort of temple, and the Unkala, a priestly order, had the custody or care of it. The I′ksa A′numpule or "clan-speakers" prepared the bones of great warriors for burial, and the Unkala went at the head of the mourners to that temple, chanting hymns in an unknown tongue.[73]

[Footnote 72: _Custusha_ creek runs into Kentawha creek,
affluent of Big Black river, in Neshoba county.]

[Footnote 73: Claiborne, Mississippi, I, p. 518.]

The curious tale of the origin of the Cha'hta from Náni Wáya has been often referred to by authors. B. Romans states that they showed the "hole in the ground," from which they came, between their nation and the Chicasa, and told the colonists that their neighbors were surprised at seeing a people rise at once out of the earth (p. 71). The most circumstantial account of this preternatural occurrence is laid down in the following narrative.[74] "When the earth was a level plain in the condition of a quagmire, a superior being, in appearance a _red man_, came down from above, and alighting near the centre of the Choctaw nation, threw up a large mound or hill, called Nanne Wayah, _stooping_ or _sloping hill_. Then he caused the red people to come out of it, and when he supposed that a sufficient number had come out, he stamped on the ground with his foot. When this signal of his power was given, some were partly formed, others were just raising their heads above the mud, emerging into light,[75] and struggling into life.... Thus seated on the area of their hill, they were told by their Creator they should live forever. But they did not seem to understand what he had told them; therefore he took away from them the grant of immortality, and made them subject to death. The earth then indurated, the hills were formed by the agitation of the waters and winds on the soft mud. The Creator then told the people that the earth would bring forth the chestnut, hickory nut and acorn; it is likely that maize was discovered, but long afterward, by a crow. Men began to cover themselves by the long moss (abundant in southern climates), which they tied around their waists; then were invented bow and arrows, and the skins of the game used for clothing."

[Footnote 74: Missionary Herald, 1828, p. 181.]

[Footnote 75: Compare the poetic vision, parallel to this,
contained in Ezekiel, ch. 39.]

Here the creation of the Cha'hta is made coeval with the creation of the earth, and some features of the story give evidence of modern and rationalistic tendencies of the relator. Other Cha'hta traditions state that the people came from the west, and stopped at Nani Waya, only to obtain their laws and phratries from the Creator--a story made to resemble the legislation on Mount Sinai. Other legends conveyed the belief that the emerging from the sacred hill took place only four or five generations before.[76]

[Footnote 76: Missionary Herald, 1828, p. 215.]

The emerging of the human beings from the top of a hill is an event not unheard of in American mythology, and should not be associated with a simultaneous _creation_ of man. It refers to the coming up of primeval man from a lower world into a preëxistent upper world, through some orifice. A graphic representation of this idea will be found in the Návajo creation myth, published in Amer. Antiquarian V, 207-224, from which extracts are given in this volume below. Five different worlds are there supposed to have existed, superposed to each other, and some of the orifices through which the "old people" crawled up are visible at the present time.