the most powerful that of the Wase-ishta ("male deer"). The Puncas are likewise divided into similar bands. Dr. Say does not mention how those several bands or clans are perpetuated; but in another place he says, that "even a very remote degree of consanguinity is an insuperable barrier to the marriage union.”*

I am indebted for the first information respecting the object of that institution among the southern tribes, to the manuscript. notes of Mr. Mitchell, formerly agent amongst the Creeks, communicated to me by Mr. Forsyth; and it has been since fully confirmed by intelligent natives of the several nations. Since, however, the Cherokees and the Creeks have attempted to substitute, for their ancient customs, written laws on the model of ours, the institution is falling into disuse, though very recent instances have occurred of its being enforced.

According to the ancient custom, if an offence was committed by one on another member of the same clan, the compensation to be made on account of the injury was regulated in an amicable way by the other members of the clan. Murder was rarely expiated in any other way than by the death of the murderer; the nearest male relative of the deceased was the executioner; but, this being done as under the authority of the clan, there was no further retaliation. If the injury was committed by some one of another clan, it was not the injured party, but the clan to which he belonged that asked for reparation. This was rarely refused by the clan of the offender; but, in case of refusal, the injured clan had a right to do itself justice, either by killing the offender in case of murder, or inflicting some other punishment for lesser offences. This species of private war was by the Creeks called "to take up the sticks," because the punishment generally consisted in beating the offender. At the time of the annual corn-feast, the sticks were laid down, and could not again be taken up for the same offence. But it seems that originally there had been a superiority amongst some of the clans. That of the Wind had the right to take up the sticks four times, that of the Bear twice, for the same offence; whilst those of the Tiger, of the Wolf, of the Bird, of the Root, and of two more, whose names I do not know, could raise them but once.t

* Vol. I. Chap. xiv.

f The Cherokees, according to Mr. Boudinot's information, were divided into seven clans, the Deer, the Wolf, &c.

It is obvious, that the object of the unknown legislator was, to prevent or soften the effects of private revenge, by transferring the power and duty from the blood relatives to a more impartial body. The father, and his brothers by the same mother, never could belong to the same clan as their son or nephew; whilst the perpetual changes, arising from intermarriages with women of a different clan, prevented their degenerating into distinct tribes, and checked the natural tendency towards a subdivision of the nation into independent communities. The institution may be considered as the foundation of the internal policy, and the basis of the social state, of the Indians. It must have contributed towards preserving the southern nations entire and compact as we found them. It certainly was not preserved in its purity amongst the Lenapes; and this circumstance may have had its share in the great subdivision into small, independent tribes, and consequent impotency, of that numerous nation.

There were also amongst the southern nations other institutions intended still more effectually to check the spirit of revenge and retaliation, so universally indulged by every barbarous people; and calculated to preserve either internal or external peace. Such was, among the Cherokees, the City of Refuge and Peace, Echoteh, where even murderers found at least a temporary asylum. This place, where a perpetual fire was kept, was the residence of a peculiar class of men, known by the name of the "Beloved Men," in whose presence blood could not be shed, and who, even out of the city and wherever they went, secured against any act of violence those under their protection.* Such was also the division of towns or villages amongst the Creeks, into White towns and Red towns, distinguished from each other by poles of those respective colors. Whenever the question of war or peace was deliberately discussed at Thlcocotcho, the general seat of government, it was the duty of the representatives of the White towns to bring forth all the arguments that could be suggested in favor of peace.†

Information given by M. Boudinot. These "Beloved Men" were entirely distinct from the hereditary Mingoes and other chiefs. Mr. Hawkins, under the modest name of Beloved Man of the Four Nations, did, during his life, govern or at least exercise a very considerable influence over the Creeks, Choctaws, and even Chicasas and Cherokees.

Information from Mr. Mitchell and Colonel Hambly. But it refers to customs falling into disuse, and of which traces only remain.

The aristocratical feature of the institution of clans appears to have been general. Some superiority is everywhere ascribed to one of them. : -to the Unamis among the Delawares; to the Wase-ishta among the Omahaws; to the Bear tribe among the Hurons and Five Nations. Charlevoix says,

that when the Mohawks put to death Father Iogues, it was the work of the Bear clan alone, and notwithstanding all the efforts of those of the Wolf and of the Turtle to save him.* But it is among the Natches alone that we find, connected together, a highly privileged class, a despotic government, and something like a regular form of religious worship.

The Natches occupied a territory of moderate extent on the Mississippi, and lived in three villages near the site of the town which has preserved their name. The number of their warriors, which was estimated at twelve hundred, appears from the details of their war with the French to have been rather overrated.

They were divided into four classes or clans, on the same principle and under the same regulations as those of the other southern Indian tribes. They worshipped the sun, from whom the sovereign and the privileged class pretended to be descended; and they preserved a perpetual sacred fire in an edifice appropriated to that purpose. The hereditary dignity of Chief or Great Sun descended as usual by the female line; † and he as well as all the other members of his clan, whether male or female, could marry only persons of an inferior clan. Hence the barbarous custom of sacrificing at their funerals the consorts of the Great Sun and of his mother. Her influence was powerful, and his authority apparently despotic, though checked by her and by some select counsellors of his own clan.

Charlevoix says, that most of the nations of Louisiana had a perpetual fire in their temples. He and Du Pratz describe as eyewitnesses the temple and sacred fire of the Natches. Tonti saw the temple of the Taensas, then living on the west side of the Mississippi, and which is described in his relation with its usual exaggeration. The worship of the sun and fire by

* Vol. I. Year 1646. Father Iogues was the victim of his zeal. He had with difficulty been saved three years before by the good offices of the Dutch commanding officer at Fort Orange.

† Amongst the Hurons the dignity of chief is hereditary through the female line. They believe him to have issued from the sun. Charlevoix, Vol. III.

.

the Bayagoulas, a Mississippi tribe now extinct, is also particularly mentioned; and traces of it are found amongst the Cherokees, the Choctaws, and the Caddoes of Red River.

Du Pratz asserts that the Taensas and the Chitimachas, both originally living on the west side of the Mississippi, were kindred tribes of the Natches. But we have a vocabulary of the Chitimachas, in which no affinity is perceived with that of the Natches. They seem to have been alone of their stock in that region, and according to their tradition had come from the west.

In the year 1729, on account of a threatened encroachment on one of their villages, in the expectation of being joined by the other Indian nations, they unexpectedly attacked and massacred more than two hundred French inhabitants. They were a few months after besieged in their principal fort by the French and the Choctaws, and driven from their country. They retired to the west of the Mississippi, where the French pursued them; and they experienced such losses, that they have ever since ceased to exist as a distinct nation. What contributed most to its extinction, was the capture of the greater part of the women, who were carried to St. Domingo and sold as slaves. The survivors took refuge at first among the Chicasas, and subsequently among the Creeks, with whom they are now incorporated. They are reduced to about three hundred souls, and have preserved their language amongst themselves, but speak Muskhogee; and it is only through that medium that a communication can be held with them, as there is not a single interpreter of their language.

When, in the year 1826, Isahlakteh, the Natches chief, was asked whether he was a Sun, he immediately answered that he was not, for his father was one. But he was less disposed or less ready to answer the inquiries concerning the creed of his tribe at this time. After some conversation between him and Colonel Hambly, this gentleman told me that he said, that the sacred fire was no longer preserved, and that the sun was to them an object of respect but not of worship.

We know but little more than the names of the other small tribes, which formerly inhabited the seashore between the Mobile and the Mississippi, and the two banks of this last river, or which are still found west of the Mississippi, and within

the boundaries of the United States, on and south of Red River.

Du Pratz mentions in the vicinity of the seashore, and east of the Mississippi, the Mobilians, living near the mouth of that river, and speaking the Choctaw language; the Pascagoulas or Pasca Ogoulas ("Bread nation") on the river of that name, now living on Red River; and the Colapissas or Aqueloupissas (" who hear and see "), living then not far from the site of New Orleans, but either extinct or no longer known by that name. He says, that they consisted only of twenty families, whilst Charlevoix at the same time (1721) estimates them at two hundred warriors. To these must be added the Boluxas of Biloxi, now living below Natchitoches.

Those whom he mentions on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, above New Orleans, are the Oumas or Humas ("Red nation"), of whom a few are said to remain below Manchac and others to be found in the vicinity of the Attacapas; the Tunicas, originally living opposite the mouth of Red River, in alliance with the French, nearly destroyed by the Chicasas in the course of the Natches war, and the remnant of whom are settled at Avoyelle on Red River; and the Yazoos, who, together with some small kindred tribes also living on Yazoo River, amounted to two hundred families. They spoke Chicasa, and were in alliance with that nation and the Natches. During the Natches war, they were nearly destroyed by the Arkansas; the residue of them are now incorporated with the Chicasas.

The tribes mentioned by the same author on the west side of the Mississippi, and whose names at least have disappeared, are the Bayagoulas, the Oque Loussas, ("Black Water,") the Avoyelles and the Washittas, driven away by the Chicasas, and according to him incorporated with the Natchitoches.

The most complete account of the numerous small tribes still existing west of the Mississippi, on Red River and south of it, is that of Dr. John Sibley, of Natchitoches.* They consist partly of such as had within the memory of man migrated from the east side of the river; partly of those who were considered as natives.

The first class embraces the Appalaches, the Alibamas, and

* President's Message of February 19th, 1806, with the accompanying documents from Dr. Sibley and others.