THE NATCHEZ INDIANS. 203 



They cultivated maize, beans of several kinds, the large sun- 

 flower, sweet potatoes, melons, and pumpkins. Bartram found 

 around the ancient monuments of Georgia and Alabama fruit 

 trees, supposed to have been planted by the Natchez. Among 

 them were persimmon, honey locust, Chickasaw plum, mulberry, 

 black walnut, and shell-bark. On one occasion De Soto's troops 

 came upon a pot of honey, " though neither before nor after did 

 they see bees or honey." 



The language of the Natchez was easy in pronunciation and 

 expressive in terms that of the nobles being slightly different 

 from that of the people. For instance, in greeting a noble, one 

 would say " apapegonaicke," which is equivalent to " good morn- 

 ing " ; while to express the same thing to one of the people, we 

 would say " taclite-cabanacte" To request a noble to be seated 

 we would say " cabam," while to a common person we would say 

 " petchi." The two languages are nearly the same in all other 

 respects, the difference in expression seeming only to take place 

 in matters relating to the persons of the Suns and nobles, in dis- 

 tinction from those of the people. 



The Natchez were celebrated for their feasts and festivals. 

 They began their year in the month of March, as was the practice 

 for a long time in Europe, and divided it into thirteen months or 

 moons. At the beginning of each moon they held a grand festi- 

 val, which took its name and character from that of the moon. 

 The first moon was called Deer, the second Strawberry, the third 

 Small Corn, the fourth Watermelons, the fifth Fishes, the sixth 

 Mulberries, the seventh Maize, the eighth Turkeys, the ninth Buf- 

 falo, the tenth Bears, the eleventh, which corresponds to our Jan- 

 uary, was called the Cold-meal Moon, the twelfth Chestnuts, and 

 the thirteenth Walnuts, these nuts being ground up and mixed 

 with their food at this season of the year. 



The Natchez nation consisted of numerous villages, each of 

 which was governed by its own Sun, or chief, all of whom admit- 

 ted their inferiority to one great chief, who was considered the 

 head of the nation, and was called the Great Sun. Herriot (His- 

 tory of Canada) graphically describes the dwelling and etiquette 

 of the levees of the Great Sun : " The cabin of the Great Sun con- 

 tained several beds on the left of the entrance ; on the right hand 

 was the bed of the Great Sun, adorned with different painted fig- 

 ures. This bed consisted only of a paillasse made from canes and 

 reeds, with a square piece of wood for a pillow. In the center of 

 the cabin was a small boundary, around which any one who en- 

 tered the apartment was obliged to perform the circuit before 

 he was permitted to approach the bed. Those who entered sa- 

 luted with a kind of howl, and advanced to the extremity of the 

 cabin, without casting their eyes toward the side where the Great 



