GATSCHET — KAS. LEG. COMMENTARY. [95] 63 



no need of hinting at the high improbability of this western march 

 of a single tribe, and of its return east by retracing its own steps. 

 Why does not the narrative mention any stopping-places upon 

 the long march from Lake Erie to the Mississippi river, which 

 includes a distance three times as long as that from the Hudson 

 river to Lake Erie ? Because the Tuscaroras never reached that 

 river at all, and the term used here, Onaweyoka, designates any 

 other large river just as well as it does the Mississippi. Thus 

 the river from the banks of which they returned east may have 

 been the Maumee, Miami, Scioto, Ohio, etc., to which the name 

 may be applied as well. 



The red, bloody river, U-i tchati, which the Kasijta reached 

 one day after, and by which they lived for two years, contains 

 the Creek name for the Arkansas and the Red river of Louisiana, 

 though here it necessarily designates some water-course to the 

 east of Mississippi river. All rivers and creeks in the old Creek 

 country are discolored by an admixture of ferrugineous mud, and 

 especially after rains assume an almost blood-like shade of color. 

 Thus U-i tchati is of no topographic value to us. The Kasiyta 

 followed its current until they reached the thundering mountain, 

 and there they met three other tribes, the Chicasa, Atilama 

 (which, I assume with Dr. Brinton, stands for ''Alibamu"), and 

 the Abi'hka. Sacrificial rites and the knowledge of remedial 

 herbs were obtained there in a miraculous manner, and the con- 

 test for superiority, which was waged then by the four tribes, 

 resulted in the victory of the Kasi'hta. According to the Aliba- 

 mu tradition mentioned above (vol. i. '^6. Sy), this tribe came from 

 the northwest into their later seats, and at the epoch referred to 

 by Tchikilli's legend may have resided there still ; the Chicasa 

 lived in the old Chicasa country, near the northern limits of Mis- 

 sissippi and Alabama, the Abika east of them. Thus following 

 our legend word for word, we may assume that the Kasi'hta, at 

 the spot where the large blue bird preyed upon them, were, con- 

 jointly with the three other tribes, somewhere near the old seats 

 of the Chicasa and northwest of Kusa town. 



Near a rivulet called Coloosehatchi they found on their onward 

 journey a white path leading through a white-looking country ; 

 even the grass looked white there. This may be a symbolic 

 phrase for designating a country, the inhabitants of which subse- 



