GATSCHET KAS. LEG. — APPEMDIX IV. [2 1=;] 183 



IV.-THE CONTEST FOR LEADERSHIP 



among' the four ancient tribes of the Creek people, the Kasi'h- 

 ta, Chicasa, Alibamu and Abi'hka, is recounted in the legend, 

 pp. lo, 38 to 12, 12. Further information which I received from 

 chief Ispahidshi on legends concerning his own tribe, which is 

 that of the Kasi'hta, induce me to believe that this story is sim- 

 ply the result of an etymologic deduction from the Creek word 

 abik'hi piled up against^ which is a participle of the past of 

 abik'hidshas / pile up against. The contest between the tribes 

 in obtaining the scalps was recounted by him in the same man- 

 ner as in our legend. The pole around which the scalps were 

 piled up is described as very tall^ to make the story more mi- 

 raculous. Cf. vol. i. 125. 



The legend, as recounted b}^ Ispahidshi, further relates that 

 the Kasi'hta and Chicasa people came out of the ground 

 somewhere in the west ; and that the Kawita issued from there 

 somewhat later, because a large root growing across the orifice 

 retarded at first their coming out. The Kasi'hta then proceeded 

 from the place of issue towards the east to see the cave or hollow 

 ''from which the sun emerges.'" All these statements are merely 

 etymologic deductions or inventions just like the above ; Ka- 

 wita being derived from awita to eotne (plural of subject), Tchi- 

 kasa from tchikaski, a Creek verbal (''opening out" like a flow- 

 er), Kasi'hta from hasin hidshita "/c sec the sun'' coming out. 



That the first and third of these etymologies are grammatically 

 impossible will appear at once, and the name of the Chicasa 

 people has to be deduced from some Chicasa or Cha'hta term 

 in preference to any one occurring in the Creek dialect. We 

 gather from this and many other instances, \h2J1 false etymologies 

 have influenced the myth-making tendency of humanity at an 

 early age in the western as well as in the eastern hemisphere ; 

 and it may be added, that the idea of the sun issuing from an 

 orifice in the earth and disappearing through another, is found 

 among several of the North American tribes. Cf. ii. 37. 



Each of the four leading towns of the Creeks had an honorary 

 title or epithet, the origin of which is uncertain and obscured by 

 later traditions reposing on fictions. Abi'hka was called nagi, 

 and Tukaba'htchi ispokogi, none of which the present Creeks 



