184 [2l6] TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



can explain satisfoctorily on account of their archaic character. 

 The Kawita Indians were called ma'hmayi the tall ones (cf. 

 m^hi, p. 107), and the Kasi'hta 'lako, \}(\q great or considerable. 

 The latter epithet may be compared to our grajid in grand 

 duke^ grandissime, etc., and, when speaking of Kasi'hta, was 

 not employed in the plural form 'lak'lagi, like ma'hmayi, which 

 is a term analogous to the French Altcsse^ and the German Ho- 

 heit^ Uochzv/irdcn. 



T.-LIST OF TOWNS NOW EXTANT IN THE CREEK NATION, INDIAN TERRITORY. 



The forty-nine towns enumerated below constitute what is 

 called the Creek Nation of Indians settled on a wide strip of 

 territory between the Arkansas and the Canadian river, a large 

 tributary of the Arkansas river. The term tozun is the transla- 

 tion of the Creek term talua, which also means village and city, 

 but corresponds more closely to our term tribe. But, since sev- 

 eral tribes are often included in one Creek town, it is preferable 

 to interpret the term by tozunship, and some of these towns have 

 an area as large as a good sized county in a western State. Each 

 town is entitled to one representative in the Upper house, or 

 House of Kings, and to one at least in the Lower house, House 

 of Warriors or Representatives ; towns having over two hundred 

 men are represented by one more deputy to each two hundred 

 in this Lower house. The largest and most populous town is 

 now Yuchi on Arkansas river ; the negro towns, the inhabitants 

 of which descend from slaves who emigrated with the tribe from 

 1836 to 1840, possess from 3,500 to 4,000 inhabitants, and their 

 representatives now hold the balance of power in the Creek le- 

 gislature, which meets annually at the capital, Okmulgee. 



Here follows a list of the present Creek towns, the smallest 

 of which have now barely twent}^ heads of families, but never- 

 theless are represented as 'rotten boroughs" in the two Houses 

 by one deputy for each. The Lower House now counts about 

 one hundred members. All the settlements are spread out upon 

 rivers, creeks and streams, and the intervening country is almost 

 entirely devoid of them. 



