NO. 8 CREEK SQUARE GROUNDS SWANTON J 



Lidjami, Eagle, Hickory nut, Fox, Cane, and Muskrat ' were usually 

 placed with the Raccoon. 



Some phratral associations, however, were confined to one or a 

 few towns and did not extend throughout the nation. Thus the 

 Potato was commonly placed in one phratry with the Raccoon but 

 in Tukabahchee it was separated. The Beaver was usually placed 

 with the Bird, but in Alabama it was quite distinct. On the other 

 hand it was sometimes classed with the Alligator. Occasionally the 

 Aktayatci formed one phratry with the Raccoon, and much more 

 rarely the Deer and Panther were found together. Difl:"erences of this 

 kind were due in some measure to the council system. Every 

 important clan in a given town, or every group of related clans, 

 held meetings during the annual ceremony known as the busk and 

 each listened to an address by its oldest capable male member or 

 " uncle." If an individual came to live in a town in which his own 

 clan or his phratral group was not represented, he would elect to 

 affiliate with one of those already in existence. It was usual for all 

 of the children of each group of this kind to consider themselves 

 brothers and sisters between whom marriage was ordinarily 

 prohibited. However, the information I received shows plainly that 

 sexual intimacy between individuals of linked clans was not considered 

 as serious as between members of the same clan. It is specifically 

 stated regarding some of these clans that " they were kin " up to 

 noon, or up to midnight, and separate the rest of the time, i. e., a 

 limited taboo- was maintained against them. It is also said that a 

 man would sometimes pretend that a woman whom he wished to 

 marry was of a certain clan, for which he would manufacture a name, 

 although she was in fact of his own, and that, if he were a man of 

 influence, he often " put over " this new creation of his. On the 

 other hand, I have been told that, even though children of certain 

 of the primary clans were brought up together, they would never 

 be regarded as brothers and sisters. It is quite plain that all sorts 

 of variations had grown up in response to unpredictable situations. 



When one eliminates the oliscure and the constantly linked clans, 

 about nine are left of something like major importance. These are 

 the Wind, Bear, Bird, Beaver, Alligator, Raccoon, Aktayatci, Deer, 

 and Panther. We should perhaps add the Potato. The Beaver, 

 however, has importance mainly in one group of towns, and the 

 Aktayatci appear to have been rather closely associated with the 

 Hitchiti and the Seminole, but also with Hilibi, Wiogufki, and 

 Eufaula. 



^In the 42d Ann. Rep., Bur. Amer. Etlmol. (p. Ii6) I erroneously called this 

 the Mink. 



