8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 85 



The question naturally arises whether some of these clans may 

 not have been brought in with formerly independent tribes. All we 

 can say is that certain clans are more prominent in some of these 

 tribes than among the true Muskogee but whether they were brought 

 in by them we do not know. Thus, as just mentioned, the Aktayatci 

 was particularly prominent among the Hitchiti. as were the Snake, 

 Kapitca and Woksi, and in a more pronounced manner the Toad, 

 Mole, and Tcikote. The Daddy-long-legs and Salt were similarly 

 associated with the Alabama, the former, indeed, being hardly known 

 outside of that tribe. 



Besides this division into phratral groups all of the clans were 

 ranged in two moieties called respectively, Hathagalgi, " White 

 People," and Tcilokogalgi, " People of a different speech." The 

 Wind and Bear with their phratral associates were almost invariably 

 White, and the Raccoon and Aktayatci and their allies almost 

 invariably Tciloki. The Bird is usually White but among the 

 Alabama and Koasati it is Tciloki. The Beaver is also White usuallv, 

 but when it is associated with the Alligator and when the Alligator 

 is not a White clan, the Beaver often becomes Tciloki. The Alligator 

 is most often Tciloki but in a number of towns it is White. The 

 Deer is usually Tciloki but it is White in a few towns. Today the 

 Panther is almost always Tciloki but some of the oldest myths and 

 some of my best informants assert that it was anciently White. 



When I first went among the Creeks, I was told that in one or 

 two towns the clan moieties were exogamous, but the greater number 

 of my informants held the contrary opinion. I was much surprised, 

 therefore, during my last visit to have most of my informants 

 maintain that they were exogamous. This much is certain, that there 

 were striking exceptions to this law in comparatively early times, 

 for instance, in the case of the famous Creek speaker Hobohit Yahola. 

 Probably it will never be possible to say whether this phratral 

 exogamy was breaking down or growing in times known to us. In 

 recent years the principal function performed by these moieties has 

 been to determine the line-up of the players in practice games within 

 the town. The important bearing the mere character of a name 

 may have in social evolution is shown by the fact that, on account 

 of the name, persons of European blood were usually reckoned as 

 " friends " of the Hathagas, and in consequence the latter acquired 

 a reputation as " progressives," while the Tcilokis were considered, 

 and acted like, " conservatives." 



Besides the clans, phratries, and moieties there were certain groups 

 in each town which had official functions. Some of these were 



