February 15, 191 2] 



NATURE 



527 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ETHNOLOGY AND 



ARCHEOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICA.' 

 C O little information is available concerning the Indian 

 •^ tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and the 

 adjacent coast of the Gulf of Mexico that Mr. Svvanton's 

 memoir is very welcome. In it he has published extracts 

 from early French authors, and in a compact form we have 

 all that is known about tribes now extinct or reduced to 

 a few, much modified, survivors. There are seven 

 linguistic families around the Lower Mississippi ; of these, 

 the Caddoan and Siouan are extensions or outliers of a 

 wider distribution ; the Muskhogean group extends in a 

 broad band to the Atlantic ; to this is related the small 

 Natchez group. The Chitimachan people live at the mouth 

 of the river, while westwards extend the cofjnate Atakapan 



I'll.. I. — Blowj/ipe and cai.e arrows. The end of the blowgun lias 

 been ornamented by burning and the arrows feathered with down 

 from the fireweed. 



group, to which, probably, the small Tunican group are 

 also allied. 



By far the greatest space is given to the Natchez group, 

 the authorities on which are quoted at length, a plan 

 which has much to recommend it, though it leads to a 

 certain amount of repetition, and the conflicting accounts 

 cannot always be reconciled. Head-flattening occurred, 

 and both sexes were freely tattooed, but the men only after 

 having killed some enemy. The principal animals hunted 

 were the bear, deer, and bison ; agriculture had attained 

 great importance ; the cultivation of maize was done in 

 common, pumpkins, water melons, tobacco, and probably 

 beans were also grown. The work and play of the sexes 



1 Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Kthnology. Rulletin 

 No. 43 : " Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent 

 Coast of the Gulf of Mfxico." By J. R. Swanton. Pp. vii + 387 + 33 plates. 

 Bulletin No. 50: " Preliminary Report on a Visit to the Navaho National 

 Monument, Arizoiu-i." By J. \V. Fewkes. Pp. iv+35 + 22 plates. (Wa»h- 

 ington : Government Printing OfTlce, 1911.) 



IS described. There was great licence before marriage. 

 Ihere was a peculiar, strongly centralised form of govern- 

 ment ; the great chief is called Great Sun ; his heir is the 

 son of the woman nearest related to him ; his relations 

 were little suns ; nobility was reckoned through the females, 

 but by the seventh generation nobles gradually sunk to the 

 rank of stinkards or commoners. Princesses" of the blood 



KiG. 2. — Chitimacha basitctry. ihisOcsisn ot iaige »hiie ~pois with 

 dark centre is called tcixt-kani, " blackbird's eye." 



always espoused men of obscure family, and had but one 

 husband, who might be dismissed at will. The community 

 consisted of (i) nobility of three ranks: (i) suns (children 

 of sun mothers and stinkard fathers) ; (2) nobles (children 

 of noble mothers and stinkard fathers, or of sun fathers 

 and stinkard mothers) ; (3) honoured people (children of 

 honoured women and stinkard fathers, or of noble fathers 

 and stinkard mothers); and (ii) stinkards (children ■ 

 stinkard mothers and honoured men, or of stinkard fath- ; 



NO. 2207, VOL. 88] 



Fit,. 3. — Ueuukin— western end. 



and mothers). The Great Sun was practically treated with 

 divine honour. 



The harvest feast was the most solemn of all ; cssf'nfi- 

 ally it consisted in eating in common, and in a rr ! 

 manner, new corn which had been sown for that y. 

 by warriors, with the great war chief at their head; t! 

 Great Sun presided at the feast. The war customs a; 

 d, • ' "The great war rlv. ' r--- ''• t'- f"";K f, 



