250 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



Although they are poor, a place is set at the table for everyone. 

 Liza never formally extends an invitation; that everyone will eat is a 

 matter of fact. In the smnmer, flies and bees join the diners. Pigs' 

 necks and backs, greens, and cornbread or bean bread, if Liza has had 

 time to grind the corn in her log mortar, may be the fare. Leftovers 

 are thrown to the six dogs who lm*k under the house and bark fiercely 

 at strangers. They stop barking and cringe, beating the ground with 

 their tails, at a gestm-e from John. 



Liza sometimes hopes she will not have any more children. She 

 nurses the babies for several years, for she believes that this practice 

 will prevent conception. After her first baby was born, her mother, 

 who delivered it, buried the afterbirth several mountain ridges away in 

 order to be sure that the other pregnancies would be several years 

 apart. Liza does not like to have her babies in the hospital, but the 

 last four were bom there. 



Visits with the Runners were unrushed, conversations were inter- 

 spersed with periods of comfortable silence. They do not plan much 

 for the future, and they do not expect it to be much different from the 

 present. Nights foUow the days and the seasons grow out of each 

 other in a changeless pattern. Although game is scarce, there are 

 fish in the river to catch, gardens to make, children to raise, and the 

 dead to be buried. 



GEORGE AND EMMA WEAVER (GENERALIZED INDIANS) 



The Bureau of Indian Affairs maintains a limited number of frame- 

 houses for its employees. It is in such a house as this that George and 

 his wife, Emma, live. There are five rooms and a bath. The yard is 

 fenced to provide a barrier between it and the highway which runs 

 east and west. Occasionally damaged toys lie about in the yard. 



George is a year-round employee of the Bureau. He accumulates 

 annual leave and, as a civil service worker, will eventually retire on a 

 pension. His wife works during the summer in the tourist industry. 

 Their combined efforts result in more than a hundred dollars a week 

 during the siunmer. But they have little money saved. One reason 

 is, of course, their large family, but another is their generosity with 

 their children. A trip to the store always involves cokes and candy 

 for the youngsters. The children are the delight of George and Emma, 

 who express their affection for them openly. After they had torn 

 some of the new screens off the house, George remonstrated with them 

 mildly. Emma complains that George has the little ones spoiled 

 "rotten." He is seldom seen off the job without at least two or three 

 of his youngest. 



The three oldest boys established a reputation in sports during 

 their Cherokee High School careers. One accepted an athletic 



