56 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



uien, large enough to pass an egg through, which the size and weight of what 

 they put there from infancy greatly enlarges." 



The beads spoken of by French writers seem to have been im- 

 ported, but the imported article probably replaced something similar 

 made of shell or stone. Of the beads in use in his time Dii Pratz 

 remarks : 



When they have beads (rassade) they make necklaces composed of one or 

 many rows. They make them long enough for the head to pass through. The 

 rassade is a bead of the size of the end of the finger of a small infant. Its 

 length is greater than its diameter. Its sul)stance is similar to porcelain. 

 There is a smaller one, ordinarily round and white. They value it more than 

 the other. There is a blue one and one of another style which is banded 

 (bardelee) with blue and white. The medium sized and the smallest are strung 

 to oru;in)ent skins, garters, etc.'' 



To this list of ornaments must be added the jiearls referred to by 

 several writers among both Natchez and Taensa. Penicaiit says of 

 these : 



They have similarly a necklace of fine pearls which they have received from 

 their ancestors, but they are all spoiled because they have pierced them witli 

 the aid of a hot fire. Two or three are placed around the necks of the infant 

 nobles when they come into tlie world ; they wear them to the age of 10 and 

 then they are replaced in the temple.'" 



TATTOOING 



The greater part have fantastic marks imprinted on the face, the arms, the 

 legs, and the thighs; so far as the body is concerned, this is a right which be- 

 longs only to the warriors, and one must be noted on account of the death of 

 some enemy in order to merit this distinction. They imprint on the stomachs 

 of their heroes an infinity of black, red, and blue lines ; which is not done without 

 pain. They begin by tracing the design on the skin, then with a needle or a 

 little bone well sharpened they prick until the blood comes, following the de- 

 sign, after which they rub the punctures with a r»owder of the color that the 

 one who has himself marked demands. These colors having penetrated between 

 the skin and flesh are never effaced. * * * '^ 



But the greatest ornament of all these savages of both sexes consists in certain 

 figures of suns, serpents, or other things, which they carry i)ietured on their 

 bodies in the manner of the ancient Britons, of whom Ctiesar tells us in his 

 Conunentaries. The warriors, as well as the wives of the chiefs and the Hon- 

 ored men,'^ have these figures pictured on the face, arms, shoulders, thighs, legs, 

 but i)rincipally on the belly and stomach. It is foi- tlicni not only an ornament, 

 but also a mark of honor and distinction, which is only acquired after many 

 brave deeds, and here is how these pictures are made: First, in accordance with 

 the color that is desired, a man makes either a black mi.xture of pine charcoal 

 or, indeed, of gunpowder dissolved in water, or a red of cinnabar or vermilion. 

 After this five medium-sized s(nviug needles are taken, which are arranged on a 

 little fiat, smooth piece of wood and fastened to the same depth, so that one 



" M^moire sur La Louisiane, 133. 



!- Du I'ratz, Uist. de La Louisiane, ii, ID." (100). 



'■ Margry, Dt'-couvertcs, v, 4.'">li. 



'' Memoirc- sur La Loui.sianc, l.'U-l :;.">. 



" Tlic (cini adopted liy llic writer foi' the I'^fencli Citiisiderc. 



