swANTONi INDIAN ri:ii-.i:s ok tiik kowkr mississipim vallky 78 



iiu-lit's .-ipiirt. Tliis u'rill is i-.-iiscd iihoul .". fcvl nliovc (he cMrtii. in unlcr that oiu; 

 may be able to put a lire made nf larj^o sticks of wood iiiidonicatli. Tlicy turn 

 the meat and witbdiaw it only when it is cooked to such a deurtK' that the 

 upjter side is roasted and very dry. Then they take off what is cooketl and put 

 other pitKres on. Thus they smoke their meat, which can be carried everywhere 

 and I'reserved as lonp as it is desired. They never eat raw meat, as so many 

 persons have falsely imagined. Even in Eurojie we have entire kingdoms which 

 do not j,'ive their meats as much time to coolv as the natives of Louisiana allow 

 to the most delicate morsels of bison, whicli is their principal nourishment." 



Oriojinally the sole domestic animal was probably the dog which 

 Du Pratz describes as dilferino- from the native wolf only in its bark.'' 

 The only suggestion of any other he gives on the authority of his 

 Chitimacha slave. He says: " My slave told me that in her nation and 

 in her village they have them [turkeys] and have raised them with- 

 out more care than is required for young chickens." *" If anything of 

 this kind were done, hoAvever, it was probably in very recent times, 

 after the Indians had received chickens from Europeans, and at all 

 events it is not made to apjDly to the Natchez. Of the rearing of hens 

 by these people, Dumont speaks thus: 



These [Natchez] women also raise many hens without having need of a 

 henhouse. Their hens and their cocks go to roost in the evening on trees near 

 the cabin, where they pass the night, and in the morning at the cry uttered by 

 their mistress all present themselves at the door, where she gives them food. 

 This [meal] lasts for all day. It is supposed that from that time until evening 

 they ought to hunt for their nourishment. With regard to the eggs, as the 

 savages make no use of them, the hens are left at liberty to lay them where it 

 pleases them. This is ordinarily in the thickets, where they take care to set 

 upon them themselves, after which, when they are hatched, they lead their 

 chicks in the morning to the cabin to let the mistress see that without her 

 caring for them her property has Increased and that the number of her boarders 

 has augmented/^ 



Agriculture had attained so much importance among the Natchez 

 that St. Cosme, one of our best authorities regarding them, could say: 

 " Some [people], like the Natchez, did not have anv other means of 

 li\ ing, not being hunters.'' '^ This, as we have seen, is an over- 

 statement. 



Although the discussion of maize and tobacco by Dmnont and Du 

 Pratz does not pretend to refer entirely to the varieties possessed by 

 the natives, it is evident that most, if not all, of these varieties were 

 native to the country. Their descriptions of maize follow: 



* * * Few people are ignorant of maize. It is what we call in France 

 Turkish grain. There is this sole difference that in France this grain yields 

 only a yellow meal, in place of which the meal of that which is cultivated in 

 Louisiana is as white as that of the tinest wheat. The maize grows ears as big 



" Du Pratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, iii, 10-12. 

 "Ibid., II, 74. 

 ' Ibid., 125-126. 



"Dumont, Mem. Hist, sur La Louisiaue. i. 1.").".. Hens are said to have been obtained 

 from a European vessel wrecked on the Atakapa coast before the time of U)erville. 

 « Letter of St. Cosme, Jan. 8, 1706, in Compte Rendu Cong. Intemat. des Amer., i, 47. 



