SWANTONl INDIAN TRIBES OF TIIH LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 101 



not come iicmi- him (liroiit;!! rcsiicd. \\'li('ii tlu'.v s|if:ik Id liim, llicy iirc 4 jiaccs 

 distant. His lied is at tlic li^'iU on ciilcriii^' llu' caliiii; tlicro are | imdcr il| 

 four wooden posts, 12 feet in lieij:ht. 10 feet apart one way and S tlie other. 

 Tliere are crossbars jioin.u fiom oiie post to anotiier, on wliidi the planks are 

 placed which form a kind of lahle. which is very smooth, of the same len;;tli 

 and breadth as that of the bed, which i.s reddened all over. On this kind of 

 table there is a mat made of tine canes and a great bolster of .noose feathers, 

 and for coverin.;: there are the skins of deer for sununer and tlie skins of 

 bison or bear for winter. Only his wife has the right to sleep there with 

 him. (^idy she, too, can eat at his table. When he gives tlie leavings to his 

 brothers or any of his relatives, he imshes the dishes to them with his feet. 

 On rising, all the relatives or some old men of consideration approach liis bed. 

 and raising their arms on high, make frightful cries. They salute him thus 

 without his deigning to notice them. 



It must be noticed that a grand chief noble ° can marry only a plebeian, but 

 that the children which come from this union, whether boys or girls, are 

 nobles; that, if he hai>pens to die l)efore liis wife. Ins wife must be strangled 

 to accompany him into the other world. In the same manner a girl noble, that 

 is to say, a daughter of a wife of a chief noble, when she wishes to marry, is 

 only able to marry a plebeian, and if she dies^ after she is married before her 

 husband, the latter has to be put to death also to accompany her in the other 

 world. The children who come from these marriages are reputed nobles or 

 Suns. 



Their nobility is very different from that of our Europeans, for in France 

 the more ancient it is the more it is esteemed. Their extraction, on the con- 

 trary, is no more esteemed noble at the seventh generation ; moreover, they 

 draw their nobility from the woman and not from the man. I have asked 

 them the reason for this, and they have replied to me that nobility can come 

 oidy from the woman, because the woman to whom children belong is more 

 certain than the man.^ 



From Charlevoix : 



What distinguishes them more particularly is the form of their government, 

 entirely despotic: a great dei)endence. which extends even to a kind of slavery, 

 in the subjects; more pride and grandeur in the chiefs, and their i»acific spirit, 

 which, however, they have not entirely preserved for some years past. 



The Hurons believe, as well as they, that their hereditary chiefs are de- 

 scended from the Sun ; but there is not one that would be his servant, nor 

 follow him into the other world for the honor of serving him there, as often 

 liappens among the Natchez. * * * 



The great chief of the Natchez bears the name of the Sun ; and it is always, 

 as among the Hurons, the son of the woman who is nearest related to him 

 that succeeds him. They give this woman the title of woman chief; and 

 though in general slie does not meddle with the government, they pay her great 

 honors. She has also, as well as the great chief, the power of life and death. 

 As soon as anyone has had the misfortune to displease either of tliem, they 

 order their guards, whom they call aUoucs, to kill him. " Go and rid me of that 

 dog," say they ; and they are immediately obeyed. Their subjects, and even 

 the chiefs of the villages, never approach them but thej' salute them three 

 times, setting up a cry, which is a kind of howling. They do the same when 



" Unliko other Fronch writers. Pc^nicaut appears to call the IiiKhost fcrade of the 

 nobility " chief nobles," equivalent to the " Suns " of other writers, while the term " Sim" 

 he extends over this and the second grade, which he calls " nobles." 



"P^nicaut in Margry, D6couvertes, v, 449-451. 



