104 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



The siibmissiveness of the savages to their eliief, who commaiKls them with 

 the most despotic power, is extreaie. They obey him in everything he may 

 commantl them. When he spealcs to them they howl nine times by way of 

 applause and to show him their satisfaction, and if he demands the life of any 

 one of them he comes himself to present his head. But at the death of this 

 chief his children, boys or girls, never inherit his power and never succeed to 

 the command. His descendants reenter the rank of Stinkards, and it is for the 

 boys to perform actions of valor which may raise them to the dignity of Hon- 

 ored men. It appertains only to the female Sun, whom they call also the white 

 woman, to perpetuate the stem from which spring their chiefs. She has more 

 power so long as she lives than the chief himself, who may be her son or her 

 brother, and never her husband, whom she is able to choose if she wislies from 

 among; the Stinkards and who is rather her slave than her master. The males 

 who spring from this woman are the chiefs of the nation, and the girls become, 

 like herself, female Suns or white women. 



In order to understand this propagation of the nobility and the government 

 in these savage nations let us go back as far as the law which establishes the 

 succession among them, and let us suppose that at the time of this establish- 

 ment there remained only one Oiiachill-Tama'iU ; that is to say, one female Sun 

 or white woman. Let us suppose, besides, that this woman has two children, 

 a boy and a girl. Then, according to the law which wills that the nobility 

 be perpetuated through the women and degenerate through the men, this boy 

 sprung from the white woman will be established as the true OiideliiU-Lifiiiii) ; 

 that is to say, great chief or great Sun, but at his death his children are 

 only nobles. The children of these become simply Honored, and the children 

 of these last fall back into the rank of Stinkards. On the other hand, of 

 the sons of his sister, who was hei'self white woman or female Sun, the eldest 

 will be great chief or great Sun, the second little Sun chief of war, and 

 the others only Suns, their children degenerating successively, as I have noted. 

 As to her daughters, they are not only white women or female Suns but it is 

 also through them that the Suns and the nobility will be perpetuated in the 

 nation. 



When these savages are asked the reason for the establishment of this law 

 they reply that, as in accordance with tlieir usage at the death of the great 

 chief or great Sun, his wives must also die with him, as well as his male .'ind 

 female servants, without which he would be without wives and without fol- 

 lowers in the other world, it happens from that that the female Suns never 

 desire to be married to the great chief, who for this reason is always obliged 

 to marry Stinkard women. ' But if it should happen,' say they, ' that this Stink- 

 ard woman should ]»y chance yield herself to a Stinkard man and the child 

 that arose from this intercourse came to command us, it would follow that we 

 would be governed by a Stinkard, which would not be in order. On the other 

 liaud,' they added, 'whether the female Sun has children by her husband or by 

 any other person whatever, it matters little to us. They are always Suns on 

 the side of their mother, a fact which is most certain, since the womb can 

 not lie.' 



With regard to the Honored men, it is seen by what I have just said that 

 birth gives this rank to all the grandchildren of the great chief. But besides 

 birth there are other means by which a Stinkard may raise himself to this 

 degree of nobility in the nation. One of the most usual is to render himself 

 famous by some action of valor and bravery. The scalp of an enemy, for ex- 

 ample, which a warrior may have carried away, or even the tail of a mare or of 

 a horse will suffice to enable him to obtain this title, and to give him, as well 



