SWANToN) INDIAN Ti;il5i;S Ol' IIIK I.OW'KI! M ISSISSl I'lM VAI.IJ'.V ] 05 



MS his wiCr. the riirlit to tlislii^'iirc tin- Imdy by cMn-yiiii,' on llicir skins stran^'c 

 fiyuros, wliirb. iis I liavi' said, form llicir |iilnci|ial adonnncnt. 



Here is still anotlior means by wliidi a Stinkard, provided lie is inarric<l. may 

 attain to tlie rank of the Honored. If this Stinkard, at the death of the ^leat 

 chief of the nation, has a ehild at the breast, or at auy rate of very tender years, 

 he reiiairs with his wife and his child to the caldn where this chief is laid on(. 

 As soon as they have arrived there the father and mother wring the ne<k of 

 ihcir infant, which they throw at tlie feet of the body, as a victim which they 

 immolate to the manes of their chief. After this barbarous sacrifice they roll 

 between their bands some twists of Spanish beard, which thej^ put under their 

 feet, as if they would signify by that that they are not worthy to walk on the 

 earth, and in this condition (hey both remain standing before the corpse of the 

 great chief without changing their positions or taking nourishment all day. 

 During tliat time the cal)iu is visited by all Iciuds of persons who come, some 

 from curiosity, others to see one time more the one who had governed them 

 and to desire him a good passa.ge. Finally, when the sun has set, the m.-m and 

 the woiuau come out of the cabin and receive the compliments of all tiio war- 

 riors and Honored men. to the number of whom tliey liave been added by this 

 strange and cruel ceremony." 



From Dii Prntz : 



The Xatchex Nation is composed of nobility and people. The people an? 

 called in their hmguage Mk:hc-\lkhv-Qniitii. which signifies Puaiit (Stinkard), 

 a name, however, which offends them, and which no one dares to pronounce 

 Itefore them, for it would put them in very bad humor. The Stinkai'ds have a 

 language entirely different from that of tlie nobility, to whom they are sub- 

 nussive to the last degree. That of the nobility is soft, solemn, and very rich. 

 The substantive nouns are declined, as in Latin, without articles. The nobility 

 is divided into Suns. Nobles, and Honored men. The Suns are so named be- 

 cause they are descended from a man and woman who made them believe that 

 they came out of tlie sun, as I have said more at length in speaking of tlieir 

 religion. 



The man and woman who gave laws to the Natchez had children, and 

 ordained that their race should always be distinguished from the mass of the 

 nation, and that none of their descendants should be put to death for any 

 cause whatsoever, but should complete his days cahnly as nature permitted 

 him. Tlie need of preserving their blood pure and safe made them establish 

 another usage of which examples are seen only in a nation of Scythians, of 

 which Herodotus speaks. As their children, being brothers and sisters, were 

 unable to intermarry without committing a crime, and as it was necessary In 

 order to have descendants that they marry Stinkard men and Stinkard 

 women, they wished in order to guard against the disastrous results of the 

 infidelity of the women that the nobility should be transmitted only through 

 women. Their male and female children were equally called Suns and re- 

 spected as such, but with this difference, that the males enjoyed this priv- 

 ilege only during their lives and personally. Their children bore only the 

 name of Nobles, and the male children of Nobles were only Honored men. Tliese 

 Honored men, however, might by their warlike exploits be able to reasceud to the 

 rank of Nobles, but their children again became Honored men, and the children 

 of these Honored men, as well as those of the others, were lost in the people and 

 placed in the rank of Stinkards. Thus the son of a female Sun (or Sun 

 woman) is a Sun, like his mother, but his sou is only a Noble, his grandson an 



" Dimiont, Mem. Hist, sur I.a Louisiane, i, 175-lSl. 



