106 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



Honored man, and his great-grandson a Stink.-ird. Hence it happens, on 

 account of their long lives — for these ijeopie often see the fourth generation— 

 that it is a very conunon thing- for a Sun to see his posterltj' lost among the 

 common people." 



The women are free from this unpleasantness. The nobility is maintained 

 from mother to daughter, and they are Suns in perpetuity without suffering 

 any alteration in dignity. However, they are never able to attain the sov- 

 ereignty any more than the children of the male Suns, but the eldest son of the 

 female Sun nearest related to the mother of the reigning Sun is the one who 

 mounts the throne when it becomes vacant. The reigning Sun bears the title 

 of gi"eat Sun, 



As the posterity of the two first Suns has become much multiplied, one per- 

 ceives readily that many of these Suns are no longer related and might ally 

 themselves together, which would preserve their blood for the most part with- 

 out any mixture, but another law established at the same time opposes an 

 invincible obstacle, namely, that which does not permit any Sun to die a violent 

 death. It is this, that it was ordered that when a male or female Sun should 

 come to die his wife or her husband should be put to death on the day of the 

 funeral, in order to go and keep him company in the country of spirits. That 

 could not be carried out if the wife and husband were both Suns, and this 

 blind and barbarous custom is so punctually ol)served that the Suns are under 

 the pleasing necessity of making mesalliances.'' 



Concerning the despotic authority of the great Sun, Du Pratz 

 says : 



In fact these people are reared in such perfect submission to their sover- 

 eign that the authority which he exerts over them is a veritable despotism, 

 which can be compared only to that of the first Ottoman emperors. He Is, 

 like them, absolute master of the goods and life of his subjects, he disposes of 

 them according to his pleasure, his will is his reason, and, an advantage which 

 the Ottomans have never had, there is neither any attempt on his person nor 

 seditious movements to fear. When he orders a man who has merited It to be 

 init to death, the unhappy condemned individual neither begs nor makes inter- 

 cession for his life, nor seeks to escape. The order of the sovereign is executed 

 on the spot and no one murmurs. The relatives of the great chief share more 

 or less of his authority in proportion to the nearness in blood, and the Tattooed- 

 serpent has been seen to have three men put to death who had arrested and 

 bound a Frenchman whom he loved much, in order to kill him, although we 

 were then at wav with the Natchez.'' 



The great chief or great Sun wore, as a mark of his preeminent 

 position and authority, a feather crow-n. 



This crown is composed of a cap and a diadem, surmounted by large feathers. 

 The cap is made of a netting, which holds the diadem, which is a texture 2 

 inches broad and presses together behind tightly as is desired. The cap is of 

 black threads, but the diadem is red and embellished with little beads or small 

 white seeds, as hard as beads. The feathers which surmount the diadem are 

 white. Those in front may be 8 inches long, and those behind 4 inches. These 



« The Suns conceal this degradation of their descendants with so much care that 

 they never suffer strangers lo be taught about it. Tliey do not wish anyone to recog- 

 nize them as Ijeing of their race, neither that they themselves boast of it nor that their 

 people speak about it among themselves. It is much when the grandfathers say that 

 such an one is dear to them. — [Note by Du I'iiatz.J 



'' Du Pratz, Mist, de La Louisiana, ii, ;]()3-at)7. 



'• Ibid., :!r)2-:jnr,. 



