124 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [tmill. 4S 



It floes not appear that the Natchez exercise on their i)risoners, during the 

 march, the cruelties which are used in Canada. Wlien these wretches are 

 arrived at the great village they make them sing and dance several days 

 together before the temple, after which they are delivered to the relations of 

 those who have been killed during the campaign. They, on receiving them, 

 burst into tears, then, after having wiped their eyes with the scalps which the 

 warriors have brought home, they .join together to rewai'd those who have made 

 them the i)resent of their captives, whose fate is always to be burnt. 



The warriors change their names as often as they perform new exploits. 

 They receive them from the ancient war chief, and these names have always 

 some relation to the action by which they have merited this distinction. Those 

 who for the first time have made a prisoner, or taken off a scalp, must, for a 

 month, abstain from seeing their wives and from eating flesh. They imagine 

 that if they should fail in this the souls of those whom they have killed or 

 burnt would effect their death, or that the first wound they should receive 

 would be mortal ; or at least that they should never after gain any advantage 

 over their enemies. If the great chief, called the Sun, commands his subjects 

 in i)erson. they take great care that he should not expose himself too much; 

 less perhaps through zeal for his preservation than because the other war 

 chiefs and the heads of the party would be put to death for their want of care 

 in guarding him.* 



From Le Petit : 



When this nation sends out a detachment for war, the chief of the party 

 erects two kinds of poles painted red from the toi) to the bottom, ornamented 

 with red plumes, and arrows and tomahawks, also painted red. These jjoles 

 are jjointed to the side to which they are to carry the wai\ Those who wish to 

 .loin the party, after having ornamented and daubed themselves with different 

 colors, come to harangue the war chief. This harangue, which one makes after 

 the other, and which lasts nearly half an hour, consists of a thousand protesta- 

 tions of service, by which they assure him that they ask nothing more than to 

 die with him, that they are charmed to learn from so able a warrior the art 

 of taking scalps, and that they fear neither the hunger nor fatigue to which 

 they are going to be exposed. 



When a sufficient number of braves have presented themselves to the war 

 chief, he causes to be made at his house a beverage w^hich they call the " war 

 medicine." This is an emetic, which they make from a root they boil in large 

 kettles full of water. The warriors, sometimes to the number of 300. having 

 seated themselves about the kettle, they ser\e each one with two pots of it. 

 The ceremony is to swallow them with a single effort, and then to throw them 

 up inmiediately by the month, with efforts so violent that they can be heard 

 at a great distance. 



After tins cei-emon.y the war chief appoints the day of dejiartnre, that each 

 one may prepare i)rovisions necessary for the campaign. During this time the 

 warriors repair evening and morning to the place before the temple, wluM-e, 

 after having danced and related in detail the brilliant actions in which their 

 bravery was conspicuous, th(\v chant tluur deathsongs. 



To see the extreme .ioy which they show at their departure, we should say 

 that they had already signalized their valor by some great victory, but a very 

 small thing alone is necessary to disconcert their plans. Tliey are so snpei"- 

 stitious with respect to dreams that a single one of evil augury can arrest tlie 

 execution of their enterprise and oblige them to return when they are on tlie 



"Charlevoix in Froncli, Hist. Coll. La., 166-168, 1851. 



