SWANTON] INDIAN TRTBKS OK THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 141 



appeared llierc all in iiHuiriiinfi— that is to say, with tlicir liaif <"nt. Tliey tlien 

 luade such frightful ( rics that we tluui{ilit the devils were come out of the hells 

 to couie and howl in this place. Phe unfortunate ijersons destined to death 

 danced and tlie relatives of the dead woman sauR. When the uuirch of this 

 fine convoy was hejiun by two and two. the dead woman was broujilit out of 

 her cabin on the shoulders of four savajies as on a stretcher. As soon as she 

 had been talcen out, they set tire to the cabin (it is the usual custom with 

 the Nobles). The fatliers. wlio carried their dead children in their hands, 

 marched in front, four paces distant from each other, and after marching 10 

 steps they let them fall to the ground. Those who bore the dead woman 

 passed over and went around these childivn three times. The fathers then 

 gathered tlieni nji and reassumed their iilaces in tlie ranks, and at every 10 

 paces they n'connnenced this frightful ceremony, until they reached the temple, 

 so that these children were in i)ieces when this fine convoy arrived. While 

 tliey interred the J:"emale Nol)le in the temple the victims were striiii)ed befon; 

 the door, and, after tiiey had been made to sit on the ground, a savage seated 

 himself on the knees of each of them while another behind held his arms. 

 They then passed a cord around his neck and put tlie skin of a deer over his 

 head ; they made each of these poor unfortunates swallow three pills of 

 tobacco, and gave him a drjiught of water to drink, in order that the pills 

 should dissolve in his stomach, which made him lose consciousness; then tlie 

 relatives of the deceased ranged themselves at their sides, to right and left, 

 and each, as lie sang, drew an end of a cord, wliich was passed around the 

 neck witli a running knot, until they were dead, after whicli they buried them. 



If a cliief dies and still has his nurse, she must die with liim. 



This nation still follows this execrable custom, in spite of all that has been 

 done to turn them from it. Our missionaries have never been able to succeed 

 in that; all that they were able to do was to succeed sometimes in baptizing 

 these poor little infants before their fathers strangled them. Besides, this 

 nation is too much infatuated with its religion, which flatters the evil inclina- 

 tions of their corrupt nature, for anyone ever to have made any progress in 

 conversion and to have established Christianity there.* 



When the great chief or the woman chief dies all their alloues, or guards, 

 are obliged to follow them into the other world; but they are not the only 

 persons who have this honor, for so it is reckoned among them, and is greatly 

 sought after. The death of a chief sometimes costs the lives of more than a 

 hundretl persons,* and I have been assured that very few principal persons of 

 the Natchez die without being escorted to the country of souls by some of their 

 relations, their friends, or their servants. It aitpears by the various relations 

 which I have seen of these horrible ceremonies that they differ greatly. I shall 

 here describe the obsequies of a woman chief as I had it from a tx'aveler,'^ who 

 was a witness of them, and on whose sincerity I have good reason to depend. 



The husband of this woman not being noble, that is to say of the family of 

 the great chief, his eldest son strangled him, according to custom. Then they 

 cleared the cabin of all it contained and they erected in it a kind of trium- 

 phal car, in which the body of the deceased woman and that of her husband 

 were placed. A moment after they ranged round these carcasses 11* little 

 children which their parents had strangled, by order of the eldest daughter of 

 the woman chief, who succeeded to the dignity of her mother. This being 

 done, they erected in the public place 14 scaffolds, adorned with branches of 



" I'enicaut in Margry, D^couvertes, v, 452-4.55. 

 '' Probably greatly exaggerated. 



<^ It is not improbable that tliis was I'enicaut, as the description agrees very closely with 

 his. 



