146 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



he seemed to do so, another carried the mat on which to seat him, a third 

 carried the cord for strangling him, another the sldn, the flfth a dish in which 

 were five or six balls of pounded tobacco to make him swallow in order to 

 stupefy him. Another bore a little earthen bottle holding about a pint, in order 

 to make him drink some mouthfuls of water in order to swallow the pellets 

 more easily. Two others followed to aid in drawing the cord at each side. 



A very small number of men suffices to strangle a person, but since this action 

 withdraws them from the rank of Stinkards, puts them in the class of Honored 

 men, and thus exempts them from dying with the Suns, many more would pre- 

 sent themselves if the number were not fixed to eight persons only. All these 

 persons whom I have just described walk in this order, two by two, after their 

 relations. The victims have their hair daubed with red and in the hand the 

 shell of a river mussel which is about 7 inches long by 3 or 4 broad. By that 

 they are distinguished from their followers, who on those days have red feathers 

 in their hair. The day of the death they have their hands reddened, as being 

 prepared to give death. 



Arrived in the open space the mats of the foremost are placed nearest the 

 temple, the favorite to the right and the other wife to the left of the road, the 

 others afterward according to their rank, 6 or 7 feet apart on the two sides of 

 the road, the breadth of which between them is at least 30 feet. The persons 

 who are going to die are made to sit down on their mats, then all together make 

 the death cry behind them. The relatives dance the death dance and the vic- 

 tims on their mats dance in time also without leaving their places. After this 

 dance the entire group returns to the cabin in the same order. This is a re- 

 hearsal of the tragedy which is going to be played the day of the funeral proces- 

 sion. It is done twice a day. 



Everything was tranquil enough that day on the part of the great chief, who 

 went to the temple after he had been shown the head of the bad woman. He 

 ordered that her body be eaten by beasts without being buried, to carry the 

 head to his brother, and then to throw it into the cypress swamp 2 leagues 

 from his body. 



The same day at sunrise, while we were engaged in restraining the great 

 chief, a man named Ette-actal '^ had been brought, escorted by 30 warriors. We 

 all knew him because he had lived with M. de Bienville, commandant-general, 

 with whom he had taken refuge. He had married a female Sun who had died, 

 and according to the laws of his nation he ought to die with her. But this law 

 not being to his taste, as soon as he had seen her in the agony [of death] he 

 fled secretly toward the landing, took some provisions, descended night and 

 day in a little dugout and went to place himself under the protection of Mon- 

 sieur, the commandant of the capital, and offered himself to him as his hunter 

 and one of his slaves. His service was accepted. The Natchez even promised 

 his master that he had nothing to fear because, the ceremony being completed 

 and he not having been found in tlTat time, he was no longer a lawful prize. 

 This native, thus reassured, went from time to time to see his relatives and 

 friends, and nothing had ever been said to him. But this last time, the great 

 Sun having learned from the French that M. de Bienville had been recalled to 

 Fninco, considered that the letters of reprieve of Ette-actal were abrogated by 

 the absence of his protector. Thus he judged it suitable to make him pay his 

 debt to the Tattooed-seri)ent in the capacity of a relation of his wife, and it was 

 for this reason that they brought him. 



When this man saw himself in the cabin of the great chief of war, in the 

 number of the victims who were going to be sacrificed to his manes, he was 



"My Natchez informant interpreted tliis a.s " Skin-eater." — J. R. S. 



