swANTox] INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 153 



will Kivo you something to oat. lie will give you tobacco. He will give you 

 brandy, for be was a great comrade of your father's. If be gives you none 

 ri'tuni home. There is your father, 'i'licic is your mother," said sht", i)oiuting 

 to the eliicfs. " They will never let you die of luniger. And you, rrenchmen," 

 added she, addressing all those who were i)resi>nt, "be always good and com- 

 panionablo to the red men. Trade with them. Do not di.sdain their goods." 

 " liring me strong tobacco in tliree nights," said she to nie, " in order that 

 I may remember you." Having uttered tliis speech she reentered and I 

 aslved the old chief of the Flour village what day they were going to die. 

 "To-day," said he to me, "they will eat nothing. To-morrow they will eat 

 much. The day after to-morrow they will eat bread. The next day they will 

 eat nothing, but they will smoke, and when the sun is in the south they will 

 go to the country of the siiirits where they will eat much." After this reply I 

 returned to tlie settlement, where I was told that thi-y had beeu very anxious 

 regarding me: that ("haumont had returned th(; preceding night, all out of 

 breath; that he had reported that they had shot at him; that the same thing 

 had been confirmed by another soldier of the fort named Montauban, who 

 having wished to go that night to the Flour village liad passed through the great 

 village, where some savages having i)erceived him had said to him: "Go away. 

 Frenchman. Tlie Tattooed-serpent is dead. It is not good here for you;" 

 that he bad returned to the fort to give warning to M. de Villainville, who 

 had at once gone across to the great village with a detachment partly to see 

 if he could find me, and that I was very imi)rudent to have remained there under 

 such circumstances. But it was not difficult for me to make them see that all 

 this account was founded only on a panic terror, which made MM. Dumanoir, 

 Brontin, and Le Page take the determination to go next day to the great village 

 with Louis Sorel, who would serve them as interpreter, to try to save the lives 

 of the two wives of the dead man and to prevent, if it were possible, so many 

 people from perishing. 



Sunday, the 8d of .Tune, these gentlemen having left for the great village, 

 two young girls of the savages presented themselves at the settlement with 

 10 chickens, asking in exchange a blue petticoat ijup'') to give to their mother, 

 who was going to die. They w-ere told that 10 chickens were not enough for 

 that ; that 15 were necessary ; that, besides, M. Dumanoir, on leaving, had shut 

 up the petticoats in his chamber, and wlien he should return they would be 

 given one. Tliey promised to bring the 5 other birds in five days, and remained 

 at the settlement until 11 o'clock, when two young savages passing, and per- 

 ceiving them, said to them: "Why do you remain quietly here, you others? 

 Your mother is dead." At the same instant they began to weep and fled. 

 Toward midday Louis Sorel returned and told us that already one woman was 

 strangled, news which made me return to the great village after dinner. I 

 found there sonie of our French people, of whom I asked if it was true that a 

 woman was already dead. They told me that the evening before, after the 

 second dance, one of the two old women who were going to die. on reentering 

 the cabin, had said: "What! is that the Tattooed-seriient, that rare man? 

 He is a Stinkard chief. I do not want to die for him, the mor(» because seven 

 months ago I killed the son of the great chief by means of a medicine I gave 

 him." In fact, she had already taken up again the road to her cabin, when 

 the great war chief, having heard this news, sent for her head, and when it 

 was brought to him he trampled upon it and had the body thrown outside as 

 food for the buzzards, saying. " That is the treatment which ought to be given 

 to dogs." Her head was then brought to the cabin of the dead man, wrapped 

 in the skin of a deer." 



"This was evidently the "bad woman" Du Pratz refers to; see p. 145. 



