156 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 43 



purpose, upon which he replied : " You say that it is not good that I die, and 

 you ask at the same time that the wives of my brother do not die. If you 

 wish that they walk [live] it is necessary that I go." They said to him, 

 " Very well, do as you wish, but it is necessary that you eat with us." At the 

 same time he had four chickens killed which were fricasseed. After having 

 dreamed a little longer he said, "It is not accomplished. Since the French 

 chiefs have spoken I will not die. I will eat, and when my brother goes to 

 the temple I will go to see the Frenchmen as he did." After that he went to 

 the temple where I followed him. Having entered he took a bundle of little 

 roots bound with red wool, untied them, took one out, and tied up the rest, 

 again mumbling some words between his teeth. Afterward he went out of 

 the temple and gave this little root, with great ceremony, to the old chief of 

 the Flour village, who before taking it passed three times around the great 

 war chief and howled three times at the end of each circuit, after which he 

 received it in his two hands with orders to part it between four young people, 

 who guarded the temple and were strangled in ten months when the bones of 

 the Tattooed-serpent were taken out of the earth. After this ceremony the 

 great war chief washed his hands a long time and had ashes put on the water 

 he had spilled. Then they ate and the dances continued as on the preceding 

 day without anything noteworthy taking place. 



Tuesday, the 5th, I repaired very early to the great village, where, after 

 the first dance, the two wives of the Tattooed-serpent, with La Glorieuse, 

 went to make their adieus to the great chief of war. The favorite wife, I mean 

 the one who had had the children, said to him on approaching, " Chief, now I 

 am going to the country of the spirits. Is it well? What do yon say? " " It is 

 well," replied he, " for my part it is well that I walk still upon the earth. 

 After that I will go to seek you. When the Choctaws come here I will buy 

 meat, part of which I will send to you." " My children remain on the earth," 

 she added, " I do not know whether you will drive them from you." " No," 

 said he, " your children shall be mine. Do not trouble about that." After 

 this speech she consoled the wife of the great war chief and the woman chief, 

 who wept bitterly, after which they descended to the foot of the mound where 

 each said adieu to her family. I descended also to see vv^hat was going to 

 happen, and I perceived a juggler who was blessing the pills of tobacco which 

 had been prepared. This scene was accomiianied by long bowlings. At length 

 after three dances each prepai'ed to play the last act of this bloody tragedy. 



While these things were taking place there was in the cabin of the dead 

 man a man and a woman who had strangled their infant and had thrown it 

 at the foot of the body. It was one of the men of whom I have spoken else- 

 where, who profited by this occasion to have himself received among the num- 

 ber of the Honored men. The two remained standing and in silence, the eyes 

 lowered and having under their feet, as I have said, some handfuls of Spanish 

 beard. 



The great war chief seeing that I had descended said, " It is good that the 

 Frenchmen remain on my mound and that they do not go down from it." 

 At the same moment some one came to tell M. Dumanoir that the great chief 

 wLshod to kill himself and that with this object he had concealed a knife in 

 his breechcloth. But M. Dumanoir having had him spoken to, he found that 

 the news was false. The great war chief said to hiu), " Since I have given 

 my word I will not die. I do not have two tongues, but if the Frenchmen love 

 my brother it is wol) that they shoot as well as my peo])le when he passes." 



Finally the old Flour chief, who up to that point had always performed the func- 

 tions of master of ceremonies, cried," It is good that all retire." At this cry all 



" 1. e., that they discharge their guns when the body was borne past. 



