SWAnton] INDIAN Tlill'.KS OK 1I1K I.OUKI5 MISSTSSIPIM VALLKV 205 



for wi" saw some L'.") and ."Id yrars old qiiilc naked. * * * 'fii,. pciieli trees 

 were in Idossoiii al tlie Toiiica in llie niontli ol' .lannary. 'IMiey are so identifnl 

 in tlie villa^re of the Tai-nsa tlial Iliey i-nt tlieni down. Tliere aie also pearls 

 whieh are very line. I lielieve Ilia I lliey are |i|-ecions. yet they pieree llieni to 

 strinjr llieni." 



About one day's jonrney low<'i' <lown (llial is to say. "JO lea^'nes). are the 

 Taensas. who speak another laiiiiiia.^e. They are oidy a short day's journey 

 from tiio Xatehez. who are of tlu> same nation and speak the same lan;rnaK<'- 

 For the i)resent I reside anionji the Taensas, bnt am to ;;o shortly to tlie 

 Natehez. This nation is very ^reat and more numerous than the Tunicas. The 

 Taensas are only about 700 souls. * * * 



I often speak of the Tonicas and the Taensas, and of those who are on the 

 banks of the Micissipi iio'iug down to the sea, for far inland the Indians are 

 in great numbers. They have rather line temples, the walls of which are of 

 mats. That of the Taensas has walls 7 or S feet thick on account of the great 

 number of mats one on another. They regard the serpent as one of their 

 divinities .so far as I could see. They would not dare to accept or appropriate 

 aiiyiiiiiig of llie slightest consequence without taking it to the temple. AVhen 

 tlu'y receive anything it is w'ith a kind of veneration that Ihey turn toward 

 this temple. They do not seem to be debauched in their lives. On account of 

 the great he-it the men go naked, and the women and girls are not well cov- 

 ered, and the girls up to the age of 12 years go entirely naked. They are so 

 mild and have so nuich deference for what we told them that I persuade myself 

 it will not be very ditHcult when I know their language a l.ittle to reform this 

 abuse, which nmoiig them makes no imjiression, they being accustomed to it 

 from childhood. They have also another abuse. When their chiefs are dead, 

 as he has been more esteemed, the more persons thej' kill who offer themselves 

 to die with him, and last year, when th«> chi(>f of th<^ Taensas died, there were 

 12 persons who offered to die, and wlmni tliey tomahawked.'' There is never 

 any winter among them, they do not know snow, and have never s(>en it. 

 There is always grass there, and at the end of January the peach and plum 

 trees and violets were in bloss(.ni. I liave seen about this time at the Tai'usas 

 as great heats as in midsuiumer at Quebec, and yet those who have siient the 

 summer there aftirm that it is no hotter than at Quebec. The soil is very 

 good, the Indian corn grows sometimes 20 feet high, and a single .grain will 

 send out ten or twelve stalks almost as thick as your arm. There are a 

 great many herbs and plants, and others that are unknow-n to us. If yon have 

 any wish to see th(> dress of our Indians, we send one to Mr. Leuisen, who will 

 show it to you.'" 



As we have seen, Iberville met a Taensa Indian in 1G99 and was 

 given the names of seven Taensa villages, but he must have misunder- 

 stood his informant in some particulars since he places them on the 

 " right going up " and a day and a half above " the river of the 

 Chicachas " — i. e.. the Yazoo.'' Shortl}" after his return to France 

 De Montigny and Davion came down the Mississippi a second time, 

 reaching Biloxi July 1. On the 11th they parted for their missions 



" Letter of Mr. Thaumur de la Source, in Sliea's Early Voy. Miss., 82-8.", 86. 

 '' In his letter of Aug. 25, 1000. he says merely that si.x persons were killed on the 

 chiefs grave. — Compte Rendu Cong. Tnternat. des Amer., 1.5th sess., I, 49. 

 <■ De Montigny's letter (IGOO). in Shea's Early Voy. Miss., 76-78, 1861. 

 "Margry, D^couvertes, iv, 179, 18S0. 



