286 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



witli different colors, bearing feathers in tlieir hands, which served them as 

 fans or to keep time, their hair neatly plaited with bunches of feathers. The 

 young men were naked, having only a belt like the girls, which concealed 

 them in part, they being well daubed with paint and their hair well provided 

 with bunches of feathers. Many had pieces of copper in the form of flattened 

 plates, two and three together fastened to their belts, and hanging as far 

 down as the knee, which made a noise and assisted in marking the time. They 

 danced like that for three hours in a very active and sprightly manner. 

 Night having come, the chief made us lodge in his cabin or house which he 

 had prepared. After having supped on hominy made of Indian corn, they 

 brought in and lighted a torch of canes, 15 feet long, bound together, 2 feet in 

 circumference, which they planted in the middle, afire at the top, and which 

 lighted sufficiently well. All the youth of the village repaired there with their 

 bows and arrows, war clubs, and warlike instruments, and some women and 

 girls, where they began to dance anew until midnight war dances which I 

 found very pretty, and then all retired except the chief, who remained and 

 slept with us in his cabin along with all the Bayogoulas, to whom they paid 

 the same honors as to ourselves, regarding them as French, having brought 

 the latter to their homes. These two chiefs harangued each other; the Bayo- 

 goula harangued the Ouma for me. This village is on a hill, where there are 140 

 cabins ; there may be 350 men there at most, and many children. All the cabins 

 are on the edge of the hill, in a double row in places, and arranged in a circle. 

 There is a square 200 paces across, very neat. The cornfields are in the 

 valleys and on the other hills in the neighborhood. This entire country is 

 nothing but hills of quite good black earth ; no rocks ; I have seen none since 

 leaving the sea. This village is 2i leagues from the river toward the north ; 

 the woods there are open, a mixture of all kinds of oaks; above all there are 

 many canes in the bottoms. I did not see any fruit tree there. They gave me 

 two kinds of nuts; one, like those of Canada, hard nuts, and the other, little, 

 made like olives and no larger. They have not yet cultivated anything else 

 except melons and have sowed tobacco.* 



The next day Iberville returned to his boats, and the Houma pro- 

 vided him with bread, flour, and corn for the continuance of his 

 journey. Being convinced, however, by the renewed testimony of a 

 Taensa Indian that there was no fork in the Mississippi such as had 

 been represented by Membre, he soon decided not to attemjDt to ascend 

 higher that year and returned to the Hoinna landing. Here he pro- 

 cured more corn, along with pumpkins and chickens, and after some 

 difficulty induced the Bayogoulas who had remained at the village 

 to join him. When he embarked, he says: " The chief of the Oumas 

 and one of the most important personages of his people led me to 

 my shallop, holding me under the arms to aid me in walking, for 

 fear that some accident would happen to me on their land. The 

 chief of the Oumas," he adds, " is a man 5 feet 10 inches in height 

 and large in proportion, having a very flat forehead, although the 

 other men of his nation do not have it, at least very few of the old 

 men. This custom is changing among them. He is about 70 years 

 old, having a son of about 25 to 30, well formed, who succeeds to his 



'»Margry, D6couvertes, iv, 174-177, 1880. 



