SWANTON] INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 317 



of Iiair on the back which hangs down below the waist ; they also make a 

 crown of it around the head. Their head, like the men's, is flat. Most of the 

 men have long hair and no dress but a wretched deerskin. Sometimes they, as 

 well as the women, also have mantles of turkey feathers or of muskrat skins 

 well woven and worked. 



Mothers carefully put the heads of both boys and girls under i)ressure from 

 birth to render them flat.'^ 



The diet of the Tunica was more vegetarian than that of American 

 tribes generally. La Source states that they lived entirely on In- 

 dian corn, which they gathered only as they needed it, and spent all 

 their time in their fields, to the entire exclusion of hunting.'' This 

 is, of course, an overstatement, as Gravier mentions the dressing of 

 deer and buli'alo skins, and it is not likely that these were all obtained 

 in trade.'' Their vegetarian diet was also much more extensive, em- 

 bracing, besides the corn and squashes raised by them, wild fruits 

 and probably roots. 



Of fruits, Gravier says: 



There are no peaches in this village as there are at the Akansea ; but such an 

 abundance of piakimina that they go into the woods with their families to 

 harvest them, as the Illinois go with their families to hunt the buffalo, which 

 is very rare in this country, where they live on this fruit in the woods for a 

 month, besides which they pound and dry great quantities, which they pre- 

 serve for a long time.*^ 



Salt was obtained at certain places west of the Mississippi, Avhither 

 the river tribes resorted at certain seasons to boil it down. They also 

 obtained it from the Caddoan tribes in trade.*' 



If we may trust the last-named writer, a larger share of labor fell 

 to the men than was usual among Indians. He says: 



The men do here what peasants do in France; they cultivate and dig the 

 earth, plant and harvest the crops, cut the wood and bring it to the cabin, 

 dress the deer and buffalo skins when they have any. * * * -p^jg women 

 do only indoor work, make the earthen pots and their clothes. 



Skins, he declares, were dressed better than he had seen done else- 

 where, which w^ould mean better than along the ujDper Mississippi or 

 in Canada.^ 



Of the moral condition of the tribe Gravier adds : 



They are very docile; polygamy is rare among them, but their caprice and 

 the custom of the country authorizes repudiation for next to nothing, for which 

 reason the village is thinly peopled, and I saw hardly any children. The girls 

 are not so loose or bold as they are among the Natchez and Taensa.^ 



From a later statement of La Harpe it would seem as if polygamy 

 were more common than Gravier supposed,'' but it can only have 

 obtained among the wealthy at most. 



« Shea, Early Voy. Miss., 134, 1861. » See p. 78. 



'Ibid., 81. /"Shea, Early Voy. Miss., 131-1.35. 



" Ibid., 134-135. ff Ibid., 133. 



<* Ibid., 135-136. '' La Harpe in Margry,Decouvertes, vij247. 



