SWANTON] INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 349 



Instead of marrying among the common people, however, it is 

 affirmed that the Chitirnacha nobles were constrained to take part- 

 ners in their own class, which is tantamount to the admission that a 

 true caste system existed. If a Noble married among the common 

 people, the writer was informed, he would have to stay Avith them, 

 and for that reason many refused to marry at all Avhen no women of 

 their own caste were to be had, and thus hastened the extinction of the 

 tribe. 



Totemic clans also existed, but only the wolf , bear, dog, and "lion" 

 ('haJ//ias/'l:s) are remembered. The Avolf clan is said to be entirely 

 extinct, and the lion clan is represented by only one woman. It is 

 probable that there was a snake clan also. When angry, people 

 Avould say to each other " You are a bear," " You are a wolf," etc. A 

 person belonged to the same clan as his mother, relationship on her 

 side being considered closer. Benjamin Paul states that his father's 

 mother, Avho explained the totemic system to him and who belonged 

 to the wolf clan, used to talk to the wolves when she was out in the 

 woods, and thought that she could induce them to go away. Benja- 

 min PauFs fatlier was also a wolf, of course, while he and his mother 

 were of the dog clan. Tlie former chiefs. Champagne and Soulier 

 Rouge, were bears. 



Each principal C'hitimaclia town had a chief called nd'ta^ and 

 there is also said to have been a head nd'tq^ whose headquarters were 

 somewhere west of Charenton, perhaps at Ng pinu'nc. The exist- 

 ence of a head chief appears to be confirmed by French writers. 

 Besides having a larger house than the other people, a nd'tq Avas dis- 

 tinguished by the possession of a peculiar pipe, into Avhich a number 

 of stems could be inserted. Under the nci'tq Avere officers called 

 nete'xmec^ and netexmec is the native term for the governor of 

 Louisiana, the President being presumably considered a natq. The 

 number of Avar leaders was very much greater than the number of 

 civil chieftainships, Gatschet Avas told that there Avere four or fiA^e 

 in each A^llage, but the number Avas probably not fixed. Chieftain- 

 ships seem to haA^e passed from father to son absolutely regardless 

 of clan. There are tAvo cases, cited by Gatschet, in Avhich wives 

 succeeded their husbands. The wife of kSoulier Rouge, named Adell 

 Champagne, and perhaps the daughter of the chief Champagne, 

 succeeded him on his death four or five years before the civil war. 



Gatschet Avas told that the Chitimacha Avere strict monogamists," 

 I)ut this Avas evidently true only of their later history. Duralde says: 



Before the marriage of a dausrhter the parents must be satisfied. If she is 

 rebellious against the laA\\ her hair is cropped off and she remains dishonored, 

 but her children do not participate in her degradation, but hold in the nation 

 tlieir proper hereditary rank.'' 



" Trsins. Anthrop. Soc. Wash., ii, 5, t8S:^.. 



''MS., a copy of which is in the Bui'oaii of American Ethnology. 



