352 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



abandoned. Benjamin Paul's granduncle also belonged to one of 

 this class, who seem to have been drawn very largely if not entirely 

 from the Nobles. Sometimes a he'hx-atxhon was at the same time a 

 nd'ta^ and thus united the civil and ecclesiastical functions in his own 

 person. In addition to the regular shamanistic practices these doctors 

 appear to have acted as undertakers. 



Benjamin Paul recalled no epidemics among his people in recent 

 years. He knew of but one family which had had smallpox, but with 

 them it Avas very deadly, destroying all but one person. 



Every large village seems to have had a dance house for religious 

 'observances or the consunnnation of the more important social obli- 

 gations. There were dance houses at Oku'nkiskin, " Bitlarouge," and 

 Grosse Tete, The writer was told that the oldest of all was at 

 Hi'pinimc, but Gatschet was erroneously led to believe that there 

 was but one, at Co'ktangi-ha'na-hetci'nc, on the shore of (irand lake. 

 He says of this and the ceremonial observed there: 



The tribal dnnce house, or " maison de valeur," intended for religious 

 dances, stood on a little bay of Grand Lake, about 3 miles northwest from the 

 present village of Charenton. Like all other lodges, it was about 12 feet 

 square, with a pointed roof, but it was surrounded with a picket fence. It 

 contained nothing else but the garments of the dancers and the three kinds 

 of paints used at this ceremony: the ho,'\n, or " vermillion paint," the A-u'/>s, or 

 "black paint," and the Impshesh, or "white paint."' No idols, stuffed animals, 

 perpetual fire, etc., were to be found in connection with it, as was the case with 

 the temple of the Natchez people. They called this dance house sho'Mangi 

 ha'na he'dshinsh; all the other dance houses ha'na nedsha'mtuina. The place 

 where it stood is now a sugar field, and was called by the Creoles " C4raine-a- 

 volee," from the nuphar plants growing in the vicinity. 



As there was only one meeting place of this description among all the Sheti- 

 masha [?], the participants gathered from all the surrounding lake settlements 

 by canoes the day before the new moon. Men, women, and children tlocked 

 to the ceremony in large numbers. The ceremony took place in honor of Kut- 

 nahansh, or the Noon-Day Sun. and in summer time lasted longer than at other 

 seasons of the year. The management was intrusted to leaders (pc'lcMshmsh)''' 

 who were provided with long wands or poles [called ko'Uc^. The men danced 

 with the breechcloth on, the b: dy painted red, and with feathers stuck in the 

 ribbons encircling the head. Gourd rattles and the scratching of alligator 

 skins furnished the music for the occasion. They fasted during the six days 

 the dance lasted. When the ceremony was drawing to a close, they drank 

 water in order to produce vomiting ; and, after they had removed in this manner 

 any impurities in their systems, they began to eat heartily.^ 



The arrival of a boy at manhood was signalized by another cere- 

 mony also conducted in the temple. This, Doctor Gatschet Avas in- 

 formed, '* had not the purpose of imparting to them certain mysteries 

 concerning the worship of their main deity, the Noon-Day Sun, but 

 simply aimed at making them insensible to tlie pangs of hunger and 



"Or pc'Mtctnc, something up there, ahove us (i. o., "God," these men receivins the 

 game name as the Deity ■). . 



"Trails. Anlln-dp, Soc. Wash., ii, 0-7, 1883. 



