80 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 7:5 
ily went to hide himself behind a thick bush, where at his pleasure he could easily 
reconnoiter the ceremonies of the feast. The three who began the feast are called 
joanas, 1 and are like priests or sacrificers according to the Indian law, to whom they 
give faith and credence in part because as a class 2 they are devoted to the sacrifices 
and in part also because everything lost is recovered by their means. And not only 
are they revered on account of these things but also because by T do not know what 
science and knowledge that they have of herbs they cure sicknesses. Those who 
had thus gone away among the woods returned two days later. Then, having arrived, 
they began to dance with a courageous gayety in the very middle of the open space, 
and to cheer their good Indian fathers, who on account of advanced age, or else their 
natural indisposition, had not been called to the feast. All these dances having 
been brought to an end they began to eat with an avidity so great that they seemed 
rather to devour the food than to eat it. For neither on the feast day nor on the two 
following days had they drunk or eaten. Our Frenchmen were not forgotten in this 
good cheer, for the Indians went to invite them all, showing themselves very happy 
at their presence. Having remained some time with the Indians a Frenchman gained 
a young boy by presents and inquired of him what the Indians had done during 
their absence in the woods, who gave him to understand by signs that the joanas had 
made invocations to Toya, and that by magic characters they had made him come so 
that they could speak to him and ask him many strange things, which for fear of 
the joanas he did not dare to make known. They have besides many other ceremo- 
nies which I will not recount here for fear of wearying the readers over matters of 
such small consequence. 3 
Which shows that matters of small consequence to one generation 
may become of great interest to later ones. Although the feast is 
represented as of three days' duration it is evident that this is only 
one case of the common substitution by early writers of the European 
sacred number 3 for the Indian sacred number 4. In this particular, 
therefore, and in the careful clearing of the dance ground before the 
ceremony, this feast recalls the Creek busk. The rest of it seems 
to be entirely different, though the idea of retiring into the deep 
forest to commune with deity is shared by all primitive peoples. 
For any suggestions regarding the mortuary customs of the Cusabo 
we must go back to the first attempt at settlement by the Span- 
iards and Oviedo's comments upon the country of Gualdape already 
given. 4 
THE GUALE INDIANS AND THE YAMASEE 
The coast of what is now the State of Georgia, from Savannah 
River as far as St. Andrews Sound, was anciently occupied by a tribe 
or related tribes which, whatever doubts may remain regarding the 
people just considered, undoubtedly belonged to the Muskhogean 
stock. 5 This region was known to the Spaniards as " the province of 
Guale (pronounced Wallie)," but most of the Indians living there 
finally became merged with a tribe known as the Yamasee, and it 
i Hakluyt has "Iawas"; see French, Hist. Colls. La., 1869, p. 204. * See p. 48. 
2 Or perhaps "by birth." 5 See pp. 14-16. 
3 Laudonniere, op. cit., pp. 43-46. 
