278 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 73 
history. It is the statement of Milfort, who probably derived his 
information from Alexander McGillivray, and who says: 
About the same time [as that in which the Muskogee and Alabama finally made 
peace with each other] an Indian tribe which was on the point of being destroyed 
by the Iroquois and the Hurons, came to ask the protection of the Moskoquis, whom 
I will now call Creeks. The latter received them among themselves and assigned 
them a region in the center of the nation. They built a town, which is now rather 
large, which is named Tuket-Batchet, from the name of the Indian tribe. The 
great assemblies of the Creek Nation, of which it forms an integral part, are sometimes 
held within its walls. 1 
Alone this would not amount to proof, Milfort not being the most 
trustworthy authority, but Adair confirms it in the one important 
point. He quotes a Tukabahchee Indian of his time named "Old 
Bracket" to the effect that the people of this town ''were a different 
people from the Creeks." 2 Their origin myth also appears to have 
varied considerably from that of the Creeks proper. This appears 
from some confused notes furnished by Gatschet, 3 but still more from 
the following legend preserved in the Tuggle collection, though that 
differs not so much in general plan as in the line of march, south 
instead of east. 
The Took-a-batchees say that a long time ago their people had a great trouble and 
moved away. They came to water they could not cross. They built boats and 
crossed the water and marched south. They decided their course of march by a 
pole. They stood the pole perpendicularly and let it fall and in whatever direction 
it fell they marched in that direction. This pole was entrusted to a prophet. They 
continued marching south until the pole would not fall in any definite direction, but 
would wabble as it fell. Here they stopped and lived a long time. After a while 
another great trouble came and they resumed their march until they came to water, 
which was too wide to cross in boats, so they marched along the coast. They followed 
their pole going east till they came to Georgia, where they lived when the white 
people came to America. 
A difference is possibly indicated in the claim made by the 
Tukabahchee that they are "a stray" (town). This is explained, 
however, on the ground that they could do as they pleased, and 
this again may have been on account of their superiority. They 
were also called Italwa fatca, "town deviating from strictness," 
a title said to have been shared by the Abihka. 4 
The migration legend just quoted is borne out in this particular, 
that when the Spaniards first heard of the Tukabahchee they appear 
to have been in Georgia, but it is improbable that they reached that 
country by marching along the coast. The earliest notice I have 
of them is in a letter of Antonio Mateos, lieutenant of the Apalachee 
province, of May 19, 1686, already several times mentioned, in 
» Milfort, Memoire, pp. 265-260. > Gatschet, Creek Mig. Leg., I, p. 147. 
* Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 179. < Ibid., p. 148. 
