s wanton] EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 318 
and some to the Creeks. Those who went to the Cherokee and 
Creeks subsequently followed their fortunes, and the latter band 
was taken in by the Abihka. They seem to have conformed in most 
particulars to the usages of their neighbors. Taitt thus describes his 
visit to them on March 27, 177i' : 
I went this morning to black drink to the Square, where I was very kindley received 
by the head men of the town who told me to look on myself as being amongst my 
friends and not to be affraid of any thing, for their fire was the same as Charlestown 
fire and they never bad Spilt the blood of any white Man; 1 after that I had Smoked 
Tobacco and drinked black drink with them they desired that I might Stay in their 
Town all day as they were building a hothouse and Should have a dance in the Even- 
ing which they wanted me to see. In the Evening I went to the Square where thirteen 
Chickasaws had joined the Natchies and Creeks for the dance. . . The women 
being dressed like W'arriours with bows, hatchets, and other weapons in their hands, 
came into the Square and danced round the fire, the pole Cat dance, two men Singing 
and ratling their Callabashes all the time. 2 
Although having separate towns, the Natchez and Abihka are said 
to have intermarried to such an extent as to become completely fused. 
Since descent was reckoned in the female line the Natchez were still 
distinguished from the Abihka through their mothers, and the lan- 
guage was transmitted thus for many years, but it is now extinct. 
Among the Cherokee the Natchez preserved their identity longer, 
and a few Indians remain who can speak the old tongue. Among 
the Creeks some stories are still told regarding them. Jackson 
Lewis repeated a tradition to the effect that the Natchez were at 
one time hemmed in by the French, but all that could move, men, 
women, and children, escaped by wading through water. Then 
they went to the Chickasaw to live, but after a time they found some 
of their children who had gone out berrying run through with canes. 
This was done by the Chickasaw, who did not want the Natchez 
among them, so the latter moved on and came to where the Abihka 
lived. They asked the Abihka to take them in and the Abihka told 
them to "enter the gates" and confer with the chiefs, the Abihka 
being the "door shutters" of the confederacy. The Natchez did 
this and were adopted. They were allowed to settle with the Abihka, 
according to one story, because the Abihka were a very small people 
perhaps having been reduced in wars with the Cherokee. According 
to Adair, some Chickasaw moved with the Natchez and the two 
occupied a town called Ooe-asa, somewhere near the upper course of 
Coosa River. 1 ' 
To these few notes I will add the account which Stiggins gives of 
this tribe which was not included in my bulletin above mentioned. 
i A notable prevarication, except on the supposition that the speaker meant English white men. 
2 Merencss, Trav. Am. Col., pp. 531-532. 
' Adair, Hist. Am. lnds., p. 319. 
