xwanton] KAKI.Y HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 371 
or phr.it rics existed among the Timucua. The word for clan appears 
to have been hasomi. Pa re j a mentions six phratries — that of the 
White Deer, or Great Deer, which seems to have been that to which 
the chief usually belonged in the provinces best known to him; the 
Dirt or Earth phratry; the Fish phratry; the Buzzard (or Vulture, 
aura) phratry; the Chulufichi phratry; and the Acheha phratry. 
Some of their subdivisions are also given by Pareja. 
The aristocratic nature of Timucua government is apparent from 
the statements of the French already referred to as well as from the 
information regarding their social organization recorded by Pareja. 
From Pareja's Catechism it appears that chiefs were allowed to 
exact tribute and labor from their subjects, and that by way of 
punishment they sometimes had the arms of their laborers broken. 1 
From the same source we learn that just before assuming the chief- 
tainship a man had a new fire lighted and maintained for six days 
in a small house or arbor which was closed up with laurels and " other 
things." 2 The chiefs wore at times long painted skins, the ends of 
which were held up from the ground by attendants. Le Moyne 
figures this 3 and the custom is directly confirmed by Laudonniere, 
whose testimony there is no reason to doubt; otherwise we might 
regard it as something drawn from the customs of European courts 
and falsely attributed to the Floridians. These skins were often 
presented to the French as marks of esteem. 4 In giving out drinking 
water the bearer observed "a. certain order and reverence" to each. 5 
As intimated above, the country appears to have been divided 
between a limited number of head chiefs, under each of whom were a 
very much greater number of local chiefs. These little confederacies 
may have been of the nature of some of the larger Creek groups which 
consisted of a head town and a number of outsettlements. 
From Laudonniere we learn that, like Indian tribes generally, 
the ancient Floridians observed taboos with reference to women at 
the time of their monthly periods and when a child was born. He 
implies that when a woman was pregnant she lived in a house apart 
from that of her husband. The men would not eat food touched by 
a menstruant woman. 6 
Of their marriages the same writer says: 
They marry, and every one hath his wife, and it is lawful for the king to have two 
or three, yet none but the first is honored and acknowledged for queen, and none but 
the children of the first wife inherit the goods and authority of the father. 7 
1 Ftoc. Am. Philos. Soc., xvm, pp. 4S9, 490. 
* Ibid., p. 490. 
3 Le Moyne, Narrative, pi. 39. 
* Laudonniere, La Floride, pp. 72-73; French, Hist. Colls. La., 1869, p. 228. 
» Laudonniere, ibid., p. 74; French, ibid., p. 229. 
8 Laudonniere, ibid., pp. 8-9; French, ibid., p. 172. 
i Laudonniere, ibid., p. 8; French, ibid., p. 172. 
