202 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW [BTH. ANN. 44 
in the woods. They made a living by stealing from other people, and that 
was why they wanted to live in the timber continually. If this clan had 
been handed down through the women, it would have been numerous to-day ; 
but since it depended on the father’s side it did not last long. They kept on 
stealing until about 1880, when the other people got tired of them and killed 
nearly all, so that there are now only a few remaining among the Choctaw 
and Chickasaw.” 
A person of the Red Fox clan did whatever he liked. Once a man of this 
clan went hunting. He did not return that day nor on the day after. In 
fact he was gone for several days, and presently the people thought something 
had happened to him and chose three men to send in search of him. These’ 
men at length reached a place where they expected to find him, but when they 
got close to it he was not there. They discovered that he had taken up with 
a woman of the Bird clan; that was why he had not returned home. When 
they at length came to the place where he was living, he told them that he 
did not think it was harmful to take any woman, whether she was of the same 
clan or not. Therefore, when he met this woman and found that he liked her 
and that she liked him, they lived together. The men told him that it was 
against the will of his people and contrary to their customs, but he could not 
be persuaded and after a while they left him. Before he left his people he 
had already been married. Afterwards he wanted to go back to live with 
them as he had before, but they would not listen to him. 
It was the belief of the people of the Red Fox clan that one should not 
marry outside, and it was their law that if one did so they would not have 
anything to do with him. They would not help him in any way, but he who 
obeyed their customs was held in respect among them. They believed that 
things moved on as was intended by the Creator, but some people did not have 
any regard for this and did not care what happended to them. 
The customs and habits of the Red Fox clan are different from those of any 
other, and the same was true of those of the Double Mountain people. Anyone 
who wanted to learn their ways must marry one of their women [which, judg- 
ing by what was said in the last paragraph in the case of the Red Foxes, would 
seem to have been difficult]. 
When winter was approaching and these people wanted to go on a hunt, they 
began their preparations a considerable time in advance. Some of them would 
get together and decide how many were to go and how long they would be 
gone. Then these persons would fast for four days and meanwhile the women 
would cook food for them to take, enough to last for the time determined upon. 
They made sacks into which to put cold flour (banaha). While the men were 
fasting they would not sleep with their wives, for if one did he thought that 
luck would abandon him and he would kill no deer. Some would not observe 
these rules and in consequence they were usually excluded from the party. 
If such a person were permitted to go, the deer would see him first and run 
off. But those who obeyed the regulations would have good luck and kill many 
deer and bear to bring home. When they killed a deer they dried the meat 
to last them through the winter. When they went after bear they hunted 
about until they discovered his lair and then one of the hunters went into it 
bearing a pine torch. 
The descendants of a Wildcat woman would ordinarily have been reckoned as of the 
Wildeat clan. If an exception had been made in the first instance and the children had 
been called *‘ Red Fox clan” the clan could have been perpetuated through the female 
children alone. An attempt to perpetuate it by reversing the ordinary Chickasaw laws 
of descent would undoubtedly have failed. ‘Therefore this story can not be taken seriously. 
Still there was a clan of this name which has almost died out. 
