210 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW [ETH. ANN. 44 
When their enemies wanted to get rid of them they thought they would haye 
no trouble for they lived in holes in their yards, out of which they thought 
these people could not emerge without being shot. Their prophet, however, 
knowing when the enemies would come, told them to remain in their houses 
until some time afterward. They were careful about showing themselves for 
several days. Those who would not take their prophet’s advice, kept going out 
as usual and were killed. 
When these people got their minds set upon anything, it was not easy to 
change them. They were wise managers and were able to get along with com- 
paratively little work. They reared their girls and boys in accordance with 
their own ideas, and on account of this training their boys had little difficulty 
in earning a living after they had grown up. Such a person also had no diffi- 
culty in getting a wife, because it had been arranged by his parents. The boys 
were obedient to their parents while they were growing up and afterwards to 
the end of their lives, and they were well thought of by others. People also 
observed that they were of a peaceable disposition. 
They would not marry or have dealings with any except their own clan and 
house relations. A boy would not marry a woman belonging to other peoples. 
The parents of the youth, who understood who were and who were not of the 
same clan and house group, would arrange this marriage with the parents of 
the girl, and when the couple were old enough they were married. They had 
been so carefully brought up that they knew exactly how to make a living and 
went to keeping house at once. But some of the same people brought their 
children up in such a way that they did not know anything and had a hard 
time getting along. 
They brought up their girls in the same careful manner, though they were 
not as hard upon them. Sometimes a girl committed adultery, and when that 
happened they considered her an outeast. But occasionally a man outside of 
her clan would take a fancy to her and ask her parents to let him have her, 
and if they were willing he would marry her. This is the way these people 
brought up their children. 
They found that their manner of life worked satisfactorily and were very 
much pleased with it; from time to time they changed it slightly when they 
found such changes were for the better. By and by, however, they added a 
new element, but this did not work as they had expected and was the begin- 
ning of their ruin. This consisted in permitting certain doctors to practice 
witcheraft. These persons were proud of their abilities, but the people ob- 
served that something was threatening the ruin of the tribe, and they set them- 
selves to find out the cause. They again thought of their prophet and sent for 
him. Then the prophet told them that things would run smoothly as before 
if they would do away with all of those who indulged in witchcraft. He said 
that those who had practiced it must repent of their own accord or suffer the 
consequences. Some wizards did not hear about the order and kept on as they 
had been doing, and the people had pity on them because they did not know 
the order; but there were others who knew of the order and, without saying 
anything, continued their practices. The people, having determined to put the 
order against wizardry into effect, sent spies about to find who was guilty of it, 
and they discovered that many had been overawed by them. But when the 
wizards discovered that they had been doing wrong they offered to bear the 
blame, for when persons of this clan got into difficulties all would come to- 
gether and adjust it because they all loved one another. 
There are a few members of this house group still in existence, but nothing 
to compare with the numbers of their ancestors. Their ways were so peculiar 
that unless one were a member of the house group or married into it he could 
