228 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW [BTH. ANN. 44 
betrothed with fluttering heart, who, strictly on the lookout, met him a few 
rods from the door and proudly and heroically escorted him into the house, 
where they themseives, in the presence of friends and relatives, performed the 
mImarriage ceremony by the man presenting the woman with a ham of venison 
or a part of some other eatable animal of the chase, she at the same time pre- 
senting him with an ear of corn or sack of potatoes, all of which betokened the 
man should provide the household with meat and the woman with bread. Thus 
they were made man and wife and so considered by all.’ 
Speck says: 
There is no regular marriage ceremony recognized by the Chickasaw. When 
a man has made a choice of a maiden he tells his best friend about it, who 
communicates with her parents. He may choose one or more from the same 
family, the family of the girl naming the price, usually in horses. The man, 
before he can marry, must be a good hunter and own a log house. A person 
may marry in any band but his own, but becomes subject to the regulations of 
his wife’s clan. He still, however, retains his original clan identity.‘ 
As has been remarked elsewhere, my own informants stated that 
children were betrothed when they were very young. When they 
were old enough to marry a day was fixed upon and the relatives of 
each of the contracting parties brought the bridegroom or bride as 
the case might be to the place agreed to. The pair would shake hands 
and afterwards they would live together for a time with the parents 
of one or the other before acquiring a house of their own. 
DIVISION OF LABOR BETWEEN THE SEXES 
Romans has the following passages bearing on this subject : 
The vanity of being accounted great hunters and warriors has the better of 
every consideration, and rather than condescend to cultivate the earth (which 
they think beneath them) they sit and toy with their women; or if they send 
them to labour, they play on an awkward kind of flute made of a cane, 
lolling thus their time away with great indifference, which obliges them yearly 
to apply for corn and pulse to the Choctaws. 
These [women] labour vastly hard, either in the field for cultivation of corn, 
or fetching nuts, firewood and water, which they chiefly carry on their backs; 
the two first articles generally two or three miles, and the last often a mile. 
Their burthens would amaze a stranger, being rather fit for asses than women 
to carry.” 
But as Romans entertained no love for this particular tribe, it is 
probable that he has not presented their usages in the most favorable 
light. While there is evidence that the constant warfare of the 
Chickasaw reacted unfavorably on the social position of women, it 
probably differed little from their position among the Creeks, where 
the cultivation of the town fields was a male as well as a female obli- 
© Cushman, Hist. Choe., Chick., and Natchez, p. 498. 
7 Speck in Jour. Am. Folk-Lore,, vol. xx, p. 57, 
8 Romans, Nat. Hist. E. and W. Fla., p. 62. 
°Tbid., p. 64. 
