250 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW [BTH. ANN. 44 
were seen by doctors and sometimes by hunters, as elsewhere de- 
scribed.” 
The iyaginasha“ were little people, only about 3 feet tall. They 
were also seen at times by doctors and hunters. They carried some 
people off and made doctors of them, and they taught others how to 
get deer, since they were experts in pursuing game. In this they 
were quite different from the lo"fas, who would drive deer away 
from the hunters and hide them. Still, the Chickasaw would soon 
move away from a place if they thought there were iyaganasha 
about. The following information regarding them was obtained for 
me by Zeno McCurtain: 
STORY OF THE INVISIBLE LITTLE PEOPLE (TYAGANACA) 
These little people lived at a certain time, but everyone could not see them. 
They did not live in all places, but sometimes under high banks or along a 
branch which had such high banks. It was necessary for their preservation 
that most other people should not be able to see them. They, on their part, 
could see everybody, but they showed themselves to few. When they saw 
a person whom they liked, a man in good health, dreaming good dreams, they 
would make a doctor out of him. Having selected him, they would lead him 
off into the woods where others could not find him. People might be in search 
of him and close to the place where he was, but they would not see him. 
After a certain time, however, the little people would conduct him to a place 
near his home and tell him to return to his family. Sometimes, when a child 
disappeared, the people knew that the little people had carried him off and 
they would not trouble to look for him for several days, knowing who had him 
and that they would bring him back. 
When a person who had been carried off in this manner returned he would 
not tell his friends where he had been or whom he had been with, for the 
little people warned him against divulging anything. The little people told 
him that if he related what he had seen, or told where he had been he would 
fall sick, forget all he had learned, and never become a doctor, but otherwise 
he would’ become whatever the little people had trained him for. He generally 
bceame a good doctor. 
The little people were believed to be powerful, though some denied that 
they had any existence. They had their own way of living, like other crea- 
tures, but no one could tell what it was except the persons who had been 
made doctors by them. It was said that when they were travelling along 
and came to the bank of a large creek they would jump across it as if it 
were a small branch. If a human being happened to be with them, and found 
that he was unable to cross, one of the little people would leap back, take 
him by the arm, and swing him over. But when they came to a little branch 
the little people could not spring over and the man would assist them across 
in the same way. The worst enemy of these pygmies was the wasp. When 
they found a wasp’s nest anywhere they made elaborate preparations to 
attack it. If a wasp stung one of them he would surely die. A human being 
™ See pp. 200-201. 
7™This word seems to be compounded of yakni, ‘“ earth,’ and a®ca, “to sit,” or ‘to 
dwell.” 
