252 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW [ETH. ANN. 44 
Another big snake was called nickin-fitcik (‘* eye-star”) because it 
had a single eye in the middle of its forehead. If anything passed in 
front of its lair the snake would catch it, but none have been seen in 
the western country. 
There were formerly many tie-snakes, some with bodies half a foot 
through. If one of these came upon the trail of a hunter, it followed 
him, making a great noise. If a person were caught, as happened 
in at least one instance, the snake would wrap itself about his body 
and crush him to death; but one could escape from this snake by run- 
ning a short distance and turning back on the same track, running 
on and repeating the operation, meantime shouting for the ‘other 
hunters to assemble and dispatch his pursuer. 
My informants had not heard of the water panther or the sharp- 
breasted snake, beings which figure in Creek mythology. 
When an Indian killed a snake he would say, “ Well, I helped you 
all I could, but the One-above (or Father-above) has come and killed 
you and I throw you away.” Anciently fear of snakes seems to have 
been very much greater, Adair remarking that misfortune was pre- 
dicted because he once killed a rattlesnake.” 
When Chickasaw Indians heard the screech owl they thought that 
witches were about, and they went quickly to the doorway and laid 
their moccasins there turned upside down. 
The use of charms in the Southeast was so general that it extended 
to many of the white traders. Adair says that he “took the foot of a 
guinea deer” out of the shot pouch of one of these men “ and another 
from my own partner, which they had very safely sewed in the corner 
of each of their otter-skin-pouches, to enable them, according to the 
Indian creed, to kill deer, bear, buffaloe, beaver, and other wild beasts 
in plenty.” *° He also tells us that a beaded string of buffalo hair 
was tied by the women around their legs as “a great ornament, as 
well as a preservative against miscarriages, hard labor, and other 
evils.” § 
Sacrifices and taboos were very much interwoven, and the following 
observances partake of both: 
They sacrifice in the woods, the milt, or a large fat piece of the first buck 
they kill, both in their summer and winter hunt; and frequently the whole 
earcass. This they offer up, either as a thanksgiving for the recovery of health 
and for their former success in hunting; or that the divine care and goodness 
may be still continued to them. ... Formerly, every hunter observed the very 
same religious economy, but now it is practiced only by those who are the 
most retentive of their old religious mysteries. .. . 
The common sort of Indians, in these corrupt times, only sacrifice a small 
piece of unsalted fat meat, when they are rejoicing in their divine presence, 
®” Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., pp. 272-273. §1Tbid., p. 169. 
50 Ibid., p. 239. 
