256 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW [ETH. ANN. 44 
Adair is probably correct in attributing fatalistic beliefs to the southern 
Indians as to the time when each man’s life was to come to an end. He says 
that they had a common proverb “ Neetak Intdhdh [Ni‘tak intaha], ‘The days 
appointed, or allowed him, were finished’ [the days finished for him]. And 
this is their firm belief; for they affirm, that there is a fixt time, and place, 
when, and where, every one must die, without any possibility of averting it. 
They frequently say, ‘Such a one was weighed on the path, and made to be 
light.’ ” 
He also says that many believed marriages to be equally fated.” 
We learn from Adair, in places already quoted, that the Chicksaw discharged 
guns and whooped in order to drive the ghost of a dead man to his fixed 
abode, but that it was believed that if he had been slain in war his soul would 
haunt the eaves of the house until equal blood had been shed for him.* All 
accounts agree that after the soul had been induced to leave the neighborhood 
of his living relatives he traveled westward, passed under the sky and pro- 
ceeded upward upon it to the land of The One Above or the Breath Holder. 
The name “ spirits’ road” given to the milky way shows that this was regarded 
as the trail upon which souls ascended. 
The last-mentioned writer says that the good spirits of the world above attend 
and favor the virtuous while the bad spirits in the west accompany and have 
power over the vicious,’ but this probably gives a somewhat distorted view of 
the actual native belief. It is probable that the good spirits of which he 
speaks included most of those who became human helpers, whether in the sky 
or in other parts of the universe, while the bad spirits were the ghosts of the 
dead, or at any rate spirits associated with the western world, through which 
the soul first passed. This is suggested by what he tells us immediately after- 
wards. ‘On which account, when any of their relations die, they immediately 
fire off several guns, by one, two, and three at a time, for fear of being plagued 
with the last troublesome neighbors [i. e., the evil spirits of the west]: all 
the adjacent towns also on the occasion, whoop and halloo at night; for they 
reckon this offensive noise sends off the ghosts to their proper fixed places till 
they return at some certain time, to repossess their beloved tract of land, and 
enjoy their terrestrial paradise.” The good spirits could be attached to indi- 
viduals somewhat like the personal manitous of the Algonkian Tribes. This 
is made evident in the case of the Chickasaw by Adair, who says: “ Several 
warriors have told me that their Nana Ishtohoollo, ‘concomitant holy spirits,’ 
or angels, have forewarned them, as by intuition, of a dangerous ambuscade, 
which must have been attended with certain death, when they were alone, and 
seemingly out of danger; and by virtue of the impulse they immediately darted 
off, and with extreme difficulty escaped the crafty pursuing enemy.” * 
Adair is our only early authority for the expected ultimate return of souls 
to earth,’ but there apepars to be no good reason to doubt that such an idea 
prevailed with certain Indians, and he is confirmed by the Chickasaw inter- 
viewed on Schoolecraft’s behalf during the middle of last century. “They 
believe,” he says, “that the spirits of all the Chickasaws will go back to 
Mississippi and join the spirits of those that have died there; and then all 
the spirits will return to the west before the world is destroyed by fire.” ° 
*8 Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 33. 8 Ibid. 
S'Tbid.; ip: 26: 4Tbid., p. 37. 
1 Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, vol. 1, p. 310. 5Ibid., pp. 178, 182, 397. 
? Adair, op. cit., p. 36. ® Schoolcraft, op. cit., p. 310. 
