262 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW [WEH, ANN. 44 
He who danced to it kept his place and posture in a very exact manner, with- 
out the least perceivable variation, yet by the prodigious working of his muscles 
and nerves he in about half an hour foamed in a very extraordinary manner, 
and discontinued it proportionally till he recovered himself.” 
Under the heading of ceremonies Speck gives the following: 
Another ceremony of a less formal nature is cognate to the elaborate town 
ceremonies of the Creek and Yuchi held in connection with harvesting the first 
green corn of the season. When the Chickasaw community is ready to gather 
the first corn, broken sticks are sent throughout the region to each family, 
indicating the number of days to pass before the ceremony is to occur. Each 
morning a stick is thrown away until only one remains. This is the day of 
the event. On this day every one fasts until high noon. Then each member of 
the household drinks an emetic made of the red root (hiakcie himima, root red), 
concluding with a feast of the fresh roasting ears. 
At certain times during the summer communities gather together to secure 
quantities of fish, which they do by throwing vegetable poisons into the water 
and shooting the stupefied fish with bows and arrows. Such gatherings are 
frequently the occasions of dancing and gaming.” 
To what extent the Creek busk was adopted by the Chickasaw is a 
difficult question. Certainly Adair gives a description of a busk 
ceremony which seems to have been quite elaborate, and as the native 
ewords he cites in connection with this are Chickasaw, the natural 
inference is that he is describing a Chickasaw ceremony.'® However, 
it is strange that there is no other mention of such a ceremony except 
the brief note by Speck. The ceremony described by Adair may 
have been in that Chickasaw town which was established among the 
Upper Creeks in the eighteenth century. It would seem as if the 
ceremony must have been adopted from the Creeks and subsequently 
dropped. 
Adair also describes the ceremony of the black drink as if it were 
in vogue among the Chickasaw.'® In another place he refers to social 
dances similar to those noted among the Creeks, though he places 
them in the spring of the year. He says: 
Every spring season, one town or more of the Missisippi Floridians, keep a 
great solemn feast of love, to renew their old friendship. They call this annual 
feast, Hottuk Aimpa, Heettla, Tania [hatak aiimpa, hita, tanaa], “the people 
eat, dance, and walk as twined together.”* The short name of their yearly 
feast of love is Hottuk Impania, ‘eating by a strong religious, or social 
principle.” oar 
They assemble three nights previous to their annual feast of love; on the 
fourth night they eat together. During the intermediate space, the young men 
and women dance in circles from the evening till morning. The men masque 
1% Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 175. 
7 Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, vol. xx, p. 56. 
18 Adair, op. cit., pp. 96-111; copied in Forty-second Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., 
pp. 590-601, 606-607. 
” Adair, op. cit., pp. 46-48; copied in Forty-second Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer, Ethn., 
pp. 589-540. 
*°Tana means to knit, weave, or plait. 
*1 There seems to be no special religious connotation in these words. 
