1006 



YUCHI 



[B. A. E. 



handed down partly through father to 

 son and partly from father to sifter's 

 children, inheritance being thus an indi- 

 vidual and not solely a group matter. 

 The men of different classes are distin- 

 guished by facial painting. 



The town officials are a town chief and 

 priest, chosen from the chief class of cer- 

 tain leading clans; a master of cere- 

 monies and representative from the war- 

 rior class (if certain clans, with 3 secondary 

 chiefs and 3 secondary warriors from cer- 

 tain clans. There are, besides, other offi- 

 cials chosen from certain clans and classes, 

 who have charge of different stages of 

 the ceremonies. Unanimous acclamation 

 constitutes appointment to an office. The 

 town itself, represented by its chiefs and 

 lesser officers or warriors, regulates the 

 ceremonies and matters of an internal 

 nature or those dealing with outsiders or 

 other towns. 



Each town has a sacred public square, 

 or shrine, where social and religious 

 meetings are held, on the four edges of 

 which stand four ceremonial lodges cov- 

 ered with boughs. In these lodges the 

 different clan groups have assigned places 

 during public occasions. The square 

 ground symbolizes the rainbow, where, 

 in the sky-world, Sun, the mythical cul- 

 ture-hero, underwent the ceremonial or- 

 deals which he handed down to the first 

 Yuchi. 



The chief power above that is recog- 

 nized as the source of life and mystery is 

 the Sun. There seems, as well, to be 

 some unworshiped but acknowledged 

 supernatural source of power from which 

 mechanical magic flows. But the Sun, in 

 his plural concept as chief of the sky- 

 world, the author of the life, the cere- 

 monies, and culture of the people, is by 

 far the most important figure in their re- 

 ligious life. The various animals of the 

 sky-world are important in myth, but in 

 practice the Yuchi do not recognize in 

 them anything more to be feared than in 

 the numerous spirits which dominate 

 other natural objects in their surround- 

 ings. Vegetation spirits are closely con- 

 cerned ill their daily and ceremonial life, 

 as is shown in the annual new-fire and 

 harvest ceremony. Besides these, totemic 

 ancestral sjiirits play a rather important 

 part. 



Pul)lic religious worship is performed 

 l)y the whole town in a complex annual 

 ceremony connected with the corn har- 

 vest, the different rites of which occupy 

 three days and the intervening nights. 

 The square ground is the scene of action. 

 Ceremonial making of new fire, clan 

 dances mimicking totemic ancestors, 

 dances propitiating evilly-inclined spir- 

 its and thanking various beneficent ones 

 as well as inducing them to continue 



their benefits, scarification of the males 

 for sacrifice and purification, taking an 

 emetic as a purifier, the partaking of the 

 first green corn of the season, and the 

 performance of a characteristic ball game 

 with two sticks, are the main elements of 

 the annual ceremony. Young men are 

 admitted to the ranks of manhood at this 

 time. This important event is carried on 

 in distinct emulation of the Sun to insure 

 a continuance of triljal existence. The 

 sentiment of obedience to the Sun is 

 peculiarly prominent with the Yuchi. 



Disease is accredited to the presence of 

 a harmful spirit which has been placed 

 in the system by some offended animal 

 spirit or malevolent conjurer. Herbs, 

 which have names corresponding in some 

 way to the name of the animal causing 

 the trouble, are brewed in a pot and ad- 

 ministered internally. By this means of 

 sympathetic healing and by the use of 

 song formulas the disease spirit is driven 

 out by the shaman. 



During her catamenial periods, and at 

 childbirth also, the woman secludes her- 

 self from her family and house. She lives 

 alone in a temporary hut under a taboo 

 of certain foods. At the birth of the child 

 its navel cord is ceremonially disposed of, 

 and the father is henceforth prohibited 

 from association with his friends, besides 

 having restrictions for a month against 

 the use of certain foods, manual labor, and 

 hunting. The children's cradle is the 

 hammock. On the fourth day after its 

 birth the child is named after a maternal 

 granduncle or grandaunt. Unmarried 

 girls are marked off from others with red 

 paint. The marriage rite is a very simple 

 one, the couple being of different clans, 

 of course, merely agreeing to unite and 

 for awhile usually reside in the woman's 

 home. The dead were formerly buried 

 underneath the floor of the house with a 

 supply of food and clothes. Nowadays, 

 however, burial is made in a cemetery, 

 with rites similar to those of former times, 

 and a small log hut is raised over the spot. 

 .Here a fire is kept burning for four days, 

 during which time the spirit is on its jour- 

 ney eastward to the land of the dead up 

 above where the Sun is. There are four 

 souls, but only one passes on to the future 

 life, having as a finale to pass an obstacle 

 at the entrance to the sky. If this point 

 is passed in safety the journey is over, 

 otherwise it returns to earth a menace to 

 the happiness of the living. 



In mythology there is a sharp contrast 

 between culture-hero and trickster. In 

 the more sacred cosmological myths con- 

 siderable unity is found, but the trickster 

 tales are loose and often fragmentary. 

 Creations are ascribed mostly to the as- 

 sembled pre-earthly animals. I^arth is 

 brought up from a watery waste by craw- 



