Bringier on the Region of the Mississippi, ^c. 39 



okee who has two or three wives of different tribes, may 

 have children by all three wives, and these children are not, 

 by their laws, related to each other,) to waylay the murder- 

 er, and kill him ; unless this last can escape, and return vs^ith 

 seven scalps, which he must present to the tribe whom he 

 has deprived of a member. This must be performed be- 

 fore the expiration of a certain period or epoch, which, I be- 

 lieve, is during their assembly of the green corn dance, 

 which takes place every year before they ever dare to taste 

 of a grain of new corn. These assemblies last sometimes 

 several weeks, and they often come one hundred and fifty 

 and two hundred miles to attend them. 



On these occasions, they discuss all their matters of con- 

 sequence, and their prophets display their eloquence. In 

 1812 I happened to assist at one of these assemblies ; and 

 I v^rill copy the following speech from my journal, for the 

 >ake of giving an idea of their eloquence. 



Cherokee Prophecy. 



Speech of the Cherokee Skaquaiv, (the Sivan,) on the 3d 

 day of June, 1812, at Crowtown, on St, Francis river. 



"Ye red men, who have prepared to fill yourselves with 

 ihe words which will mark what will come to pass. (Atea,) (a 

 word which they repeat at the end of every sentence, as we 

 should say. Amen.) If thou hast been continent nine nights 

 and days, and viewed the sun these two last days with a 

 hungry stomach, open your ears, and feed with the sacred 

 words which the ever great Spirit (Skayaaguste) has sent in 

 my mouth, for me to transmit over to his red children. 

 (Atea.) It was about one moon before the earth first shook, 

 or about seven moons ago, one night, when every thing 

 was silent, and the sky as clear as spring water, that I was 

 standing leaning on a stump, contemplating the blazing star, 

 (comet,) those everlasting lights which sparkle from one 

 horizon to the other, when suddenly four lightnings departing 

 from the four opposite points, came and alighted together at 

 my feet, and there I perceived the blazing star; I first rais- 

 ed it on a chip, but perceiving it did not burn the chip, I 

 tried with my finger, and found it was a tame fire. The 

 moment it was in my hand. I saw two children come tor 



