82 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[Bull. 137 



Tobias Fitch speaks of "the Lun-ham-ga Town in the Abecas," which 

 may have been still another out-settlement. 



Abihka ^poyulation. — Only one town, Abihkutci, is given in the 

 census lists prior to 1832, and for these only the gun-men, warriors, or 

 liunters are returned, as follows : 



Year 

 1738. 

 1750. 

 1760. 



^umher 

 -_ 30 

 .- +60 

 - 130 



Year 

 1761- 

 1772-. 

 1792_. 



Numher 



50 



45 



15 



The United States Census taken in 1832-33 returned 378 In- 

 dians in Abihkutci, 191 in Kan-tcati, 334 in Talladega, and 175 in 

 Kiamulgatown. 



ACOLAPISSA 



In 1699 this tribe was living on Pearl River, about 4 leagues (11 

 miles) from its mouth. It was said to occupy 6 villages, and the 

 statement is added that the Tangipahoa (q. v.) had formerly con- 

 stituted a seventh. When these people were visited by Bienville in 

 the winter of 1699-1700, he learned that they had been attacked 2 days 

 before by some English slave hunters at the head of 200 Chickasaw. 

 In 1702 (or 1705) they moved to Bayou Castine on the north shore 

 of Lake Pontchartrain, and 6 months later the Natchitoches (q. v.), 

 whose crops had been ruined, came to St. Denis, then in command of 

 the Mississippi fort, and were settled by him beside the Acolapissa. 

 In 1714, however, when he attempted to take them back to their own 

 country, the Acolapissa attacked them and killed 17, besides capturing 

 50 women and girls, most of whom were restored later. In 1718, or 

 at least before 1722, the Acolapissa removed to the Mississippi River 

 to be near New Orleans and settled on the east side 13 leagues (about 

 35 miles) above it. In the year last mentioned they were visited by 

 Father Charlevoix, who gives a considerable description of them and 

 says that the house of their chief was 36 feet in diameter, 6 feet more 

 than that of the Natchez Great Sun. A little higher up the river 

 they had had a small village, then abandoned. In their old town was 

 a temple and this was rebuilt after they moved to the Mississippi, 

 as we know from the sketch of it made by A. de Batz in 1732 and 

 most fortunately recovered by the late D. I. Bushnell, Jr. From what 

 an officer with M. de Nouaille tells us 7 years later, it is evident that 

 this tribe and the Bayogoula and Houma, who had settled near by, 

 were gradually becoming amalgamated. He prefers to call them all 

 Acolapissa, or "Colapissas," but the name of the Houma had the 

 greater survival value, and the consolidated tribes appear at about 

 this point under that name for a considerable period. The Acolapissa 

 and Bayogoula seem to have combined first, and later to have united 

 with the Houma (q. v.). 



