SWANOWN] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 599 



Shortly thereafter, the cacica came from the town In a carrying chair in which 

 certain principal Indians carried her to the river. (Robertson, 1933, p. 91.) 



It is to be noted that the chiefs of the Naguatex (Namidish) and 

 Nondacao (Anadarko) tribes visited strangers on foot, which may in- 

 dicate a difference in custom among the Caddo. In 1687, when 

 Joutel and his companions reached the Caddo proper during their 

 journey from the Texas coast to the Mississippi, the Caddo brought 

 them into their town on their backs "it being the custom of the coun- 

 try" (Margry, 1875-86, vol. 3, p. 405). This might suggest that at 

 an earlier date the Caddo used litters, but Joutel seems to imply that 

 the Caddo tribes to the west did not have this custom and it might 

 very well have been adopted from the river people, just as the calumet 

 rite had reached only to the Cahinnio. 



Le Moyne, whose date, 1564r-65, is only slightly later than that of 

 De Soto, gives a short account of the litter in which the prospective 

 wife of a Florida chief was brought to him. 



When a king chooses to take a wife, he directs the tallest and handsomest 

 of the daughters of the chief men to be selected. Then a seat is made on two 

 stout poles and covered with the skin of some rare sort of animal, while it is 

 set off with a structure of boughs, bending over forward so as to shade the head 

 of the sitter. The queen elect having been placed on this, four strong men take 

 up the poles and support them on their shoulders, each carrying in one hand a 

 forked wooden stick to support the pole at halting. Two more walk at the 

 sides, each carrying on a staff a round screen elegantly made, to protect the queen 

 from the sun's rays. Others go before, blowing upon trumpets made of bark, 

 which are smaller above and larger at the farther end and having only the two 

 orifices, one at each end. They are hung with small oval balls of gold, silver and 

 brass, for the sake of a finer combination of sounds. Behind follow the most 

 beautiful girls that can be found, elegantly decorated with necklaces and armlets 

 of pearls, each carrying in her hand a basket full of choice fruits and belted below 

 the navel and down to the thighs with the moss of certain trees, to cover their 

 nakedness. After them come the bodyguards. (Le Moyne, 1875, p. 13; Swanton, 

 1922, p. 372.) 



The introduction of horses probably put an end to this custom for 

 we rarely hear of it after this time, the only mention in point of 

 fact, being in connection with the harvest, or rather first fruits, fes- 

 tival of the Natchez, for it was in such a litter that the Great Sun 

 or his representative was brought to the ground where that ceremony 

 took place (pi. 75). Du Pratz says: 



This litter is composed of four red bars crossing each other at the four 

 corners of the seat, which has a depth of about 1% feet. The entire seat is 

 garnished inside with common deerskins, because unseen. Those which hang 

 outside are painted with designs according to the taste and of different colors. 

 They conceal the seat so well that the substance of which it is composed can- 

 not be seen. The back part of this seat is covered like the equipages we 

 call chaises (soufflets). It is covered outside and in with leaves of the tulip 

 laurel. The outside border is garnished with three strings (cordons) of flowers. 



