650 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



a third was loaded with a sheet of copper and a circular plaque of the same 

 material. (Margry, 1875-1886, vol. 2, pp. 209-210; Swanton, 1911, p. 262.) 



Du Pratz has this to tell us regarding the power of the Natchez 

 Great Sun: 



In fact these people are reared in such perfect submission to their sov- 

 ereign that the authority which he exerts over them is a veritable despotism, 

 which can be compared only with that of the first Ottoman emperors. He is, 

 like them, absolute master of the goods and life of his subjects, he disposes of 

 them according to his pleasure, his will is his reason, and, an advantage which 

 the Ottomans have never had, there is neither any attempt on his person 

 nor seditious movements to fear. When he orders one who has merited it 

 to be put to death, the unhappy condemned man neither begs nor makes in- 

 tercession for his life, nor seeks to escape. The order of the sovereign is ex- 

 ecuted on the spot and no one murmurs. The relatives of the great chief share 

 more or less of his authority in proportion to nearness in blood, and the Tat- 

 tooed Serpent has been seen to have three men put to death who had arrested 

 and bound a Frenchman whom he loved much, in order to kill him, although 

 we were then at war with the Natchez. (Du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, pp. 352-^353; 

 Swanton, 1911, p. lOG.) 



Nevertheless, it is plain that in practice the absolutism of the Great 

 Sun depended upon his age and personal abilities, and that his power 

 was considerably curtailed by the other members of the Sun caste, 

 particularly the other town chiefs, back of whom again lay that 

 great body of usage and prejudice which no sovereign can indefi- 

 nitely override. 



The influence of Natchez culture upon the other tribes along the 

 lower Mississippi is apparent and no doubt tended to augment the 

 power of the chiefs, but we find singularly few traces of marked regard 

 paid to them. Apparently the prerogatives of the Tunica chiefs 

 were somewhat above those enjoyed by the chiefs of the Choctaw- 

 speaking tribes, but even they must have lacked most of the pomp and 

 circumstance of the Natchez or we should hear more about it. We 

 are told that shortly before 1700 there was a chieftainess among the 

 Houma who lead many war parties and that "when she walked about 

 she was always preceded by four young men who sang and danced the 

 calumet to her." But we are distinctly told at the same time that she 

 was not the head chief of the tribe and it is evident that her peculiar 

 privileges were immediately connected with her personal abilities. 

 (Thwaites, 1897-1901, vol. 65, pp. 147-151; Shea, 1861, pp. 144-145; 

 Swanton, 1911, p. 288.) This was something wholly unlike the situ- 

 ation among the Natchez and Taensa. When we come to the Chiti- 

 machan tribes, however, we encounter something reminiscent of the 

 Natchez, a fact which tends to confirm early traditions linking the 

 two groups of people together. Even in the case of the insignificant 

 Chawasha tribe of Chitimachan lineage, we find Charlevoix writing: 



