698 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOOY [Bull. 137 



The Choctaw war camp was circular, with the fire in the center, and 

 each man had a forked stick planted at his head on which to hang 

 the bag containing his powder and shot. Adair considered the Choc- 

 taw the swiftest of foot of all Indians. When a successful party 

 came within sight of their own town, they uttered a cry to indicate 

 victory and a dance of rejoicing followed. The chief divided such 

 property as had been captured among the relatives of those killed in 

 combat, retaining nothing for himself. Romans says that they were 

 not as cruel as other tribes, since they dispatched those captives who 

 had been devoted to death with bullets or blows of hatchets, but our 

 earliest authority states that the adult captives were burned, while 

 the women, girls, and young boys were enslaved. Romans adds that 

 the bodies of slain enemies were afterward cut up, scalps being made 

 of the hairy portions and the rest buried, but those killed at a dis- 

 tance were simply scalped. After the women had danced about them, 

 the red-painted scalps were exposed upon the roofs of the hot houses 

 until they were destroyed. Sometimes, however, they were taken 

 down and carried about on pine boughs. A man who had taken 

 a scalp was in the habit of sharing it with a child or nephew who 

 had not yet accomplished such a feat, so that the latter might be 

 accepted as a warrior; but he was compelled to submit to 200 blows 

 of a neck band, singing meanwhile and showing no signs of flinch- 

 ing. Each of the seasoned warriors wore at this time a piece of otter 

 skin tied to his head and having white feathers stuck into it equal 

 to the number of enemies he had killed. Records of their war feats 

 were also tattooed on their bodies and arms, and afterward the suc- 

 cessful warrior must not comb his hair for a month and must scratch 

 his head only with a stick employed for that particular purpose. 

 The quarterings of a family obtained in this way were also painted 

 on the handles of war clubs and on trees as guides in bringing them 

 together. During the Choctaw civil war, the two parties took each 

 other's scalps as though they had been hostile people, and the head 

 of one of their own men was thrown down to be mourned over by 

 the Indians and French. A war calumet was presented by one tribe 

 to another when they wanted their alliance against a third. An 

 informant of the writer claimed that they used formerly to poison 

 springs belonging to the enemy and any meat that might be hung up 

 near them, but I am uncertain whether this represents a historic fact 

 or should be classed as folklore (Swanton, 1931 a, pp. 162-170). 



Turning our attention to the lower Mississippi country, we find 

 little information regarding the war customs of any tribe except 

 the Natchez. Natchez warriors were divided into three classes. 

 Most of our authorities describe the raising of a war party which 

 was to be under the direct command of the national war chief, but 



