SwANTONj INDIAJS'S OP THE SOUTHEASTEKN UNITED STATES 717 



rewarded. They often roamed through the woods shooting birds and 

 squirrels, and we are told that they used to test one another's endur- 

 ance by stirring up yellow jackets and seeing who could withstand 

 their stings longest. They were allowed to torture dogs and wild 

 animals with their blowguns. Later they learned to wrestle, run, throw 

 and lift weights, and play ball, and tlie chunkey game. We are told 

 speciiically that the men hunted, warred, engaged in official tasks, in 

 games, in races, in jumping and wrestling, built houses, made wooden 

 and stone implements, and helped their women in the fields. Women 

 did most of the farm work and went for water and firewood. The 

 other tasks of both sexes were probably much like those of the Chicka- 

 saw, but they remained at home a longer time during the year and it is 

 probable that men did more of the farming proportionately. (Swan- 

 ton, 1931 a, pp. 115-126, 139.) 



Tmmediatel;y after birth a Natchez infant was washed and laid in a 

 cradle made of cane softened with Spanish moss. A pillow of Spanish 

 moss or a plank was placed iiiimecl lately over the forehead to flatten it. 

 The child is said to have been rocked lengthwise on two pieces of cane. 

 When it was a month old threads of bison hair were tied about the 

 calves and they were worn until the fourteenth or fifteenth year. The 

 child's body was rubbed with bear oil for the express purpose of render- 

 ing the sinews supple and keeping off flies. When the child was a little 

 over a year old, it learned to walk, a young girl going along with it and 

 holding it under the armpits. Children could suckle as long as they 

 wanted to unless the mother was again pregnant. They bathed every 

 morning after they had reached the age of three and soon learned to 

 swim. Boys were never beaten it is said, yet this statement may require 

 some revision since they were put under the special charge of an old 

 family patriarch who supervised their education. They were disci- 

 plined by means of jests, but this treatment was never pursued so far 

 as to occasion a quarrel, and the boj^s did not fight one another. At 

 10 to 12 years of age they carried small burdens. About 12 thej^ were 

 given bows and arrows and practiced shooting at a bunch of grass, 

 receiving praise according to their markmanship, and they engaged in 

 foot races. Later they were allowed to accompany the men on hunts to 

 learn the rules. Those old men who were the custodians of the tribal 

 lore taught it to selected youths. We are told that the men hunted, 

 fished, cut down trees and cut them into firewood, cultivated the sacred 

 fields, went to war, played the major part in games, dressed skins, aided 

 one another in building cabins, made bows and arrows, canoes, mat- 

 tocks, and paddles. The women pounded corn into flour and cooked, 

 brought in the firewood and fed the fires, made pottery, baskets, mats, 

 and clothes, and undertook all the beadwork, besides assuming the 

 major burden in raring f'^r ihe crop-. IVfpn nlway^^ bnd pi'credonfe 

 over women and were fed first (Swanton, 1911, pp. 86-90). 



