SwANTON] INDIANS OP THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 731 



murder. Poison was resorted to in getting unwanted persons out of 

 the way, but when they discovered a man who habitually used poison, 

 they killed him and cut his body to pieces. If a man committed incest, 

 his body was burned and the ashes thrown into the river. Sodomy was 

 said to be unknown. According to the earliest account of the eastern 

 Siouans we have, widows were forbidden to marry again if their hus- 

 bands had died a natural death, but permitted if they had been ex- 

 ecuted, but Lawson contradicts the prohibition absolutely. Perhaps 

 the meaning is that they could not marry until after a certain period 

 of time (Lawson, 1860, pp. 318-319, 299, 326-337). ^^ 



The following excerpt from Catesby bears on the problem of 

 theft : 



They have no fence to part one another's lots in their corn fields, every man 

 knows his own, and it scarce ever happens that they rob one another of so much 

 as an ear of corn, which if any is found to do, the thief is sentenced by the 

 elders to work or plant for him that was robbed, till lie is recompensed for all the 

 damage he has suffered in his corn-fields: yet they make no scruple to rob the 

 English, having been taught this lesson by the latter. (Catesby, 1731-43, vol. 

 2, p. X.) 



Reminiscent of the Algonquians is the Timucua usage in accordance 

 with which a negligent watchman was punished by being beaten on 

 the head with a club having sharp sides. Chiefs could exact tribute 

 and labor from their subjects and could punish them for negligence 

 by breaking their arms. We are told that marriage was protected 

 "very rigorously," something we can readily credit, as their customs 

 in many particulars were much like those of the Creeks (Swanton, 

 1922, p. 380). 



We are told that Cherokee chiefs could inflict no punishment, but 

 that a man who committed a crime in violation of a treaty might be 

 delivered over to the enemy. Charles Hicks, a Cherokee chief, stated 

 in 1818, 



Murder committed by a person of one clan on one of another is always punished 

 with death ; but if both belong to the same clan, it frequently happens that the 

 clan intercedes with the chief head of the nation, and obtains a pardon, which 

 pardon is published in the national council when convened. (Hicks, in Raleigh 

 Register, 1818.) 



Cases of murder or serious injury — sometimes of trivial injury- 

 were handled in the Creek Nation by the tribe, clan, or subdivision 

 in accordance with the old "law" of retaliation, and in many cases 

 lack of intention was not admitted as a valid excuse though Bossu 

 states that it was at times. An adult captive was killed by his captor 

 in revenge for former injuries or the right could be transferred to 



" Lawson also adds : "Another destroyer of them, is, the art they have and often 

 practice, of poisoning one another ; which is done by a large white sponjzy root, that grows 

 in the fresh-marshes, which is one of their poisons, not but that they have many other 

 drugs, which they poison one another withaV (p. 365). 



