732 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



another. According to one writer, rape and a third conviction of 

 theft were also punished with death. The aged were killed only at 

 their own desire, and infanticide was optional with the mother for 

 only a month after the birth of her child. A witch or wizard was 

 treated like a murderer and suffered the same punishment. Adultery 

 was punished by beating and the cropping of the ears and hair, and, 

 in the prehistoric period, adulterers were shot to death with arrows. 

 A widovr or widower marrying too soon was treated in the same 

 manner. In this type of punishment the Wind and Bear clans 

 enjoyed certain immunities. Ordinary fornication was not regarded 

 as a crime, but incest, if between near relatives, brought down the 

 death penalty, and, if between relatives more remote, the long scratch, 

 a deep incision from neck to foot. Stealing was punished with whip- 

 ping, loss of ears, or death, depending upon the number of offences. 

 Minor lapses from the code were punished, in such cases as failure 

 to take the morning bath, especially in the case of children, with dry 

 scratching. In later times, theft of horses and nonattendance at the 

 busk were occasions for levying fines. McGillivray punished some 

 recalcitrant towns by removing the white traders from them. Oaths 

 and epithets were used, but much more sparingly than with us, and 

 there was no special punishment in such cases except such as might 

 be exacted by the object of wrath. It may be added that individuals 

 Avho had escaped punishment or who had fled from home in order to 

 escape it are reputed to have founded a number of towns, many 

 of them towns of prominence (Swanton, 1928, pp. 338-357) . 



Again, Chickasaw customs were similar to those of the Creeks. 

 Retaliation was the one way of treating murder and a wizard or 

 witch was also regarded as a murderer. A detected adulteress was 

 punished by beating, and by cropping the ears, nose, and so forth, 

 but male offenders in this particular went free. Sodomy is said to 

 have been common and apparently it went unpunished. Whipping 

 was resorted to in minor offenses, but it may not have been extended 

 to adults until later years. The failure of a woman to separate her- 

 self from the household every month was as much of a crime as 

 murder and adultery. Epithets were employed as by the Creeks. 

 Oaths were used in attesting the truth of a proposition (Swanton, 

 1928 c, pp. 216-219). 



Retaliation again lay at the base of the composition in all cases 

 of murder among the Choctaw, but executions in later times were 

 placed in the hands of the light horsemen instead of those of the 

 murdered man's kin. Witchcraft was also punished with death. 

 One who received a personal affront might challenge the other to 

 mutual suicide. Sodomy and male concubinage were said to be 

 common and unpunished. A woman accused of adultery was exposed 



