XO. 2 S.MITHSOXIAX KXPIJ JRATIOXS, I918 IO9 



dition of the Choctaw Indians in that neighborhood, the descendants 

 of those who remained in their old country after the greater portion 

 of the tribe had emigrated to what is now Oklahoma. On the wav 

 he stopped at Bay St. Louis to visit a small band of Indians living 

 in the country north of that place. He learned that this was a band 

 of the Sixtown Choctaw, the southernmost division of the Choctaw 

 nation, but that all of the old people were dead and practically 

 nothing regarding their ancient manner of life was known to the 

 survivors. 



Xear Philadelphia ( Mississippi) remnants of three Choctaw bands 

 or clans are still to be found, and in the few days spent in interviewing 

 them — this being merel}- a reconnoissance — a few interesting data 

 regarding their social organization and former customs were 

 secured. A visit was also made to the famous Xanih-wava, or 

 " mother hill," of the Choctaw, where, according to some versions 

 of the Choctaw origin legend, the ancestors of this tribe emerged 

 out of the earth. This is an artificial elevation of considerable size 

 in the midst of a fairly level tract of country, surrounded partly by 

 Xanne Warrior Creek, so named from the hill, and partly by a low 

 earthen rampart, traces of which are now Ijarely visible. Several 

 photographs of this hill were taken. 



The remainder of the time, until the end of ^lay, was devoted to 

 a study of the Catawba language on the Catawba reservation near 

 Rock Hill, South Carolina. Early in the eighties the late Dr. A. S. 

 Gatschet. of the Bureau of Ethnology, collected a vocabulary and 

 other linguistic material on the reservation, and recently Dr. Michel- 

 son spent a short time there studying the people and their language, 

 but our knowledge of it is still ver\- imperfect and any additional 

 material is sure to be of value. Although fairly well known to 

 about 20 persons, this language is no longer in common use and few 

 Catawba retain it in anything like its ancient ])urity. Its ])eciiliar 

 value consists in the fact that it is the only surviving dialect of the 

 eastern Siouan grou]) and that by which the other Siouan fragments 

 from the same area must be inter])reted. It a])pears to be the most 

 aberrant of all the Siouan dialects and to contain features of great 

 value in tracing the e\'olution of the entire stock. I )r. Swanton 

 was able to collect con^iderabU' n^'iterial, principally detached words 

 and ])hrases, also a slight auKjunl of textual material, being assisted 

 very much by Dr. (latschet's manuscript vocabular\. ."^omc notes 

 of general ethnological character were alsf) secured, but the tri])e ha^ 

 livefl so long in close contact with white ]ieople that it is doubtful 

 whether much of this is i)urely aboriginal. 



