8 Curious Aboriginal Customs. [ January, 
some instances, as the latter was the organ chosen by tribes living 
near the border of the territory occupied by the Creeks. As 
before stated in the NaturA.ist (Vol. xii, p. 561), Gregg! says of 
the Comanches that the “ punishment is most usually to cut off 
the nose or ears, or both.” The same author also says that the 
Creeks practiced the same custom? (having reference to the pre- 
ceding). 
Bancroft, in quoting Las Casas, says that in Itztepec (Mexico) 
“the guilty woman’s husband cut off her ears and nose.” The 
punishment among the Meztecs was sometimes commuted to 
mutilation of the ears, nose and lips.‘ 
John Johnson,’ referring to the Indian tribes inhabiting Ohio, 
says, “ Adultery is punished by the family and tribe of the hus- 
band. They collect, consult and decree. If they determine to 
punish the offenders, they usually divide and proceed to appre- 
hend them, one-half going to the house of the woman, and the 
other half to the family house of the man, or they go together, 
as they have decreed. They apprehend them, beat them severely 
with sticks, cut off their noses, and sometimes crop them, and 
cut off the hair of the woman which they carry home in triumph. 
If both parties escape, and those in pursuit return home and lay 
down their weapons, the crime is satisfied; if they apprehend but 
one of the offenders, and the other escape, pape take satisfaction 
from the nearest of kin.” 
In this paper of Johnson’s (who by the way was considered 
good authority) are enumerated the following tribes, viz: “ Wy- 
-andots, Shawanoese, Senecas, Ottawas, Delawares, Miamies, 
Putawatimies and the Weas.” It is questionable whether the 
Senecas, who were of the Six Nations, ever practiced this cus- 
tom, as at no other time have I met with the names of any of the 
latter in this connection. : 
_ As before stated, the custom of cutting off both the ears and 
nose extended down into Central America, and César de Roche- 
fort,® in speaking of the Caribs, refers to this custom as practiced 
1Commerce of the Prairies, 1844, ii, 308, 309. 
< Ibid, p- 308. 
3Bancroft in Native Races, r 466, quotes Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., 
Cap. cerik 
‘Ibid, p. 406. Lome, Hist. = T iii, lib. iii, cap. xii,] 
ican 20, p. 2 
‘Histoire des Antilles, 1681, p. 548. ei Lenscot, ch. 16, for Sorin cat 
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