The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1880-09-01

witches. to predict coming events, 10 max
it rain and make it stop raining. at gen
orally rained as they predicted says Gen
eral Dale. predicting frequently wheI
there was no sign apparent to me. Thi
I. made me believe that they had paid sufh
; cIent attention TO astronomy and the stud,
- of nature TO enable them to Judge scientifi
r cally upon the subject" When any of thei
: prophecies fell they say that some of thu
!. Indians have spelled the physie by some
y thing they had done. There are from on,
e To six eoniurers in each village When the
IS conjurers point out witch the chief ha.
4 her forthwith put to death.
! Among the Choctaws and Cherokees mar
i riage is nothing but 4 verbal agreement
4 They live together long as they please
: and part when they please. Among The
: Greeks the marriage ceremony Is this
! The man gives the woman piece of veni-
= son or some kind OF meat, and she gives hin
J.. | an ear of corn in the presence of witnesses
: They are then man and wife, at least until
the green-corn dance Then the married
2 couple released if either OF them thinks
proper to break the contract In such case
the woman keeps the children. If the wo-
man violates her fidelity before the green
I corn dance (among the Creeks she is whip
? ped severely her ears cut off and tied to
the sticks with which she was beaten and
Fl the sticks set up in the town square for the
people to look at. They serve the man who
, seduced her in the same way. Ii the man
+ clears out and cannot be caught, the clans
men of the injured husband punish his
nearest relation in his stead If the wo-
+ man be punished and not her seducer, or
his relation, the elan of the woman infiict
upon the leader OF the party that punished
her the same punishment which she has
endured, and there the thing ends. Among
the Cherokees there is no punishment for
the incontinency of women whether mar
I 10
tormenting ridicule would be heaped upon
the man who should complain of the inf
deity of his wife or sweetheart. The Chloe
taws, Greeks and Cherokees, have from one
to six wives The wives do not occupy the
same house, but different houses to them
selves.
The green corn dance takes place when
the first roasting-ears come, before which no
new corn is touched. At this dance they
extingush all their fires, and make new fire
by rubbing two hickory sticks together
until it is produced, from which they sup~
ply their houses, The green corn dance is
the ancient jubilee all former crimes are
forgiven except murder-which never can be
expiated but by life for life.
| Theft, among the Choctaws and Chero-
KEGS, is punished by whipping. The Greeks
not only whip severely, but cut off the ears
of the culprit, and fasten them up in the
| town square.
| The Choctaws scaffold their dead until
| the flesh rots off them the scatfold being
eight or ten feet high and built on the edge
of their yard. They then scrape the bones
clean-place them in box or put boards
or bark around them, and bury them in the
ground-bury them sometimes in their yard,
| sometimes under their house.
''When | assisted" says General Dale, Gin
moving the first body of Choctaws that went
west, there were some of them whose dead
were still on scaffolds. They remained to
bury the bones and chant the funeral rites |
the required time, and came on afterwards. |
With the Greeks, when man dies, his |
wives cannot dress up, or go into company, |
or attend the dances, or appear in the town
square, or bind up their hair for the period |
of II months, during which time they must |
remain chaste nnder the penalty of beating |
and cropping as above stated. The relations |
of the deceased husband have the privilege |
of releasing them from the observance of |
this custom before the year is out, but they |
seldom do so. The Cherokees bury their
dead without any ceremony, burying them |
in the woods soon after their death. All the |
Indians compute time by the moon; when |
they compute less time than a lunar
month, they do so with sticks as already |
stated. They have 13 separate names for
the / 3 moons in the year.
Neither Choctaws, Cherokees, or Creeks |
when they were built, or for what purpose
they were built.
There is one peculiar feature in the divis> |
ion of the people common to the three tribes |
They are distinguished by clans which run |
through the whole nation without regard to |
the Districts. They are six in number and |
called in English-the Wind clan-the Bear
clan-the Deer clan-the Wolf can-the
Panther clan-the Holly Leaf clan. When
one Indian kills another, one of the clan of
the party killed is certain to kill the slayer.
When the Choctaws kill each other, the slav>
er voluntarily delivers himself up to the OPP
posite clan to be killed. The Choctaws in
rare instances take pay to release their vic
tim the Greeks and Cherolees never do ; no
sum can induce them to spare the life of their
prisoner, and if one were to take pay, the
others ofthe clan would nevertheless certains
lykill him. IT an Indians wife is killed,
some of the clan of tie deceased rife must kill
the slayer Should the husband do it the
clan of the slayer would kill him. They are
very tender toward their children, treating
them generally with greater kindess than Is
customary with other people.
Suicides among the Indians frequently 4;
occur, occasioned generally by ridicule or
disgrace The father and mother of an
Indian arrested and imprisoned in Missis- ;
sippi killed themselves on account of the
Imprisonment of their son. The father shot {
himself, and afterwards the mother hung
herself on account of the accumulated dis |
tress. The law of distribution Of their per-
sonal effects is the same in the three ma
tions. What came by the husband or by
the wife, upon their death without issue, {
goes their respective relations. When
the wife dies leaving children, her property
goes to her ehildren-her relations taking
care Of it for them and of them. The {
woman having TO make the crop and raise
Il L / 1. 4. I L.
when he is killed, except on account of the
game, because with the exception of the
gameshe had the support of the fanily on her
hands Vious ia his death. The land is in
common to the nation-chiefs and people
particular lands being unknown among I
them but by reservations in the treaties.
Their title to their houses and fields of corn
is entirely by occupancy. As soon as the ,
house is abandoned any other person may /;
take it. Their right, however, while IN
possession or use of the property, ia
scrupulously respected. When the hus-
band and wife die leaving no children, the
relations of the wife generally take their |
house. But if the house waa built entirely {
by the husband, without the assistance of
the wife, in such case, his relations usually {
take possession. If the house be an old
house and built by neither it goes to the
blood of him who built it. But these rights (
mean nothing unless acted upon al the Z
time of the house being left vacant, for If :
another be permitted TO enter, occupancy, !
as above stated, becomes the sole title.
The Indians have an art, common to them
all, of subsisting On less than man can 1
subsist on in any other way. They take /
the corn when it is fit to roast, boil it in an {
earthern pot, take it out in the ear, barbe- {
cue it on a scaffold over fire until il il /
perfectly dry and hard they then shell the !
corn, place 1t in pot, sift ashes with it, and
parch it over the fire, stirring it around all 1
the time witch a stick. They then take it
co., SIT the ashes from it win sitter made
of snlit caue. and pound the corn IN a NOR |
tar. This parehea corn -four, generally l
known among the traders as 'eeo,d u.eqk"l {
keeps without spelling aa long as it is kept I