The age-herald., 1900-07-29

The Indian woman at work in the Mfssis- sippi cotton fields carries a basket on her back and pitches the cotton over her shoulder.
 While schools have been established among them, and many of them have em- braced Christianity, they cling to the cus- toms that have come down from pre-his toric times.''
 When asked regarding hegira of the Mis- sissippi Indians account of securing property rights in the Indian territory, MT. Halbert said that should property rights be allowed the Choctaws, they would doubtless go to the Indian Territory and secure their property rights. remaining there only long enough to perfect them. He expressed the opinion that they would return to reside in Mississippi for they seemed to have a passionate attachment for the soil of their ancestors.
 When he referred to the amount annually paid the Choctaws by the government, and stated that the Indian woman and each of her children received an allowance every three months from Uncle Sam a clever woman declared that if such was the case she would not object to being Choctaw.
 Among the valuable contributions from MT. Halbert to the Mississippi Historical Society was a recent article in the "Nanih Waiya, the Sacred Mound of the Cnne- taws" in Mississippi, and which is so often referred to in the folklore and traditions of the Choctaws. In this article, MT Hal bert describes most interestingly this pyra- midal mound and relates the legendary tra- ditions connected with it. He says there can be no doubt but that the summit of this mound was some time used as place nf Sun-worship The Choctaws look today up- on "Nanih Waiya" as the birth place of their race She is 'ishki chito'-''the great mother" In the very center of the mound they say ages ago the Great Spirit created ha fret Nhnn ntaxx nd knIn cove they crawled forth into the light of day. It was said that after coming forth from the mound the freshly made Choc- jaws were very moist and that the Great Spirit stacked them along on the rampant as on clothes line, so that the sun could dry them.
 In regard to the modern history of the mound, MT. Halbert recalled the great na- tional council of the Choctaws that con- vened in 1928, when new laws were made that placed the Choctaws more in harmony with the requirements of modern civiliza- tion. At this time severe laws were enacted against the practice of executing women as witches.
 But while Mississippi is rich in beautiful Indian legends, Alabama has also furnished the most romantic traditions. A journey along the Chattahoochee river always re- calls to the gay boating parties, the leg ends that are associated with it's shores Numberless rivers have their Lovers Leap" but at that picturesque point in the CEattahoochee near Columbus, Ga., where the waters dash over the boulders, and where one gets a charming view of the Alabama hills, there is a Lovers Leap" that has been famous in song and story.
 Lovers Leap is located on Belmont" the famous ancestral home of Colonel James Cook, and which is today one of the finest old homes in the south.
 The late Mrs. Cook wrote most beauti- full legend of this spot, where the Young Eagle of the Cowetas clasped to his brave heart the bright Morning Star of the Gus setas and leaped into the deep. restless wa- ters below" She pictured the beautiful Morning Star, indulgfng in love dreams, as the beaded the gay moccasins, bags and wampums. while the Young Eagle followed the chase" When a child she had been be- trothed to Young Eagle, the noble son of the Coweta chief, but between the two --..es there had sprung up rivalry more deadly than that of the Montagues and