The grand chief of the tribe was revered as of the family of the sun, and he could trace his descent with certainty from the nobles; for the inheritance of power was transmitted exclusively by the female line. Hard by the temple, on an artificial mound of earth, stood the hut of the Great Sun: around it were grouped the cabins of the tribe. There, for untold years, the savage had freely whispered his tale of love; had won his bride by a purchase from the father; had placed his trust in manitous; had turned, at daybreak, towards the east, to hail and worship the beams of morning; had listened to the revelations of dreams; had invoked the aid of the medicine men to dance the medicine dance; had achieved titles of honor by prowess in war; had tortured and burned his prisoners. There were the fields where, in spring, the whole tribe had gone forth to cultivate the maize and vines; there the scenes of the glad festivals at the gathering of the harvest; there the natural amphitheatres, where councils were convened, and embassies received, and the calumet of reconciliation passed in solemn ceremony from lip to lip. There the dead had been arrayed in their proudest apparel; the little baskets of food for the first month after death set apart for their nurture; the requiem chanted by the women in mournful strains over their bones; and there, when a great chief died, persons of the same age were strangled, that they might constitute his escort into the realm of shades. Nowhere was the power of the grand chieftain so nearly despotic. The race of nobles was so distinct, that usage had moulded language into forms of reverence. In other respects, there was among the Natchez no greater culture than among the Choctas; and their manners hardly differed from those of northern tribes, except as they were modified by climate. History of the Colonization of the United States, 1841
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 07:22:19 +0000
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