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SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL. LIFE 83
Since these names possess few peculiarities by which they may
be distinguished from the names of towns or other divisions it will
always be impossible in the present decadent condition of the old
organization to distinguish the true local groups. So far as we can
now observe, the functions of these divisions closely approached
those of the corresponding groups among the Chickasaw. As stated
above, marriage was regulated by the two moieties, each man or
woman ordinarily taking a spouse from any group of the opposite
moiety, but Halbert notes as an exception that marriage between the
Chufan iksa and Kush iksa was prohibited. Probably there were
various additional modifications the nature of which is now for-
gotten. Each moiety also piled up the bones and buried the dead
of the other,^^ but every local group had its own bone house.
Lincecum says that each local group had its own chief, corresponding
probably to the " oldest uncle " of the Creek clans. We know
that each household was so organized because Israel Folsom affirms
that " in the domestic government the oldest brother or uncle was
the head; the parents being required merely to assist in the exer-
cise of this duty by their advice and example." ^^ The duty of ex-
tending hospitality to strangers belonging to the same moiety, or
indeed toward strangers of any sort not recognized as enemies, was
rigidly inculcated. A man called the people of his own iksa or
band imokla, " his own people," and all others imoksi°la.
Only one origin myth dealing with a clan or local group has come
down to us, Pitchlynn's story of the Crawfish People, or properly
Red Crawfish People, as related to Catlin.
They formerly, but at a very remote period, lived under ground, and used to
come up out of the mud—they were a species of crawfish ; and they went on
their hands and feet, and lived in a large cave deep under ground, where there
was no light for several miles. They spoke no language at all, nor could they
understand any. The entrance to their cave was through the mud—and they
used to run down through that, and into their cave; and thus, the Choctaws
were for a long time unable to molest them. The Choctaws used to lay and
wait for them to come out into the sun, where they would try to talk to them
and cultivate an acquaintance.
One day a parcel of them wore run upon so suddenly by the Choctaws, that
they had no time to go through the mud into their cave, but were driven into
it by another entrance, which they had through the rocks. The Choctaws then
tried a long time to smoke them out, and at last succeeded—they treated them
kindly—taught them the Choctaw language—taught them to walk on two legs
made them cut olf their toe nails, and pluck the hair from their bodies, after
which they adopted them into their nation^and the remainder of them are
living under ground to this day.*^
*iCushman, Hist. Choc, Chick., and Natchez Inds., p. 367.
«2 Ibid., p. 362.
s» Catlin, the North American Indians, vol. ii, p. 140.