siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

130 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 103
country, and the child [to be] killed. A committee was appointed to carry the
decision into execution, yet felt reluctant to kill the child. In the meantime,
the mother, hearing of the resolution passed by the council, hid the child, and
when the committee arrived they failed to find it, and willingly reported that
the Great Spirit had taken it away. The mother kept it concealed for several
weeks, and then secretly brought it back one night, and told her friends the
next morning that the Great Spirit had returned during the night with her
child and placed it by her side as she slept. The committee had previously
decided, however, that if ever the child returned it might live; but if it never
came back, they then would know that the Great Spirit had taken it. The boy
was ever afterwards regarded as being under the special care of the Great
Spirit, and became a chief of their Nation. The law was repealed; the father
re-called and adopted as one of the tribe ; and thus tlie custom of adopting the
white man originated and has so continued from that day to this—so aflirms
one of their ancient traditions, those Indian caskets filled with documents from
the remote past, but which have long since passed into the region of accepted
fables.*^
Interesting divergencies are shown in Claiborne's description of
Choctaw courtship and marriage. I am not sure that his understanding
of the ceremony is to be relied upon in all particulars
Bah na-tubbe, an intelligent fellow, in the course of his examination, stated
that it was usual for the woman, especially widows, to give " the first banter,"
viz: first advances. This is usually done at night, in the dance, by squeezing
the hand or treading gently on the foot of the favored warrior. Perhaps this
may be rather a necessity than a freedom ; because if a man should take these
liberties with a squaw she would immediately resent it by attacking him with
a stick, and every squaw present would assist her. Witness had seen twenty
squaws thus beating a too ardent lover. These " banters " are often given by
old women, invariably to very young men. Old women usually select a lazy
fellow, who takes her for her house and her ponies. Witness had, when only
eighteen, been taken by a woman of fifty, but he soon left her for a very young
girl. When the " banter " is mutually agreeable the parties quietly slip' out
of the crowd, and when they re-appear are considered man and wife.
Courtship and marriage, however, are sometimes more formal. A young
warrior who is in love applies to the maternal uncle—never to father or
mother—and they agree on the price, which is paid to the uncle. On a certain
day the groom and his relatives appear at an appointed place, dressed in their
best, where they loiter till noon. The bride then leaves the lodge of her
parents, and the friends on both sides gather about her. She watches an
opportunity and flies to the adjacent woods, her attendants hovering' around
to cover her retreat. She is pursued by the female relatives of the groom.
If she is anxious for the match, it is not difficult to overtake her. But if she
dislikes it, she runs until she falls exhausted, and sometimes escapes, and
wanders away to a remote village, where she is adopted and cannot be re-
claimed. If the fugitive is overtaken, she is brought back among the groomsman's
friends, but he has disappeared. She sits down, and the friends on both
sides throw some little presents in her lap. Each female relative ties a ribbon
or some beads in her hair, and then the provisions brought by friends are
divided among the company to be taken to their respective homes. The bride
is then conducted to a little lodge adjoining her parents, and late at night her
«9Cushman, Hist. Inds., pp. 373-374.