siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMOISriAL. LIFE 27
US no explanation of the reason for its incomplete state. The core
of the narrative is plainly a genuine Choctaw origin myth ; the ques-
tion is how much of the elaboration is native and how much due to
Lincecum himself. That there has been a certain amount contrib-
uted by both goes without saying, and later influences are discernible
here and there, as when " iron " tools are mentioned. At the same
time I am inclined to regard it as a fairly elaborate origin myth in
which, as in so many of the kind, the initiation of the customs and
ceremonies of the tribe is incorporated Thus the explanation of one
of the Nanih Waiya mounds is bound up with the explanation of the
origin of Choctaw burial customs, the beginning of the " green corn "
dance appears to be introduced, and the origin of the almost con-
tinuous wars of later times between the Choctaw and Chickasaw, as
well as the first use of a stockade. The legend is no doubt absolutely
correct in describing the earthen rampart at Nanih Waiya as a
defence against Chickasaw incursions, however much it may exaggerate
the importance attached to this particular fortification. In
his attempts to account for the origin of the two mounds within the
enclosure the narrator is not so fortunate. According to him, the
larger mound is a burial mound, and the smaller a mound prepared
for the sacred pole, while as a nnitter of fact the small mound was
the burial mound, there being no indication that the principal structure
was used for that purpose. As I have stated already, it was
probably intended as a foundation for the public buildings of the
town, which were, it is true, devoted in part to religious purposes.
The two gaps are evidently the places where the two " highways "
described by Halbert entered, and no doubt they were the old gateways
of the fort.
The accounts given by Cushman have been touched up even more
by the imagination of the recorder. He says
Their tradition, in regard to their origin as related by the aged Choctaws to
the missionaries in 1820, was in substance as follows: In a remote period of
the past their ancestors dwelt in a country far distant toward the setting sun;
and being conquered and greatly oppressed by a more powerful people
resolved to seek a country far removed from the possibility of their oppression.
A great national council was called, to which the entire nation in one vast
concourse quickly responded. After many days spent in grave deliberations
upon the question in which so much was involved, a day was finally agreed
upon and a place of rendezvous duly appointed whence they should bid a final
adieu to their old homes and country and take up their line of march to seek
others, they knew not where. When the appointed day arrived it found them
at the designated place fully prepared and ready for the exodus under the
chosen leadership of two brothers, Chahtah and Chikasah, both equally renowned
for their bravery and skill in war and their wisdom and prudence in
council ; who, as Moses and Aaron led the Jews in their exodus from Egj^pt,
were to lead them from a land of oppression to one of peace, prosperity and