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SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL. LIFE 77
" esteemed," a meaning apparently attached to hulahta by the in-
formants of Byington and Wright. However, I have little doubt
that it is the Timucua and Apalachee w^ord for " chief," or " leading
man," which is practically identical in form and was widely employed
by the Creeks as a ceremonial title. For the other moiety
we find two names. That earliest mentioned is imoklasha, which
appears in the speech of a Choctaw chief in 1751. It consists of
im- (equivalent to i°- of i°hulahta), okla, "people" (see likla above),'
and asha, " to sit," or " to dwell," the whole meaning " their people
are there," or " their people who are there." In a general way it
signifies " friends." However, the name obtained by Byington,
Wright, and Cushman is Kashapa okla or Kashap okla, " Divided
people," referring probably to the dual division itself. Possibly
the first name was given by one of the same moiety and the second
by one of the opposing moiety, but in that case there seems to be
no good reason why the name of the i°hulahta should not also have
changed. As we shall presently see, these names appear again as
those of subdivisions within this moiety, and it may have derived
its collective designation from them. We shall find a similar ex-
tension of the names of local groups.
The following regarding Choctaw moieties, furnished by Alfred
Wright, was published in the Missionary Herald in 1828
They state, that when the Creator had provided the means of their sub-
sistence, he proceeded to give them their civil regulations. By his direction
the Choetaws, before their dispersion from Nunih waiya, were divided into two
great families, or clans, embracing the v.iiole tribe, or nation. Intermarriages
between those of the same clan were forbidden. The husband and wife must
always be of different clans. The children are reckoned with the clan to which
the wife belongs. Of course there is a division in every family, the father on
one side, the mother and children on the other. And at their funeral solem-
nities and other public meetings, where they are arranged according to this
order, the father is seen sitting at one fire, and the mother and children at
another. As the mother takes her children into her own clan, the father has no
control over them, but the woman's brothers are considered the natural guard-
ians of the children. Each of these great clans is again divided into three
subdivisions, or smaller clans, making six in all. All these clans intermix and
live together in the same town and neighborhood, yet they preserve a knowl-
edge of the clan, and of the particular subdivision to which they belong.
These two great clans are considered as having a kind of precedency over
the others in point of authority. In ancient times if a person had been guilty
of a crime which required the interference of public authority, the people were
assembled in council, and seated according to their respective clans. The sub-
division to which the criminal belonged appeared as his counsel and advocates,
and the opposite subdivision as his accusers. The case was then taken up.
If the principal men of these divisions succeeded in adjusting the case, satis-
factorily to all concerned, the business was terminated there; but if not, the
principal men of the next larger division took it up, and if they also failed, the
case then came before the itimoklvshas and the shakchuklas, whose decision