La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

304 SUCCESS OF LA SALLE. [1682.respect alike, produced such an effect on the heartsof these people that they did not know how to treatus well enough." 1The Indians of this village were the Natchez ; andtheir chief was brother of the great chief, or Sun, ofthe whole nation. His town was several leaguesdistant, near the site of the city of Natchez; andthither the French repaired to visit him. They sawwhat they had already seen among theTaensas, — areligious and political despotism, a privileged castedescended from the sun, a temple, and a sacred fire. 21Membre' in Le Clerc, ii. 232.2The Natchez and the Taensas, whose habits and customs weresimilar, did not, in their social organization, differ radically fromother Indians. The same principle of clanship, or totemskip, sowidely spread, existed in full force among them, combined withtheir religious ideas, and developed into forms of which no otherexample, equally distinct, is to be found. (For Indian clanship,see "The Jesuits in North America," Introduction.) Among theNatchez and Taensas, the principal clan formed a ruling caste ; andits chiefs had the attributes of demi-gods. As descent was throughthe female, the chief's son never succeeded him, but the son ofone of his sisters ; and as she, by the usual totemic law, was forcedto marry in another clan,— that is, to marry a common mortal, —her husband, though the destined father of a demi-god, was treatedby her as little better than a slave. She might kill him, if heproved unfaithful ; but he was forced to submit to her infidelitiesin silence.The customs of the Natchez have been described by Du Pratz,Le Petit, Penecaut, and others. Charlevoix visited their temple in1721, and found it in a somewhat shabby condition. At this time,the Taensas were extinct. In 1729 the Natchez, enraged by thearbitrary conduct of a French commandant, massacred the neighboringsettlers, and were in consequence expelled from their countryand nearly destroyed. A few still survive, incorporated with theCreeks ; but they have lost their peculiar customs.