Page:A Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages.djvu/13

 site formerly occupied by the Acolapissa Indians. Whether they had been on the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain up to this time can not be determined, It is probable that between 1722 snd 1730 they drifted back toward Pascagoula river, for Dumont, whose information applies to the latter date, speaks of them as if they were then near neighbors of the Pascagoula tribe. The method employed by these two peoples in disposing of the bodies of their chiefs is thus described by him:ᵃ

The Paskagoulas and the Billoxis never inter their chief when he is dead, but they have his body dried in the fire and smoke so that they make of it a veritable skeleton. After having reduced it to this condition they carry it to the temple (for they have one as well as the Natchez) and put it in the place occupied by its predecessor, which they take from the place which it occupied to place it with the bodies of their other chiefs in the interior of the temple, where they are all ranged in succession on their feet like statues. With regard to the one last dead, it is exposed at the entance of the temple on a kind of altar or table made of canes and covered with a very fine mat worked very neatly in red and yellow squares (quarreaux) with the skin of these same canes. The body of the chief is exposed in the middle of this table upright on its feet, supported behind by a long painted red, the end of which passes above his head and to which he is fastened at the middle of the body by a creeper. In one hand he holds a war club or a little ax, in the other a pipe, and above his head is fastened, at the end of the pole which supports him, the most famous of all the calumets which have been presented to him during his life. It may be added that this table is scarcely elevated from the earth half a foot, but it is at least six feet wide and ten long.

It is to this table that they come every day to serve food to the dead chief, placing before him dishes of hominy, parched or smoke-dried grain, etc. It is there also that at the beginning of all the harvests his subjects offer him the first of all the fruits which they can gather. All of this kind that is presented to him remains on this table, and as the door of the temple is always open, as there is no one appointed to watch it, as consequently whoever wants to enters, and as besides it is a full quarter of a league distant from the village, it happens that there are commonly strangers—hunters or savages—who profit by these dishes and these fruits, or that they are consumed by animals. But that is all the same to these savages, and the less remains of it when they return next day the more they rejoice, saying that their chief has eaten well, and that in consequence he is satisfied with them, although he has abandoned them. In order to open their eyes to the extravagance of this practice it is useless to show them what they can not fail to see themselves, that it is not the dead man who eats it. They reply that if it is not he it is at least he who offers toe whomsoever he pleases what has been placed on the table, that after all that was the practice of their father, of their mother, of their relations, that they do not have mere wisdom then they had, and that they do not know any better way than to follow their example.

It is also before this table that during some months the widow of the chief, his children, his nearest relations, come from time to time to pay him a visit and to make him a speech as if he were in a condition to hear. Some ask him why he has allowed himself to die before them. Others tell him that if he is dead it is not their fault, that he has killed himself by such a debauchery or by such a strain. Finally if there had been some fault in his government they take that time to reproach him with it. However, they always end their speech by telling him not to be angry with them, to eat well, and that they will always take good care of him.

ᵃ Mémoires Historiques sur la Louisiance, I, pp. 240-248.