Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/215

Rh They cultivated maize, beans of several kinds, the large sunflower, sweet potatoes, melons, and pumpkins. Bartram found around the ancient monuments of Georgia and Alabama fruit trees, supposed to have been planted by the Natchez. Among them were persimmon, honey locust, Chickasaw plum, mulberry, black walnut, and shell-bark. On one occasion De Soto's troops came upon a pot of honey, "though neither before nor after did they see bees or honey."

The language of the Natchez was easy in pronunciation and expressive in terms—that of the nobles being slightly different from that of the people. For instance, in greeting a noble, one would say "apapegonaicke," which is equivalent to "good morning"; while to express the same thing to one of the people, we would say "tachte-cabanacte" To request a noble to be seated we would say "cabam," while to a common person we would say "petchi." The two languages are nearly the same in all other respects, the difference in expression seeming only to take place in matters relating to the persons of the Suns and nobles, in distinction from those of the people.

The Natchez were celebrated for their feasts and festivals. They began their year in the month of March, as was the practice for a long time in Europe, and divided it into thirteen months or moons. At the beginning of each moon they held a grand festival, which took its name and character from that of the moon. The first moon was called Deer, the second Strawberry, the third Small Corn, the fourth Watermelons, the fifth Fishes, the sixth Mulberries, the seventh Maize, the eighth Turkeys, the ninth Buffalo, the tenth Bears, the eleventh, which corresponds to our January, was called the Cold-meal Moon, the twelfth Chestnuts, and the thirteenth Walnuts, these nuts being ground up and mixed with their food at this season of the year.

The Natchez nation consisted of numerous villages, each of which was governed by its own Sun, or chief, all of whom admitted their inferiority to one great chief, who was considered the head of the nation, and was called the Great Sun. Herriot (History of Canada) graphically describes the dwelling and etiquette of the levées of the Great Sun: "The cabin of the Great Sun contained several beds on the left of the entrance; on the right hand was the bed of the Great Sun, adorned with different painted figures. This bed consisted only of a paillasse made from canes and reeds, with a square piece of wood for a pillow. In the center of the cabin was a small boundary, around which any one who entered the apartment was obliged to perform the circuit before he was permitted to approach the bed. Those who entered saluted with a kind of howl, and advanced to the extremity of the cabin, without casting their eyes toward the side where the Great