Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/216

204 Sun was seated. They afterward gave a second salute by lifting their arms above their heads and howling three times. If they were persons whom the Great Sun respected, he answered by a faint sigh and made them a sign to be seated; he was thanked for his courtesy by a new howl, and at every question the Sun made they howled once before returning an answer. When they took their leave they drew out one continued howl until they retired from his presence."

From the history of De Soto's invasion it is evident that not only the Great Sun, but all the caciques of Florida, were attended with some rude state. The chief of Cosa, when he visited De Soto, was carried in a litter, wearing on his head a diadem made of feathers, while around him attendants "sang and played upon instruments."

The government of the Natchez is what especially distinguished them from the other tribes of North America. Du Pratz says: "The authority which their princes exercise over them is absolutely despotic, and can be compared to nothing but that of the first Ottoman emperors. Like them, the Great Sun is absolute master of the lives and estates of his subjects, which he disposes of at pleasure," etc. As soon as the presumptive heir of the Great Sun was born, every family in which there was a child at the breast gave that child for his service. When the chief died, all these individuals were put to death, to serve their master in the world of spirits.

The Natchez were divided into nobles and common people, which last, with an arrogance not peculiar to savages alone, were designated "stinkards."

The nobles themselves were divided into Suns, nobles, and men of rank. The Suns, according to tradition, were descended from a man and woman who came down from the sun to teach them how to live and govern themselves. They enjoyed immunity from punishment by death, and their nobility was transmitted only through the female line. Although the children, both male and female, bore the name of Suns, the males enjoyed this honor in their own persons alone. Their male children were only nobles; the next generation were men of rank, and the third lowered them to plain stinkards, although distinguished actions might retard the deterioration of the blood. But the case was very different with the female posterity. They enjoyed through all generations the privileges of their rank. Laudonière speaks of a queen "who was much reverenced by her subjects when he visited Florida."

The nobility never intermarried. As we have already noticed, one of their laws prohibited their being put to death for any reason whatsoever. Another law decreed that when a Sun died, his