BUREAU OF AMERTCAN ETHNOLOGY


of the Yasons, Courois, Ofogoula, and Onsp6e nation:;," scattered
about for the most part on artificial earthen mounds." Onsp&e is,
we know, one form of the Tunica name for the Ofogoula. But
Ofogoula,' or rather Ofo, being the name applied by this tribe to
itself, and the Tunica having moved away eight years before to settle
opposite the mouth of Red river, the word Onmspe can only have
come from the Yazoo or Koroa. or both. The case is made still
stronger by the fact that La Harpe had.passed the Tunica without
stopping, and therefore it was unlikely that lie had on board any
Tunica Indian from whom such information might have been ob-
tained. Now, if the Ofo were known to the Yazoo and Koroa by the
same term as that employed by the Tunica, a term at the same time
different from the one used by the Ofo themselves, a presumption of
relationship among the three other tribes is at once raised.
 Another argument is furnished by the following quotation from an
earlier journal of La Harpe when on his way from the Nasoni country
to New Orleans via Red river:
 The 28th [of October, 17191, having descended the river Ifromi the Cado-
hadachol about 10 leagues, we met three pirogues o our n'avnges coning from
hunting bison. They told me that near the lillle river [ahout 10 leagues farther
on] they had met many newly nmde rafts, worked by the ''onicu nation
(nation Tonicarus) who are the Yasons, a fact which compelled them to return
to their villages.b
 This statement is rather confusing since we do not know whether
La Harpe means the Tonicaus were identical with the Yazoo or
simply that they lived upon the Yazoo river. The Yazoo and the
Tunica were certainly not identical, and at the time when he wrote the
latter had moved from Yazoo river. None knew this better than La
Harpe himself, for lie had stopped several days with them just before
his ascent of Red river. It is true that he there spells their name
Tonica and here Tonicau, but he could hardly have meant two dis-
tinct tribes of Tunica or have been deceived into believing there
were two; otherwise lie certainly would have noted the distinction lie
believed to exist. Perhaps a perusal of the original manuscript would
cast some light on the question, but failing that, it seems most likely
that he means that the Tunica of whom his men told him at this time
were really Yazoo. If that had not been the case there would have
been no reason to insert the statement; if he had wished to record
the fact that the Tunica traced their origin to Yazoo river he would
have done so in his earlier discussion of the tribe. Finally we must
consider that, if these languages are unrelated-and there is good
reason for excluding them from either the Muskhogean or Siouan
families-we have to assume one or more additional independent
 a La Harpe, Jour. Hist., 311. b Margry, Decouvertes, vi, 302.


[BULL. 43