100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [nuLL. 43

placed upon marriages by the social organization will be considered
in the section devoted to that subject.
 Male concubinage existed among the Natchez as elsewhere in North
America. Iumont says that a male concubine, or hermaphrodite,"
" among the Natchez, and perhaps also among many other savage
nations, is called the chief of the women.' "
 It is certain (he adds) lhit although he is really a man he has the same
dress and the same occupations as the women. Like them he wears his hair
long and braided. He has, like them, a petticoat or alcon:nd instead of a
breechcloth. Like them he labors in the cultivation of the fields and in all the
other labors which are proper to them, and as among these people, who live
almost without religion and without law, libertinism is carried to the greatest
excess, I will not answer that these barbarians do not abuse this pretended
chief of the women and make him serve their brutal passions. What is cer-
tain is that when a party of warriors or of Honored men leaves the village to go
either to war or to the chase, if they do not make their wives follow them, they
always carry with them this man dressed as a woman, who serves to keep their
camp, to cook their hominy, and to provide, in short, for all the needs of the
household as well as a woman might do.a

 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

 Aside from their temple nothing attracted more attention from
 visitors to the Natchez than their peculiar strongly centralized form
 of government. Following are the statements regarding it recorded
 by various writers.
 From the Luxembourg Memoir:
 The chief of the entire nation is tie great Sun and his relations little Suns,
 who are more or less respected according to their degree of proximity to tle
 great chief. The veneration which these savages have for the great chief and
 for his family goes so far that whether lie speaks good or evil, they thank him
 by genuflections and references marked by howls. All these Suns have many
 savages who have become their slaves voluntarily, and who hunt and work
 for them. 'hey were formerly obliged to kill themselves when their masters
 died. Some of their women also followed this custom; but the French have
 undeceived them regarding such a barbarous usage.b All these relatives of
 the Sun regard the other savages as dirt.C
 From Penicaut:
 This great chief connmmands all the chiefs of the eight other villages. He
 sends orders to them by two of his servants (laquais), for le las as many as 30
 of them who are called loiios, in their language ticlon. Ile also has many serv-
 ants who are called Oulcchil tichon (Great Sun servants) who serve him for
 many ends. The chiefs of the other villages send him what has been obtained
 from the dances of their villages. His house is very large; it can hold as many
 as 4,000 [ !1 persons. This grand chief is as absolute as a king. His people do
 a )umonl. Mim. list. sur La Louisiane, I, 24S-249.
 bThere is no ground for this statement unless the change could have taken place
 between the death of the Tattooed-serpent, in 1725, and the great outbreak four years
 later, which seems improlmbale.
 M1moire sur La Louisiane, 143-144.