146 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 43

he seemed to do so, another carried the nat on which to sent him, a third
carried the cord for strangling him, another the skin, the fifth a dish in which
were five or six balls of pounded tobacco to make him swallow in order to
stupefy him. Another bore a little earthen bottle holding about a pint, in order
to make him drink some mouthfuls of water in order to swallow the pellets
more easily. Two others followed to aid in drawing the cord at each side.
 A very small number of men suffices to strangle a person, but since this action
withdraws them from the rank of Stinkards, puts them in the class of Honored
men, and thus exempts them from dying with the Suns, many more would pre-
sent themselves if the number were not fixed to eight persons only. All these
persons whom I have just described walk in this order, two by two, after their
relations. The victims have their hair daubed with red and in the hand the
shell of a river mussel which is about 7 inches long by 3 or 4 broad. By that
they are distinguished from their followers, who on those days have red feathers
in their hair. The day of the death they have their hands reddened, as being
prepared to give death.
 Arrived in the open space the mats of the foremost are placed nearest the
temple, the favorite to the right and the other wife to the left of the road, the
others afterward according to their rank, 6 or 7 feet apart on the two sides of
the road, the breadth of which between them is at least 30 feet. The persons
who are going to die are made to sit down on their mats, then all together make
the death cry behind them. The relatives dance the death dance and the vic-
tims on their mats dance in time also without leaving their places. After this
dance the entire group returns to the cabin in the same order. This is a re-
hearsal of the tragedy which is going to be played the day of the funeral proces-
sion. It is done twice a day.
 Everything was tranquil enough that day on the part of the great chief, who
went to the temple after he had been shown the head of the bad woman. He
ordered that her body be eaten by beasts without being buried, to carry the
head to his brother, and then to throw it into the cypress swaimp 2 leagues
from his body.
 The same day at sunrise, while we were engaged in restraining the great
chief, a man named Ette-actal a had been brought, escorted by 30 warriors. We
all knew him because he had lived with M. de Bienville, commandant-general,
with whom he had taken refuge. Hle had married a female Sun who had died,
and according to the laws of his nation he ought to die with her. But this law
not being to his taste, as soon as he had seen her in the agony [of death] he
fled secretly toward the landing, took some provisions, descended night and
day in a little dugout and went to place himself under the protection of Mon-
sieur, the commandant of the capital, and offered himself to him as his hunter
and one of his slaves. His service was accepted. The Natchez even promised
his master that he had nothing to fear because, the ceremony being completed
and he not having been found in that time, he was no longer a lawful prize.
This native, thus reassured, went from time to time to see his relatives and
friends, and nothing had ever been said to himi. But this last time, the great
Sun having learned from the French that M. de Bienville had been recalled to
France, considered that the letters of reprieve of Ette-actal were abrogated by
the absence of his protector. Thus he judged it suitable to make him pay his
debt to the Tattooed-serpent in the capacity of a relation of his wife, and it was
for this reason that they brought him.
 When this man saw himself in the cabin of the great chief of war, in the
number of the victims who were going to be sacrificed to his manes, he was

 aMy Natchez informant interpreted this as Skin-eater."-J. R. S.