BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY


precisely the same race as the orders of Nobles. How could it be
otherwise when the Nobles were compelled to marry among them and
had Stinkard descendants themselves in three generations? It is
true that the speech of the Nobles differed from that of the lower
orders, but Du Pratz says this difference in language exists only in
what concerns the persons of the Suns and Nobles in distinction from
the people." a In other words, the differences were rather matters of
etiquette than basal divergences in speech. Unfortunately, very few
of the examples of differences in speech between people and nobility
can be identified with those in later vocabularies, yet the aspect of
neither is at all strange or unlike forms common to the Natchez speech
as we know it. Had we better information we should probably find
all of the examples resolve themselves into pure Natchez roots.
A part of the misunderstanding regarding these etiquette terms has
been due to the fact that the language of the Stinkards has been con-
founded with what Du Pratz calls the common language," which
was Mobilian, the regional medium of communication. Six or seven
of the words recorded by French writers and some affixes are among
those which show Muskhogean affinities. Nevertheless, as in the case
of the English nation, the national speech may have been rather that
of the lower classes than that of the Nobles, and a further argument
for such a view is contained in the otherwise unique position and
organization of this people. However, the former view appears on
the whole stronger, since it is supported not only by linguistic con-
siderations but by the appearance of those well-known Muskhogean
social groupings into war and peace parties, emblematically repre-
sented by the respective colors red and white (see pp. 111, 117). An-
other Muskhogean feature, important in the present connection, is the
existence of a definite migration tradition pointing to a western origin.
This was a sacred possession of the nation, intrusted to the chief of
the guardians of the temple, and was passed down by him to his suc-
cessor. Du Pratz claims to have heard it from the guardian of his
time, and gives it as follows, in the words of his informant:
 Before we came into this land we lived there under the Sun. [He pointed
then with his finger almost toward the southwest, and having consulted my
compass and a map, I recognized that he spoke to me of Mexico.b] We lived in
a beautiful country where the earth is always good. It is there that our Suns
remained, because the ancients of the country were unable to force us out with
all their warriors. They came, indeed, as far as the mountains after having
reduced under their power the villages of our people which were in the plains,
but our warriors always repulsed them at the entrance of the mountains and
they were never able to penetrate there.
 Our entire nation extended along the great water [the sea] where this great
river [the River St. Louis] loses itself. Some of our Suns sent up this river to
 a Du Pratz, Hist. de La Louisiane, II, 324.
 T The Mississippi. The bracketed portions of this story are Du Pratz's own.


[BULL.43