BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY


Indians, in part received from Mrs. Bradford, who had the advantage
of a direct consultation with Clara Dardin, the oldest person in the
tribe, the most experienced basket maker, and daughter of a noted
Chitimacha chief, Alexandre Dardin, who is believed to have been
really a Tainsa Indian. The material employed was cane of a
variety called pi'ya in Chitimacha, which was split with the teeth,
and woven in two layers, so as to form what is really a double basket.
The natural color of the cane is varied by the use of three dyes-
black, yellow, and red. To produce a black color the canes are
boiled in black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) leaves and seeds. For
yellow the writer was told that the canes are exposed to the dew for
six days and afterward boiled fifteen minutes with a root called
powaa'c,a but the time given Mrs. Bradford was eight days and thirty
minutes, respectively. It is probable that both statements are correct,
the time varying with different basket makers. It may be conjectured
that eight days was the ancient period allowed for exposure to the
dew. because in it we find the common American sacred number four.
The red was produced, according to Mrs. Bradford's informant, by
exposing the canes eight days to the dew, soaking them eight more
in lime, and then boiling fifteen minutes in powaa'c, while the writer
was told simply that the canes were passed through lime and then
boiled with the roots.
 The ordinary word for basket is kakxt. The sieve used in sifting
flour was called cicd'x, or, abbreviated, cax, and the ki'keti was a
long basket used for collecting large clams. Plates 22 to 30 represent
a number of specimens obtained for the National Museum by Mrs.
Bradford and are accompanied by explanations.
 Ke'ndpc was the name of a design no longer employed, supposed
to resemble beads. The matting was as good as the basketry (pl. 31).
 The Chitimacha resembled the Natchez and some other tribes of
the lower Mississippi in having a distinct class of nobility, with
different terms of etiquette for each. This is affirmed by the living
Indians and fully confirmed by the following statement:
 There are distinctions of rank recognized among them; the chiefs and their
descendants are noble, and the balance of the people are of the class of commons.
An old man of this latter class, however great may be his age, will use to the
young noble, however young he may be, respectful expressions which are only
employed toward the nobility, while the latter has the right of speaking to the
former only in popular terms.b
 This strongly recalls the Natchez system and adds importance to a
tradition that the Chitimacha had come from the neighborhood of
the Natchez tribe.5
 a This root has been supposed to belong to Ruincar vcrticellatus L., but probably is the
same as'that employed, according to Mr. D. I. Bushnell, by the Choctaw of St. Tammany
parish. Louisiana, which is Runle crispits.
 b From the MS. referred to on p. 355.


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[BULL. 43