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50	MISSISSIPPI:	THE	GENERAL	BACKGROUND
Neither the ethnologists nor the early chroniclers agree concerning the women. But considering the state of degradation in which they were kept and the hard labor to which they were subjected, it is not surprising that the Indian maidens, however small and beautifully formed, with sparkling eyes and long black hair, lost their charm while young and were deteriorated utterly by middle age.
From an economic point of view all the tribes were basically the same. All of them had once been forced by economic necessity to live along the Gulf coast, but an acquired knowledge of planting enabled many to move inland. Here they established settlements behind earth-wall fortifications or, in the bayou-ribbed western section of the State, near tall artificial mounds. In the winter they hunted; in spring and summer they planted their fields and fished. After winter hunting trips, which sometimes carried them to Ohio and the Carolinas, they returned to their settlements in the spring to plant their fields. Fish, small game animals, roots, berries, and the like served for food until the early corn was ripe; then the early corn carried them until July or August when late or flour corn was ready to eat. From then until autumn the products of the field, supplemented by small game and fish, rendered life comparatively easy. This was a season of relaxation and plenty during which most of the ceremonies took place, particularly those of a social nature, and much of the manufacturing was done; baskets, textiles, wooden and horn objects, pipes, and other articles were produced both for home consumption and trade. In late November the Indians once more scattered to hunt until planting time. On the coast the Pascagoula and Biloxi, who benefited by the spring run of fish, stopped their hunting early to establish themselves near fish weirs until planting time.
The Natchez and other tribes built compact, fort-like villages, with the huts facing a central square. In the squares of the Chakchiuma stood tall poles on which they hung scalps, beads, bones, and other articles, some of which made a queer whistling sound in the wind. This sound, their prophets said, was a voice telling them a Choctaw or Chickasaw was killing a Chakchiuma—so a party would go on the warpath, kill the first Choctaw or Chickasaw they met, and hang his scalp on the pole. They then waited for another passage of the wind.
The Chickasaw built long one-street towns that were in reality a series of distinct villages. One of these, Long Town, was composed of seven villages strung along a ridge. Red Grass was fortified with pickets, and was the scene of young D’Artaguiette’s defeat when he came down from Canada to join Bienville in 1736 (see Tour 12). It was also the impregnability
ARCHEOLOGY AND INDIANS	51
of these unfriendly Chickasaw towns that stood between the French of Louisiana and the French of the Ohio and prevented them from uniting in a solid front against the westward-moving English settlers.
The Choctaw built their barrier towns compact like those of the lesser tribes. But their inland settlements, where they carried on their farming, resembled extensive plantations with the cabins a gunshot distance from each other.
Indian cabins were made of rough-hewn posts chinked with mud, bark, and, in the lowlands, Spanish moss. The roofs were of cypress or pine bark, or of intermingled grass and reeds. These roofs were so skilfully woven they lasted 20 years without leaking. A hole usually was left in the top of the cabin to let out the smoke (fires being built in the center of the cabins), but there were no windows and only one door, an opening about three or four feet high and two feet wide. Inside the cabins the walls were lined with cane beds that were covered with bison skins and used during the day as tables and chairs.
Land was cleared for planting by burning the underbrush and smaller growth, while the trees were girdled and left to die. For implements the Indians used a stone, a crude hoe made of a large shell or the shoulder blade of a bison, and a stick to make holes for planting the seed. The Choctaw, who took their farming seriously and who often had to supply their enemy, the Chickasaw, with corn, erected small booths near their farms and stationed young people in them to drive away the crows. But even the Choctaw were forced to labor by hand, for the Indians had no domesticated animals to toil for them.
The staple crop was corn, with beans, pumpkins, melons, and, sometimes, sunflowers planted with it. Tobacco was raised as a luxury for the men only. Tom-ful-la (tafula) or "big hominy” was the standard dish. Another dish, bota kapusi or "cold meal,” was a favorite because of its sustaining qualities in times of war and famine. This parched corn flour would keep without spoiling as long as it was dry, and a man could travel a week on a quart of it. For smoking, the men mixed their tobacco weed with the dried leaf of either the aromatic sumac or the sweetgum, thus giving it a mellow, and, some chroniclers say, delightful flavor.
In prehistoric times the most important game animal was the deer, but later the bison attained greater importance. (The bison is supposed to have been driven out of Mississippi by a great drought in the early 1700's, but the Biloxi, more given to romance, declared that it was not a drought but the Most Ancient of Rabbits, who drove them angrily out of his realm.) The Choctaw considered the ribs and liver of a bear a luxury, but among