tokulki was born in the muskogee town of tulsa, in the central part of what is now alabama. like all other indian babies of that region he first saw the light in a brush shelter some distance back from his mother’s home; for were he to be born in the latter it was thought misfortune might fall upon all its occupants. his name belonged to the wind clan of tulsa, and means two persons running. when the first bearer of the name was born, his father was absent on a war expedition during which he frightened two of his enemies who were on scout duty, so thoroughly that they ran off in haste, leaving their weapons in his hands. it was in commemoration of this event that the new-born babe received his name.

tokulki’s mother was waited upon during her period of seclusion by her own mother and another old woman of the clan, reputed most skillful in midwifery. although it was late in the autumn this old woman took the infant immediately to the bank of the river and plunged him into it, after which he was strapped securely into a cradle, made of canes, by means of bark cords about the shoulders and thighs. here tokulki spent the next few months of his life, sometimes carried on his mother’s back, sometimes propped up against the wall of the house while his mother was engaged in her household duties. but whenever he was so placed, the cradle was allowed to rest upon a panther skin, for his father and his uncles had all been famous warriors and it was expected that he would follow in their footsteps. therefore he must have that about him which would communicate a warlike essence and make him fierce and bold.

tokulki passed through the period when his principal experience of life was that there was something in it that gave him food and warmth, which was “mother,” and when there was something light in which dark objects moved, or something dark in which light objects moved. there was one particular light object that he gazed upon continually, and which resolved itself into the house door, and another, red and hot, which he saw when he awoke at night and which resolved itself into the house fire.

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the home into which he gradually came to consciousness was the winter house of his family. the framework was of hickory poles, set in a circle of perhaps twenty-five feet in diameter, with their slender ends gathered together at the top and supported by a central element of four wooden columns. interwoven with this were thin, flexible pieces of wood plastered thickly with mud mixed with dry grass, and the whole covered inside and out with mats. the floor was excavated a couple of feet below the general level of the ground, and a shallow trench dug about it a little farther back, so that water would be carried off without entering. the doorway which had so early attracted tokulki’s attention was to the east where the first rays of the sun could steal into it, but it was seldom that it found any one but very young babies to awaken, for the duties of the day were assumed early and ended soon, except in times of merry-making or the great ceremonials. there was no vent for the escape of smoke which sometimes accumulated to an extent which would render the inside unendurable to a white man; but this was partly provided against by the judicious selection of wood,—old sticks of oak and hickory which would fall apart with little smoke, and leave a glowing bed of coals to radiate heat during much of the night. around the walls of the house was a continuous seat made of matting, raised a foot and a half to two feet from the floor and covered with bearskins upon which most of the household slept.

the household consisted of tokulki’s father and mother, a brother and sister, his mother’s mother, a married sister of his mother, her husband and two children, a younger brother of his mother, and an old man of the wind clan, not closely connected with the family but making this his temporary home. more important in tokulki’s life than most of these, was an old man, living a short distance away, but a frequent visitor in the cabin, a man whom we should call “maternal uncle” in english; yet he was “uncle” not only to tokulki and tokulki’s brother and sister and the children of his mother’s sister, but to a large number of other boys and girls—boys and girls whom we should not consider related in the least. tokulki, however, as he grew older, learned to call them “elder brothers,” “younger brothers,” and “sisters,” and he learned that most of these were called “wind people,” like himself, but that some were called “skunk people,” and some “fish people.”

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while still on his mother’s back, tokulki was taken down to the river every morning, and his mother dashed water over him and over herself even when the weather was bitterly cold. one of his earliest memories was of this cold douche after his warm night’s rest. all of the inhabitants of the village except a few of the sick and decrepit, took this morning bath, the men and boys plunging in, the women and children contenting themselves in cold weather with a little splashing.

and it was the “uncle” of each band who saw to it that none evaded this regulation. he was always present, encouraging the smaller boys, scolding the timorous, and sometimes correcting the unruly by means of a stout stick. as he did so he poured good advice into their ears, and tokulki soon learned that his “uncle” was the man to whom he must appeal in time of trouble, whose approbation he must win, and whose displeasure he must be careful to shun. often, on winter evenings the uncle would gather his “nephews” and “nieces” together and instruct them, and he would tell them in particular of the deeds of their ancestors, sometimes assisting his memory by means of little strings of beads, or by referring to notches cut in sticks.

but when the old people were talking with one another, tokulki’s mother would by no means allow him to go near them, and sometimes, when his curiosity had gotten the better of him, she would box his ears soundly. in after life tokulki learned that this was not because such behavior was considered disrespectful of the old people or annoying to them, but because old people have uncanny powers and may bewitch a child who hangs about them too closely. there was not much temptation to do this except in winter, for during the rest of the year the elders would be working or talking apart by themselves, or the old men would be in the square.

this “square” loomed larger in tokulki’s life the older he grew. it was only a short distance from his home. he was not allowed to play there, but he could walk all around the edge, marked by a ridge of earth which had been piled up by successive scrapings of its surface in preparation for the ceremonials. near its western end were four long, narrow buildings plastered with mud and outlining a hollow square with entrances at the corners. they were open in front, and each was divided into three equal sections by transverse walls, which did not, however, reach to the roof. the middle 130 section of the western cabin was slightly different, in that the back part was separated by another wall parallel to the walls of the building, and, closely shut up in the room thus formed, tokulki knew that the ceremonial pots, rattles, drums, the dried medicines, and all of the most sacred possessions of the tribes were kept. in front the town chief or miko and his principal councilors had their seats. on the northwestern edge of the grounds loomed the tshokofa, the indoors council house, constructed precisely like a winter house except that it was very much larger. to the eastward extended a wide, open space kept bare of grass by intermittent hoeing and the pressure of many feet. in the middle of it rose a ball post, and at the farther corners stood two shorter posts where captives taken in war were burned. almost every morning tokulki could watch the leading men of his town assemble in this square, and between the buildings catch glimpses of the medicine-bearers carrying asi (an infusion of ilex vomitoria) in conch shells to regale the councilors. all that they had in their stomachs they forthwith ejected, that they and their minds might both be clear for the matters about to be discussed.

frequently tokulki accompanied his mother when she went in quest of firewood, or he would sit on the edge of the garden patch while his mother, his grandmother, and the other women of the household were at work, and sometimes he was given the temporarily congenial task of driving off crows. this garden was planted principally with pumpkins and beans, but most of the corn was in the great town garden farther off from the village, and thither all of the people marched in the spring, headed by their miko, with hoes made of hickory limbs over their shoulders, to prepare the ground for planting. each household had its own patch separated from the rest by a narrow strip of grass, but the work was in common: first so-and-so’s strip, next some-one-else’s until all was completed. after that it was largely the duty of the women and children to keep weeds down and drive away birds, and there were little watch-houses on the edges of the fields for the accommodation of the guardians. the days when all worked were as much holidays as days of labor. the participants began early but worked only until shortly after noon. then they partook of their principal meal in common, and after that there was usually a ball game followed by a dance around a big131 fire in the square, the light of which was reinforced by cane torches.

the ball game was usually played about a single post, though not the one in the square-ground, and it was indulged in by both men and women, who played against each other, the women throwing the ball with their hands, the men with their ball sticks. single tallies were made by striking the pole above a certain mark, but five points were counted if the carved bird which surmounted it was touched. sometimes, however, the men played their own game, a game similar to lacrosse except that two small ball sticks took the place of the one large one. each side strove to bring the ball home to its own goal, marked by two straight poles set up a couple of feet apart, and twenty points constituted a game, ten sticks being stuck into the ground by the scorer of each side and then drawn out again. in dividing up, the wind, bear, bird, beaver, and some other clans, called collectively “whites,” played against the raccoon, fox, potato, alligator, deer, and certain others who were known as “people-of-a-different-speech.” but these games were only practice games, or make believe games. the regular games were always between certain towns, and they were very serious matters conducted with the deliberation and ritualism of a war expedition. each game was preceded by careful negotiations: the players fasted and were scratched with gar teeth, they enlisted the aid of the supernatural by employing a medicine man, they marched to the appointed place as if to meet an enemy, wagered quantities of property on the result, and conducted it so energetically that serious injuries were sometimes inflicted.

in winter tokulki’s mother and the other women busied themselves making baskets and mats, twisting bison hair into garters for the leggings, and weaving cloaks—worn only by women—out of the inner bark of the mulberry. in the summer they made pottery and dressed skins, and the preparation of food kept them busy, of course, at all seasons. they must prepare their own flour by pounding the corn in a wooden mortar, at which they sometimes worked two and two. sometimes they would relax their labors long enough to play a sort of dice game in which sections of cane took the place of our bits of bone. the men spent most of their winters seemingly to less advantage, much of it in smoking and recounting to one another tales of their hunting or war excursions, humorous sketches frequently132 revolving about the rabbit, and sometimes myths of a more serious and sacred character. however, they devoted many hours in the aggregate to the repair of their hunting and fishing outfits, and to the manufacture of axes, arrow points, and other articles of utility, material for which had been laid aside during the preceding fall.

when tokulki was able to run about freely by himself, his uncle made him a blowgun out of a long, hollow cane which he provided also with cane arrows with their butt ends wrapped in thistledown. he sent him out to try his skill upon the birds and smaller game animals, and more than once tokulki came home proudly with birds, squirrels, and even an occasional rabbit. a little later they made him a bow and arrows, with which he attacked rabbits, and wild turkeys, and upon one happy occasion, he succeeded in creeping near enough to a young deer to dispatch it. he came home in triumph to his mother, telling her where the animal was to be found, and listened to the praises of his entire household, particularly those of his uncle, with flushing cheeks.

upon this tokulki’s father and uncle began to instruct him in the arts of woodcraft. they took the head of a deer and placed splints inside of it so as to restore it as nearly as might be to its original shape, and showed him how to use it in stalking the living animal. they taught him how to make traps for the smaller animals, and where game was to be found. they also taught him that a piece of flesh must be cut out of every deer that was killed, and thrown away so that the deer might not be offended and leave the country. they taught him that he must not cast bones of game animals far off, when they fed them to their dogs, lest the animals afterward become shy. he was told that a sprig of old man’s tobacco must be put under every fire made by the hunting party so that malevolent spirits would not follow them. still later he was to learn about certain medicines and formul? to insure success in the chase.

as soon as spring came, hunting of a somewhat desultory character began, but the families did not move far from town until after the annual ceremonies were over and the corn had been harvested, unless driven to it by famine, or drawn to certain points on the rivers by runs of fish. during this time tokulki accompanied a hunting party to the bear preserve, a section of forest not far from tulsa where bears were numerous and which was the common property of 133 all the citizens. when the party approached a tree in which a bear had been located, tokulki stood at one side to watch the method of procedure. he saw that one man climbed into a tree not far from that containing the animal they sought, and was given blazing slivers of pitch pine which he threw successively into the tree den. when its occupant was driven out, he was quickly dispatched by the hunters disposed below. the meat was distributed throughout the town for immediate consumption, but the fat was tried out and poured into bags made of whole deerskins which were then packed away for the winter season. meanwhile, the women were hunting through the forests for roots, particularly groundnuts and the roots of a smilax which they called kunti. they also collected the seeds of a pond lily; a little later a profusion of berries enables them to vary their diet.

in april the miko called his leading men together and shortly afterwards was held the first ceremony of the season accompanied by fasting and the drinking of the red willow and button-snake root. at the time of the corresponding full moons in may and june, similar ceremonies took place, but these were merely in preparation for the great fast (poskita), the culmination of the southeastern religious season. and so it was that about the middle of july a messenger appeared at tokulki’s home, and delivered to the house chief a little bundle of sticks tied with deer sinew. before handing it over, he drew one stick from the bundle and threw it away. every morning thereafter the house chief did the same until but one stick remained and on that day the ceremony began. similar bundles were carried to every household of tulsa indians far or near, all of whom synchronized their movements in such a way as to converge on the square-ground at the time appointed. failure to come in then was both impiety and treason, and it was severely punished by the warrior class known as tastanagalgi, who would handle the absentee severely, and destroy or confiscate his property.

the poskita was the type of all the ceremonials of the tribes of the southeast. the active participants were those men who had been on war expeditions and had received new names in consequence, names usually ending hadjo, fiksiko, imala, tastanagi, or yahola, and containing often the names of the clan animals, the towns of the creek confederacy, or even foreign tribes. generally speaking, the 134 miko and the members of his clan sat in the west cabin, the “second men,” or henehalgi, who were devoted to peace, in the south cabin, the higher classes of warriors on the north, and the common warriors on the east. each cabin or “bed” contained from two to four “honored men,” retired warriors who constituted the inner council in charge of the ceremony. this poskita was distinctly a peace ceremony when old enmities were forgotten, all but the most heinous crimes pardoned, and new resolutions made for the ensuing year.

at least one day was devoted to feasting, but after that a rigid fast was observed by all the active participants. then those who had performed brave actions received new names and new war honors, while novitiates were shut up in the tshokofa and a strict fast was imposed upon them preparatory to their admission into the class of warriors and induction into adult life. during this ceremony, too, all of the fires, which were supposed to have become corrupt from contamination with worldly things during the year, were extinguished, and a new fire was lighted by the “medicine maker,” the high priest of the town, in the most impressive manner by means of the common fire drill. this new fire was first used to replace the fires in the square-ground and the tshokofa, and afterwards it was taken to one side of the square where the women stood ready to receive it and carry it to their several homes. the rituals extended over eight days, and on the last, just at sunset, the men marched in single file to the river, led by one of the fish clan bearing a feather wand, and all plunged into its waters. they returned in the same order, the miko made a short farewell address, and the ceremony was over.

from this time until the harvest had been gathered in, tokulki’s people, and most of the others, did not stray far from town. in october was a sacred ceremony called the “polecat dance,” and afterward the people began to scatter rapidly for their fall hunting. some proceeded to their camps overland, the women serving as beasts of burden; but the greater number, including tokulki’s family, had their hunting lodges near the rivers and reached them by means of canoes made of single trees, fire-felled and fire-excavated. some parties went as many as seventy-five or a hundred miles from home, especially when they desired to hunt the woodland bison. this135 season was devoted especially to the preparation of quantities of dried venison against the coming of winter.

when game was plentiful, a series of merry-makings were indulged in. this usually began with the presentation of a ball, made of buckskin, to one of the men by his sister-in-law, who at the same time intimated that she desired venison, bear meat, or occasionally squirrels. upon receiving this challenge, the man communicated the intelligence to all of the other men in camp and they set out on a grand deer, bear, or squirrel hunt as the case might be. meantime the women busied themselves pounding corn, or perhaps kunti roots, into flour and preparing various sorts of dishes. when the men returned they also took the meat in hand and a great feast followed, with a ball game of the single pole type, and a dance to close the day. they would light a great fire and two men would station themselves near it, one with a drum made by stretching a deerskin over an earthen pot or cypress knee, the other with a gourd rattle, while the dancers went around the fire, usually sinistrally, in single file or two-and-two, under the charge of one or two leaders. the dances were usually named after animals, real or imaginary, and the steps and other motions were supposed to be in imitation of them. the men did most of the singing.

after a few days there would be another presentation of a ball and the same feasting, ball playing, and dancing would follow, and this was frequently kept up until the weather was very cold.

sometimes sickness came upon a member of tokulki’s camp, and then tokulki’s mother’s younger brother, who was doctor of the band, and at the same time medicine maker of the town, would be called in. before prescribing, such a doctor often consulted the kila, or “knower,” who seems to have combined the functions of prophet and diagnostician, but tokulki’s uncle never did this because he united the two functions in himself. having determined the nature of the disease, he would go in quest of various herbs, or sometimes send members of the household after them. these he put into a great pot, poured water over them, and placed the pot over the fire. after the contents were sufficiently heated, he gave it potency by breathing into it through a hollow cane, while repeating a magical formula. this was done four times, the doctor meantime136 facing east. sometimes, however, he prescribed sweat bathing in a lodge made of blankets thrown over poles, and containing heated rocks on which water was poured, and sometimes he declared the trouble was caused by witchcraft which he proceeded to cure by sucking the witching object out of the affected part by means of a bison horn.

if, in spite of all his efforts, death supervened, all of the people in that house and in the neighboring settlements began shouting and making loud noises so that the soul of the deceased would not stay about the dwelling but start upon its journey to the country of spirits. they removed the body to the house in town, wrapped in dressed deerskins and, after wailing over it, buried it in an oblong trench about four feet deep, excavated beneath the floor, lined with cypress bark, and covered with sticks upon which a thick layer of mud was plastered. the face of the deceased was painted red, he was seated facing the east, his most important implements, such as his bow and arrows, his war club, his paints, his pipe and tobacco pouch, were buried with him, and for four days the women of his family bewailed his death with loud howlings. the faces of all the mourners were painted black. the hair of a widow was unbound for four years, she discarded all ornaments, and was compelled to absent herself from all merry-makings. at the fourth poskita she was formally released by her husband’s sister and either provided with a new husband from the same clan,—or clan connection,—or set free to marry whomever she chose. for a widower the period of mourning was only four months.

the medical practices of his uncle possessed a fascination for tokulki who was present whenever he was tolerated. he had seen similar performances in the square-ground at the time of the annual ceremonies, and his mind, which had a mystical bent, eagerly fed upon them.

at intervals during all this time tokulki had seen bands of warriors, including sometimes his father and uncles, march out against their enemies, and in particular there was an enemy to the westward, not large in numbers but led by a chief of rare size, strength, and sagacity, whose activities were constantly more threatening, and who was aided and abetted by a much more numerous people beyond him called long hairs. at last, raids from this quarter became 137 so numerous and so many injuries were suffered that a great council was held in tulsa and it was determined to draw their settlements closer together and erect a strong stockade about them. tokulki, although still too young for the heavier work, was called upon to render such assistance as he could in the completion of the structure. while the older men marked out the course of the wall and planted in the ground good-sized tree trunks a few feet apart, tokulki and the other young men brought together numbers of long, flexible branches or young trees which they wove from one post to another, covering the whole with a plastering of mud. about a hundred feet apart little watchtowers were raised above the top of the wall, projecting forward slightly in order to defend the intervening spaces against attempts of an enemy to scale or burn them. on the river side there was but one row of palisades, but elsewhere it was doubled. toward the river, too, was the only opening, made by allowing the walls slightly to overlap. to approach this an enemy must creep along a narrow path between wall and water, exposed to certain death should he be discovered.

about two years after this fort was completed, tokulki went upon his first war expedition. the “uncle” of his group was to be one of the party, and took this occasion to initiate his nephew into the cardinal tribal institution, man-killing, the one great avenue for the attainment of personal glory and social standing. the leader of the party was to be none other than the tastanagi lako, the head warrior of the town, and therefore when he sent out to drum up volunteers there was a great outpouring of the ambitious youth of the nation. for four days they remained shut up in the tshokofa, fasting, taking war medicine, dancing, and singing war songs to lash themselves up to the proper degree of martial fury. each was provided with a war club, a bow, and a quiver of arrows, a shield of cane or bison-hide, and a sack containing fire sticks, paints, and a slender ration of parched corn meal. the ceremonies completed, they set out quietly in single file very early in the morning. with them they carried a sacred box made of splints which was usually borne on the back of the chief’s assistant, and at every camp was placed upon a log, or hung upon a tree or post. among other things it contained some of the painted bones of an enormous panther which the ancestors of this people had slain on their way from the138 far western country, and a part of one of the horns of an aquatic horned serpent. on occasion it was believed that this box gave forth oracular utterances, informing the party in what direction to proceed, or warning them of an attack.

on this occasion the spirit guardian appears to have been favorable, for they surprised four outlying camps of their enemies, took a dozen scalps, and carried off fifteen women and children as captives besides two grown men whom they subjected to the death penalty by fire. during this action tokulki had the good fortune to save the life of the war chief’s servant by engaging an enemy, about to strike him from behind. therefore, after the triumphant return, he received the much coveted feather headdress, his first war name, and a seat in the eastern cabin of the square.

he had stepped upon the first rung of the social ladder and could attend all but the most secret and important meetings to decide the actions of the nation. it was not long before he received another name and left the cabin of the tasikaias for that of the imalas at the east end of the north cabin. later deeds entitled him to the rank of tastanagi, the highest war grade, but being by birth a member of the white wind clan he was assigned instead to a seat of honor in the peace cabin on the other side.

in spite of his prowess, however, tokulki took less pleasure in warfare than most of his companions. he had, as we have noted, a mystical type of mind. the great ceremonies had a powerful influence over him, and the practices of his uncle, the medicine maker, proved a constant fascination. blessed with a retentive memory, he rapidly picked up a fund of tribal lore which presently attracted the attention of the old men,—the custodians of the sacred legends and the keepers of the rituals. they talked earnestly about him with the medicine maker, as of one to whom his people might look for spiritual leadership in future days, and at his uncle’s suggestion he and three other of the most promising youths of the wind connection agreed to undertake the young men’s poskita, “the first degree in medicine” if we may so term it.

calling these youths into his house the medicine maker talked to them earnestly and then made an appointment to meet them at a remote spot in the forest, on the bank of a small stream away from the frequented trails. at the time and place agreed upon, he presented 139 himself before them and directed them to make a sweat lodge by the bank of the rivulet. then he began his instructions, going over as much of his more elementary knowledge as he thought they could grasp at one time, and, when he returned to his house, telling them to memorize all he had said carefully, until the fourth day, after when he would visit them once more. he repeated his visits and instructions at similar intervals for the better part of a month when he was satisfied with their progress and told them to go back to their homes. “now,” he said, “you understand how to heal wounds made by arrows and are entitled to wear buzzard feathers in your hair.”

this degree was taken by tokulki shortly after his first war expedition, but for some time other events interposed to prevent the continuation of his initiation. in the first place his family had decided that it was time for him to take a wife and assume a position in the tribe as the responsible head of a household of his own. he fell in with this arrangement as part of the natural order of things, and consequently his mother, accompanied by two or three of her clanswomen, visited the “uncle” of the raccoon clan to which the chosen girl belonged. the recipient of the visit was not unaware of the offer about to be made and had called to his house some of the other leading men of his clan, the mother of the girl, and, as a matter of courtesy, her father. a few days thereafter the raccoon people returned the visit and formally announced that the suit was accepted. the wedding might have been consummated then and there, by conducting the groom to his betrothed’s house and holding a feast and dance, but tokulki and his parents were ambitious to have him reach a high position in the tribe as soon as possible, and accordingly they delayed the ceremony until he could erect a house, garner a crop of corn, and lay by a supply of venison.

word was sent to all of the male members of the wind clan residing in that town to go into the forest and bring together a supply of poles, bark, bark rope, and other articles sufficient for the proposed house. the planting season was beginning, and when the town field was laid out, an extra plot was sowed for the new household. when this was ready to harvest, a corncrib raised on posts was put up near the site of the projected dwelling, and filled from tokulki’s new plot. the harvest being over, and the days cool enough for comfortable work out-of-doors, the men of the wind clan came together again 140 and appointed a day upon which the new house was to be raised. this work was carried out much like an old new england husking bee. it was placed under the direction of the one considered most skilled in such matters who assigned the various processes to all the rest. they worked with such a good will that it was practically complete by the middle of the afternoon. afterward a common meal was served followed by a game of ball and the usual dance after dark. sofkee, prepared like our “hulled corn,” stood ready in pots at the service of any of those present.

a little later tokulki went hunting and brought back dried venison to add to his winter’s stores. it was only then that he and his bride were brought to their new home, where a final feast was partaken of by all together, speeches exchanged by the leading men of the wind and raccoon clans, and the new couple left in possession.

during this period tokulki was too busily occupied to think of his earlier ambitions, but after his first child was born and the routine of his new life had become well established, they began to recur to him. he communicated his thoughts to the three young men with whom he had been associated before, and he found that they too were prepared to continue in their course. they approached the medicine maker again, and again submitted to the fasts, the sweat baths, and the repeated instructions, more rigorous now than before. this time they learned among other things the treatment proper for snake bite, and how, as they believed, to detect objects clearly on the darkest nights.

tokulki was still unsatisfied. every fresh revelation awakened new ambitions. his companions, however, were content with what they had acquired and with the prestige they had attained, and were wearied with the long and exhausting fasts. therefore when tokulki presented himself as a candidate for the third degree he went entirely alone. in fact, so rigorous was the ordeal to which he was at this time subjected, that he debated within himself whether he should not stop there. as it was, he had penetrated farther into the mysteries than all except ten or a dozen men in the fifty allied muskogee towns.

he allowed two years to slip away before making up his mind to undertake the fourth and crowning ordeal. finally, however, he set himself to the task, and he came triumphantly through, though the periods of fasting were doubled, and the memorizing more severe 141 than any which he had before experienced. he returned to his house a mere shadow of a man, with hollow cheeks, sunken eyes, and almost fleshless bones, but with a position and influence in the nation shared by none except the medicine makers of a few of the leading towns.

with the medicine maker of tulsa, his instructor and uncle, tokulki now came to be on the most friendly terms. it was natural that a man of such advanced mentality as tokulki and such steadfastness of purpose should excite interest in his superior. it became evident that when the medicine maker died or gave up his spiritual headship his position would fall to tokulki. many were the talks which the two men had together, talks in which the older man unfolded whatever knowledge his long life of physical activity and spiritual contemplation had given him. some was not new to tokulki, some had been suggested to him by the other learned men, but much was novel and strange.

the world envisaged by the tulsa sage was about like this: the middle earth which mankind knows, is flat and square and lies afloat upon “the wide white waters.” there is a world above it and a world below it, and these are inhabited by beings like ourselves. below are those left behind when the races now on earth found their way to its surface; above, those who had lived on earth but, having undergone the experience called death, had traveled westward, crossed a narrow point in the ocean stream, upon a foot log, and either remained with the malevolent spirits in that quarter or ascended to the fortunate region directly overhead, presided over by hisakita-imisi, “the breath holder.” the white streak in the sky which we call “the milky way” was said to be the very road which they traversed. unavenged souls of those who had been killed in wars, however, were unwilling to begin their journey until scalps from the offending tribe were brought in, and meanwhile they remained about the eaves of the houses, moaning. some said that bad spirits were reincarnated into beasts, but about this men differed. however, they were agreed that human beings might acquire such malevolent power as to become witches and assume the forms of animals while still living on earth. their evil dispositions were attributed to lizards who had taken up their abode inside of the witch, but might be expelled by the proper medical rites.

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the stars were thought to be attached to the under surface of the solid vault above, along which the sun and moon traveled each day. an eclipse of the sun was usually attributed to a great toad who might be frightened off by hostile demonstrations on the part of human beings. to an eclipse of the moon people paid little attention. the moon was inhabited by a man and a dog. the rainbow was a big, celestial snake which had power over rain.

the world and all that it contained were the products of mind and bore everywhere the marks of mind. matter was not something which had given birth to mind, but something which had formerly been mind, something from which mind had withdrawn, was quiescent, and out of which it might again be roused. this mind was visibly manifested in the so-called “living things,” as plants, and, still more, animals. nevertheless, latent within inorganic substance no less than in plants and animals, was mind in its highest form, i. e., human mind. this might come to the surface at any time but it did so particularly to the fasting warrior, the “knower,” and the doctor. indeed, the importance of these two last lay in their ability to penetrate to the human life within the mineral, plant, and animal life of nature, and bring back from that experience knowledge of value in ordering the lives of their fellow beings. not that mind was attributed to one individuality, but that it was recognized as everywhere of the same nature.

its manifestations were not in all cases equally powerful. its manifestation in the panther, bear, and bison was more powerful than its manifestation in the raccoon, the rabbit, and the squirrel. some “inorganic” powers,—as, for instance, the wind, the rivers, and the sea,—were, however, even more powerful. peculiarly powerful were the thunder and the lightning, which were produced by two sets of animals. the dangerous kind, the kind that “struck,” was made by huge birds from whose eyes flashed fire, and this they flashed down at the other fire-producing creatures, enormous, horned serpents, who in turn shot the blue, harmless lightning upward. bones of these earth serpents were sometimes found after a rainstorm. besides there were long serpents who lived in the waters and who, rearing their huge lengths straight upward at intervals, would allow themselves to fall over with a gigantic splash. there were the sharp-breasted snakes, suggested to native imagination by the tracks 143 of lightning, snakes supposed to run straight along the surface of the ground, cutting through roots and bushes as they went. there were bodiless snakes which rose whirling into the air on still mornings. there were creatures like bison which went by fours, each resting for a minute in the tracks of its predecessor. there were very little people who sometimes deprived travelers of their senses, and very big people who ate them.

besides the embodied power in nature there was power not altogether differentiated from it, which was unembodied, or indistinctly conceived as embodied. this power could be invoked by the use of charms and the repetition of certain formul?. “by a word” wonderful things could be accomplished; “by a word” the entire world could be compressed into such a small space that the medicine man who was master of the word could encircle it in four steps. it was power of this kind which was imparted to medicines, yet the source of this power was after all the anthropomorphic powers, which, at the very beginning of things, declared what the diseases were to be and also appointed the remedies to be employed in curing them. but when the doctor had prepared these remedies and placed them in a pot in front of him, they were not efficacious until he had repeated the prescribed formul?, or prayers, four times, while breathing into the medicine through a hollow cane. in this way the spirit that made the medicine powerful passed into it through the breath of life in the doctor.

from this conception it came about that the supreme being of the creeks, a kind of sky god, was known as hisakita-imisi, “the breath holder.” while he did not necessarily interfere actively in the relations between the lesser powers and mankind, his primacy was recognized, and they were spoken of as his servants; he was their miko.

what took place for the individual in time of sickness happened for the entire tribe annually at the time of the poskita. it had been given to men by hisakita-imisi for their health and for the annual renewal of the life of the tribe, as well as the individual lives of those composing it. the square-ground fire was but a detached fragment of the sun, the sky fire, and both of these meant life, for both were necessary to the lives of men. the renewal of the fire was the renewal of life, an act by means of which, the connection 144 between human lives and the life of the universe was restored, and the corruption, which had accumulated about the fire obtained the previous year, gotten rid of. similarly the participants were cleansed internally by means of the poskita medicines, one of which was to make good the defects of the system and heal its diseases, the other to insure the enjoyment of positive benefits. hence it was that a little of each was carried home by every household and hung up by the door, some of it being used occasionally in medicines until the next annual ceremony.

as to the origin of things, the muskogee had obscure traditions. they believed that the solid land had come from the expansion of a bit of earth brought from the edges of the world or from the bottom of the ocean. they also told of a flood, but their story of human origins did not concern any tribes except their own and a few believed to be related closely to theirs. they thought that after their ascent from the world beneath at the point in the far west called “the navel of the world,” they had traveled toward the southeast for a long time, led by their medicine maker, who, in turn, was guided by a staff, stuck upright in the ground every night and found inclining in the direction to be taken every morning. in the meantime, four “light beings” from the corners of the world had brought the knowledge of the poskita to them and had lighted their first poskita fire. during this period, ties of friendship sprang up between the several muskogee tribes, and some that were not muskogee. two of the leading tribes, the kasihta and coweta, formed an agreement by which they were to play ball with each other at intervals, but were never to fight and as other towns or tribes became allied with these, they also became allied in the ball games until there came to be two classes of towns with about twenty-five on a side. those headed by kasihta were dedicated to peace and those headed by coweta to war....

one day—it was toward the end of summer—tokulki and the medicine maker strayed some distance eastward of the town and sat down upon the side of a hill, where the older man reviewed the more important particulars of his teaching more impressively than ever before. after a time he paused, and then he said: “i have told you all that i know; this is what the medicine maker who was before me, and all of the knowers and the doctors have told me. it145 must be so. i believe it. yet perhaps it is not all the truth. i think we are not to understand some of the things that they tell just as they sound; they have another meaning. sometimes we can see what this other meaning is; sometimes we can not. perhaps, too, like the poskita fire, it has become fouled by much contact with common things, by much repeating. perhaps hisakita-imisi did not tell our grandfathers all that he had in mind to tell. but much of it is good, and it is for the good of our people. so use what seems to you good! and the rest you need not use. and if hisakita-imisi seems to tell you something that is better, if you think it is better for your people, use it! it is what he must have intended from the beginning. i tell you this because i feel that your times will not be like my times. the plant dies. in the spring the plant comes up again. it is the same plant, and yet it is not the same plant. it is like, but it is unlike.

“have you not heard of the people who come across the wide, white water in canoes with wings? even now i hear that a great number of them are marching through our country and that they are coming in this direction. maybe the old things are to pass away.” he stopped, and just then out of the east came a low noise, a noise strange to that country until then, but one which a white man of the time would have recognized as the discharge of a harquebus. it was a harquebus in the army of de soto.

john r. swanton