While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Name
Regulations
It has been previously explained that there
is a body of names, the exclusive property
of each gens. Once a year, at the green-corn
festival, the council women of the gens
select the names for the children born
during the previous year, and the chief of
the gens proclaims these names at the
festival. No person may change his name, but
every person, man or woman, by honorable or
dishonorable conduct, or by remarkable
circumstance, may win a second name
commemorative of deed or circumstance, which
is a kind of title.
Regulations Of Personal
Adornment
Each clan has a distinctive method of
painting the face, a distinctive chaplet to
be worn by the gentile chief and council
women when they are inaugurated, and
subsequently at festival occasions, and
distinctive ornaments for all its members,
to be used at festivals and religious
ceremonies.
Regulations Of Order In Encampment And
Migrations
The camp of the tribe is in an open circle
or horse-shoe, and the gentes camp in
following order, beginning on the left and
going around to the right:
The order in which the households camp in
the gentile group is regulated by the
gentile councilors and adjusted from time to
time in such a manner that the oldest family
is placed on the left, and the youngest on
the right. In migrations and expeditions the
order of travel follows the analogy of
encampment.
Property Rights
Within the area claimed by the tribe each
gens occupies a smaller tract for the
purpose of cultivation. The right of the
gens to cultivate a particular tract is a
matter settled in the council of the tribe,
and the gens may abandon one tract for
another only with the consent of the tribe.
The women councillors partition the gentile
land among the householders, and the
household tracts are distinctly marked by
them. The ground is re-partitioned once in
two years. The heads of households are
responsible for the cultivation of the
tract, and should this duty be neglected the
council of the gens calls the responsible
parties to account.
Cultivation is communal; that is, all of the
able-bodied women of the gens take part in
the cultivation of each household tract in
the following manner:
The head of the household sends her brother
or son into the forest or to the stream to
bring in game or fish for a feast; then the
able-bodied women of the gens are invited to
assist in the cultivation of the land, and
when this work is done a feast is given.
The wigwam or lodge and all articles of the
household belong to the woman—the head of
the household—and at her death are inherited
by her eldest daughter, or nearest of female
kin. The matter is settled by the council
women. If the husband die his property is
inherited by his brother or his sister’s
son, except such portion as may be buried
with him. His property consists of his
clothing, hunting and fishing implements,
and such articles as are used personally by
himself.
Usually a small canoe is the individual
property of the man. Large canoes are made
by the male members of the gentes, and are
the property of the gentes.
