Follows the recital of the incorporation of some families of Apalachicola, Sháwano and Cheroki Indians into the community of the Creeks (Mém., pp. 276-285). Unfortunately the statement concerning the immigration of the Cheroki is without any details, and therefore is of no avail in localizing the Cheroki towns or colonies within the Creek territory (p. 285). The author states that the immigration was caused by the pressure exercised upon the tribe by the English and Americans; it was therefore of a quite modern date, if Milfort can be trusted.
In 1781, on the 1st of February, Milfort, great war-chief of the Creeks, left his home at Little Talassi, half a league above the ancient Fort Toulouse, at the head of two hundred young braves, to visit the legendary caves on Red river, from which the nation had issued in bygone times. They crossed the territories held by the Upper Cha'hta, passed through Mobile, the confluence of Iberville bayou with Mississippi river, St. Bernard bay on the coast, and following a northern direction, finally reached a forest on Red river, about 150 leagues above its junction with Mississippi river. They crossed these woods, which were situated on an eminence on the river side, and stood in face of the caves (cavernes), the objective point of the expedition.
The noise of a few gun-shots brought out of these spacious cavities a large number of bisons, wild oxen and wild horses, which ran, frightened as they were by the unusual explosions, head over heels, over precipices of more than eighty feet of perpendicular height into the slimy waters of Red river. The only description Milfort gives of these caves goes to show that there were several or many of them, situated in close vicinity to each other, and that those seen could easily contain fifteen to twenty thousand families. The party concluded to pass the inclement season in these grottoes, which they had reached about Christmas time. Here they hunted, fished and danced until the end of March, 1782, then started for the Missouri, and subsequently for home, well supplied with the products of the chase.
Remarks on Taskáya Míko's Kasi'hta Legend.
A closer study of this legend reveals many points of importance for the better understanding of Tchikilli's narrative, as both have evidently been derived from the same original report.
The locality where the tribes of the Kasíχta, Kawíta and Chicasa came from is placed here in the same point of the compass as in Tchikilli's story, in the west. Whether the forks of the Red river were supposed to coincide with the "mouth of the earth" in the legend can be decided only when we shall have a better knowledge of Creek folklore. If Hawkins' informant used the passive form of hídshäs to see, when speaking of the appearance of the Kasíχta, it would be more appropriate to say originated, were born than the expression we find in the text: "found themselves." The subterranean dwellings, mentioned and visited by Milfort as being the legendary home of the "Moskoquis," are not mentioned here; and in French colonial times the "Forks of Red river" designated the confluence of Washita and Red rivers.
The hayoyálgi, coming from the four corners of the world to light the sacred fire, the symbol of the sun, are the winds fanning it to a higher flame, and the purpose of the story is to make an oracular power of the sacred flame, by which the Holder of Breath, or Great Spirit, could be placed in communication with his Indian wards, and enabled to take care of them.
The notice that each of the seven plants distributed to the Indians belonged, or was the emblem of a certain gens or division of people, is gathered from this passage only, and probably refers to the ingredients of some war-physic, which only a limited number of the gentes may have been entitled to contribute to the annual púskita. The precedence of some favored gentes before others in regard to offices of peace or war is frequently observed among Northern as well as Southern tribes of Indians.[148] The number four is conspicuous here as well as in the legend related by Tchikilli; we have four hayoyálgi, four principal chieftaincies, four years of warfare, etc.