9. Moon of whiteness (i. e. of snow) (December).
10. Moon of fogs (January).
11. Moon of winter hunts (February).
12. Moon of birds (returning). } (March).
13. Moon of green (returning green). }
How absurd on the face of it, such a calendar would be for the climate of Tensas Parish, La., need not be urged. The wonder is that any intelligent editor would pass it over without hesitation. The not infrequent references to snow and ice might and ought to have put him on his guard.
The text and vocabulary teem with such impossibilities; while the style of the alleged original songs is utterly unlike that reported from any other native tribe. It much more closely resembles the stilted and tumid imitations of supposed savage simplicity, common enough among French writers of the eighteenth century.
As a fair example of the nonsense of the whole, I will translate the last song given in the book, that called
THE MARRIAGE SONG.
1. The chief of the Chactas has come to the land of the warriors “I come.” “Thou comest.”