CHICKASAW TRADITIONS, CUSTOMS, ETC. (cont.)
Page 553
 

she was killed by the relatives of the slain. If the murderer could not be found, it was lawful to put to death the brother of the one who had done the killing, which made an end of the difficulty.

The property of deceased persons went to brothers and sisters, the husband, or wife and children not being entitled to any part of the estate.

Children were not regarded as related to their father, but were closely related to their mother, they being of the same house-name. The husband and father were of a different house-name, or clan, as it is called. A man and woman of the same house-name were not allowed to marry, hence they considered the children related only to the mother and not to the father. If a man married a woman who had several sisters, he had a perfect right to marry them all, and live with them all at the same time. A man who died, leaving a widow, gave his brother a sort of lien on her ;28 and the surviving brother could marry her, if he wished.

A person who stole a horse was whipped by order of the king, but it was a rare thing for a Chickasaw to steal at all. One of the light-horsemen who generally gave the lash, went by the name of Ish-yah-kah-py. His English name was “Big Legs”; he lived eight miles southeast of Pontotoc, on a creek called Punk-a-tuckah-ly, a name which signifies “Hanging Grapes,” now called Pontotoc creek. 29

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28 Cyrus Harris to author.
29Ibid
 

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