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36 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
will be much to narrate as this history proceeds. The Alibamons, a
tribe from which the State of Alabama derived its name, the Uchees
and the Natchez, also belonged to this confederation. The Hitchittees,
or Flint Indians, though originally a distinct people, spoke the Mus-
cogee dialect.
It was because of the beautiful country in which these Indians lived,
a region watered by gently flowing streams that, in familiar parlance,
they came to be known as Creeks. But ethnologically they were Mus-
cogees. At least, the predominating element of the Confederacy, con
stituting eighty per cent of its warriors, belonged to this stock whose
original habitat was in Northern Mexico; but the eastward migration
occurred long before the coming of Oglethorpe to Georgia.
Obviously, in a work of this character, whose main purpose is to
trace political events and institutions, only a limited space can be de
voted to prehistoric antiquities. We cannot, therefore, discuss the mani
fold peculiarities which differentiated these aboriginees into various
tribes. But the proprieties of such a work will not forbid a brief sum
mary of general characteristics.*
As a rule, the Indians lived in small communities or villages, located
on running streams or in neighborhoods where spring water was abun
dant. There were only a few centers sufficiently large to be called towns,
in the modern sense, yet this term was often applied even to the smallest
village. Tents or wigwams doubtless furnished them shelter at an early
period; but contact with the whites led them to adopt many of the
ways of civilization. We find them, therefore, living in frame structures,
sometimes whitewashed both within and without, supplied with numer
ous conveniences such as cooking utensils, gardening implements, and
the like. Among the Cherokees, -at a late period, there were not a few
* GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS op THE INDIANS—Tall, erect, copper-colored, with
long, straight black hair, with prominent noses and cheek-bones, with regular features,
arched brows, and eyes rather small but active and full of fire; usually grave in
deportment, reserved in conversation, tenacious of natural rights, hospitable to
strangers, kind to members of their own tribe, honest, haughty and cruel to an enemy,
crafty, valiant, and often engaged in war; expert in hunting and fishing, fond of
music and dancing, observant of festivals, nimble of foot; skilled in the use of the
bow and arrow, the club, the axe, the harpoon, and the blow-gun; patient of fatigue
and hunger, yet given to ease, arid frequent meals; addicted to smoking; acknowl
edging the existence of a Supreme Being; adoring the sun as the symbol of life and
heat; entertaining some notions of a life beyond the grave; plagued with visions,
dreams, trances, and the influences of malign and lesser divinities; worshiping the
Devil, and offering human sacrifices in propitiation of the Spirit of Evil; indulging
to some extent in image worship, and perpetuating the memory of the distinguished
dead by mounds and figures of wood and stone; excelling in the manufacture of
fictile ware, boats of single trees, shawls, coverings, mantles beautifully woven and
adorned with feathers, articles of dress made of the skins of buffalo, bear, and deer,
carefully prepared, dyed and colored, fishing lines and nets of the inner bark of
trees, mats and baskets of split cane, reeds and rushes, and laboriously constructed
weirs for the capture of fishes; extensively engaged in the fabrication, use and
interchange of various articles and implements of wood, bone, shell, copper, and
stone, frequently monogamous—the contubernal relationship being dissoluble at the
will of the male—the chiefs and principal men claiming as many wives as fancy
and station dictated; ornament-loving, jealous of their possessions, given to agri
culture, obedient to kings,—thus runs a general description of these primitive
inhabitants. ("History of Georgia," Charles C. Jones, Jr., Vol. I, pp. 11-12.)