The Choctaw of bayou Lacomb, St. Tammany parish, Louisiana / by David I. Bushnell, Jr.

  • Bushnell, David I., Jr. (David Ives), 1875-1941.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Choctaw of bayou Lacomb, St. Tammany parish, Louisiana / by David I. Bushnell, Jr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The child remains with the spirits three days, after which he returns to his home, but does not tell where he has been or what he has seen and heard. Not until the child has become a man will he make use of the knowledge gained from the spirits; but never will he reveal to others how it was acquired. The Choctaw say that few children wait to accept the offering of the good herbs from the third spirit, and hence there are comparatively few great doctors and other men of influence among them. Kashehotapalo “ Kashehotapalo is neither man nor beast. Ilis head is small and his face shriveled and evil to look upon; his body is that of a man. His legs and feet are those of a deer, the former being covered with hair and the latter having cloven hoofs, lie lives in low, swampy places, away from the habitations of men. When hunters go near his abiding place, he quietly slips up behind them and calls loudly, then turns and runs swiftly away. He never attempts to harm the hunters, but delights in frightening them. The sound uttered by Kashehotapalo resembles the cry of a woman, and that is the reason for his name (kashcho, “woman;” tapalo, “call”). Okwa Naholo The Okwa naholo (“White People of the Water”) dwell in deep pools in rivers and bayous. There is said to be such a place in the Abita river; the pool is clear and cold and it is easy to see far down into the depths, but the surrounding water of the river is dark and muddy. Many of the Okwa naholo live in this pool, which is known to all the Choctaw. As their name signifies, the Okwa naholo resemble white people more than they do Choctaw; their skin is rather light in color, resembling the skin of a trout. When the Choctaw swim in the Abita near the pool, the Okwa naholo attempt to seize them and to draw them down into the pool to their home, >> where they live and become Okwa naholo. After the third day their skin begins to change and soon resembles the skin of a trout. They learn to live, eat, and swim in the same way as fish. Whenever the friends of a person who has become one of the Okwa naholo gather on the river bank near the pool and sing, he often rises to the surface and talks with them, sometimes even joining in the singing. But after living in the pool three days the newly made Okwa naholo can not leave it for any length of time; if they should go out of the water they would die after the manner of fish, for they can not live in the air. a This myth was told by Ahojeobe at Bayou Laeomb in March, 1909, and he assured the writer that only a few days before one of the boys, while hunting in a swamp not far from the bayou, had been frightened by Kashehotapalo, whom he saw distinctly, and that he immediately ran home and related his experience. The great similarity between the subject of this myth and the Faun of Latin mythology at first glance would lead one to suspect that the conception had been acquired by the Choctaw after thcircon- tact with Europeans. But such does not appear to have been its origin with the tribe. So firmly con- vinced arc they that such a “spirit’’exists that it is probable the tradition has been handed down through many generations. b ITeleema (Louisa), one of the women living at Bayou Laeomb, claims that when a child, some forty years ago, she had an experience with the Okwa naholo. She related it with the greatest sincerity. One summer day, when she was seven or eight years of age, she was swimming in the Abita with many other Choctaw children. She was a short distance away from the others when suddenly she felt the Okwa naholo drawing her down. The water seemed to rise aboi t her and she was struggling and endeavoring to free herself when some of her friends, realizing her danger and the cause of it, went to her assistance and, seizing her by the hair, drew her to the shore. Never again did the children go swimming near the pool where this incident occurred.