To close the list of the linguistic families encircling the Maskoki
stock, we mention the Atákapa, a language which has been studied but
very imperfectly. This tribe once existed upon the upper Bayou Tèche
northwest and west of the Shetimasha, north and northwest of the
Opelousa Indians, and from the Tèche extended beyond Vermilion river,
perhaps down to the sea coast. The Atákapa of old were a well-made
race of excellent hunters, but had, as their name indicates, the
reputation of being anthropophagists (Cha'hta: hátak, hattak _person_,
ápa _to eat_). At first, they suffered no intrusion of the colonists
into their territory and cut off expeditions attempting to penetrate
into their seats. During the nineteenth century they retreated toward
the Sabine river. The name by which they call themselves is unknown;
perhaps it is Skunnemoke, which was the name of one of their villages
on Vermilion river, six leagues west of New Iberia. Cf. Th. Hutchins
(Phila., 1784).
The scanty vocabulary of their language, taken in 1802, shows clusters
of consonants, especially at the end of words, but with its queer,
half-Spanish orthography does not appear to form a reliable basis for
linguistic conclusions. A few words agree with Tónkawē, the
language of a small Texan tribe; and according to tradition, the
Karánkawas, once the giant people of Matagorda bay, on the Texan
Coast, spoke a dialect of Atákapa. These three tribes were, like all
other Texan tribes, reputed to be anthropophagists. In extenuation of
this charge, Milfort asserts that they "do not eat men, but roast them
only, on account of the cruelties first enacted against their
ancestors by the Spaniards" (p. 90). This remark refers to a tribe,
also called Atákapas, which he met at a distance of five days' travel
west of St. Bernard bay.
We have but few notices of expeditions sent by French colonists to
explore the unknown interior of what forms now the State of Louisiana.
One of these, consisting of three Frenchmen, was in 1703 directed to
explore the tribes about the river de la Madeleine, now Bayou Tèche.
The two men who returned reported to have met seven "nations" there;
the man they lost was eaten by the natives, and this misfortune
prompted them to a speedy departure. The location seems to point to
the territory of the Atákapa.[36]
[Footnote 36: Pénicaut, in Margry V, 440.]
The enumeration of the southern linguistic stocks winds up with the
Atákapa; but it comprises only the families the existence of which is
proved by vocabularies. Tonica and the recently-discovered Taensa
furnish the proof that the Gulf States may have harbored, or still
harbor, allophylic tribes speaking languages unknown to us. The areas
of the southern languages being usually small, they could easily
escape discovery, insomuch as the attention of the explorers and
colonists was directed more toward ethnography than toward aboriginal
linguistics.
The southern tribes which _I suspect_ of speaking or having spoken
allophylic languages, are the Bidai, the Koroa, the Westo and Stono
Indians.