The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project

The stripling attends to Moketubbe on his litter; his pert manner of speaking annoys the older men Three Basket and Louis Berry.

The Indians in this story, or at least the tribal chief, the Man, practice polygamy, as is clear from the reference to "Issetibbeha dying among his wives" (329). This is Issetibbeha's "newest wife" (321), not Moketubbe's mother but the woman who tells him Moketubbe has hidden the red slippers that he has always coveted. She is unwilling to sleep in the gilt bed that Issetibbeha brought back from Paris, but no other details about her are provided.

When Issetibbeha takes over he puts the "young Negroes" in the cabins to "mate" (320) and produce children whom he can sell.

This is the woman who is "shelling corn" while listening to the old man tell tales of yore (323).

This is the woman who is "dressing a fowl" while listening to the unnamed old man tell the stories of the olden days (323).

Shortly after Issetibbeha dies, this unnamed man speaks with two Indian women about the old days, before "the world" was "ruined by white men" and slavery (323).

The Indian "doctor" who treats Issetibbeha in his last illness weats a "skunk skin vest" (321) or "waistcoat" (329). He "burns sticks" in an unsuccessful attempt to cure his patient (322).

"Moketubbe's mother" is introduced as a "comely girl" (320) whom Issetibbeha marries after seeing her at work in a melon patch. She is described as having "broad, solid thighs," a "sound back" and a "serene face" (321). Her race is not specified. Our identification of her as "Black" and "Enslaved" (rather than "Indian" and "Tribal Member") is based on her clothing (a "shift") and the fact that she is engaged in field labor, along with the way seeing her reminds Issetibbeha of his "own mother," with "her Negro blood" (321).

French monarch of the House of Bourbon, who ruled from 1 September 1715 until he died in 1774. During his visit to France, Issetibbeha acquires some furniture and red slippers that allegedly belonged to the monarch.