Sacred Laws

Middlesboro, Ky., Nov., 18 --- An edict has been issued by the Malungeon Indians, who live in the mountains of Hancock county, Tenn., sixty miles or more from Middlesboro, giving the maidens of the tribe the right to choose their husbands from the pale-faces. Formerly this was a violation of one of the sacred laws of the tribe and the girl that married a white mans was banished from Indians society. But now the chief men have decided that the daughters of the tribe should secure pale-faced husbands, and as an inducement they are offering to every white mane who will take an Indian wife from 50 to 100 acres of mountain land.

The number of acres of course, depends on the quality of the husband and the man who comes well recommended will get a better wife and a better farm that the man who does not. But the Malungeons only want the best of whites, and hoboes need not apply. The applicant must be honest and industrious and of good character. he must also give a solemn promise that he will forever eschew the daughters of the pale-faced nation, which in effect is that he will love and protect his Indian wife as faithfully as he would one of his own race.

The Malungeons made this offer because they came to the conclusion that their race was doomed and that the only way to save it was by amalgamation. Continuous intermarriage among the Indians is resulting in inferior progeny. after a few years it is said, the Malungeons will return to their old law of marriages only among their own race.

The Malungeons number about 150. They are the last of a once numerous and powerful race older than Tennessee itself. A tradition among them is that they are descendants of a colony of Portuguese who amalgamated with the Cherokee Indians hundreds of years ago. Another legend is that they are descendants of the lost colony of Roanoke and the redskins. The lost colony of Roanoke was composed of English settlers, who made their home on the eastern shore of Virginia. The Malungeons are thrifty farmers and honest and upright as a rule. They are brown-skinned and black-haired and have regular features.