SUN WORSHIP SPINDEN 



465 



The Natchez tribes on the lower Mississippi had intensified sun- 

 worship, perhaps a survival of Mound Builder religion. Inheritance 

 of the kingship was on the female side and there was compulsory 

 out-marriage in the ranks of nobles. The Great Sun was succeeded 

 by the male child of his sister and a commoner. The worship con- 

 sisted in the maintenance of a never-dying fire, and the nobles were 

 accompanied in death by their strangled mates and other victims. 



FiGDRE 6. — Maya representation of the Heavenly Canopy. The sun disk at upper left, moon 

 at upper right, and sky god — a humanized jaguar — between. Below are signs of the 

 planets and the faces of the sky god. Yaxchilan, fifth century. 



The origin of high-plane sun worship in America should be ascribed 

 to the Mayas, who developed astronomy to the highest perfection of 

 any ancient people. They had a system of writing and a notation of 

 numbers, the latter in place values, and their astronomical accuracy 

 rested on a day count, in which celestial happenings were recorded. 

 They had a zodiac and handled the sidereal and synodic revolutions 

 of planets, the recurrence of eclipses, and true measures of the year. 

 The Maya sun god was a jaguar who became more and more human- 



