20 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



" The sun is the princip il object of veneration to these people ; as they cannot conceive of anything 

 which can be above this heavenly body, nothing else appears to them more worthy of their homage. 

 It is for the same reason that the great chief of this nation, who knows nothing on earth more digni- 

 fied than himself, takes the title oi brother of the sun, and the credulity of the people maintains him 

 in the despotic authority which he claims. * * * When the great chief dies, they demolish his 

 cabin, and then raise a new mound on which they build the cabin of him who is to replace him in this 

 dignity. One of the principal articles of their religion, and particularly of the servants of the great 

 chief, is that of honoring his funeral rites by dying with him, that they may go and serve him in the 

 other world. In their blindness they willingly submit to this law, in the belief that in the train of 

 their chief they will go to enjoy the greatest happiness. 



"They first put on all their finery and repair to the place opposite the temple, where all the people 

 are assembled. After having danced and sung a sufiBeient time, they place around their neck cords 

 of buffalo hair with running knots, and immediately the ministers appointed for executions of this 

 kind come forward to strangle them, recommending them to go and join their master, and to render 

 to him in the other world, services, even more honorable than those which had occupied them in this. 

 The principal servants of the great chief having been strangled in this way, they strip the flesh from 

 their bones, particularly from their arms and thighs, and leave them to dry for two mouths in a kind 

 of tomb, after which they take them out to be shut up in baskets, which are placed in the temple by 

 the side of the bones of their master. As for the other servants, their relations carry them home 

 with them, and bury them with their arms and clothes. The same ceremony is observed in like 

 manner on the death of the brothers and sisters of the great chief. The women are always strangled 

 to follow the latter, except when they have infants at the breast, in which case they continue to live 

 for the purpose of nourishing them. And we often see many who endeavor to find nurses, or who 

 themselves strangle their infants, so that they shall not lose the right of sacrificing themselves in the 

 public place, according to the ordinary ceremonies, and as the law prescribes. * * * 



"When one of these Indians dies, his relatives assemble and mourn his death during an entire day, 

 when they array him in the most beautiful dresses, paint his face and hair, and ornament him with 

 plumes, after which they convey him to the grave prepared for him, placing by his side, his arms, a 

 kettle, and some provisions. For the space of a month, his relatives come at the dawn of day and at 

 the beginning of the night to weep for half an hour at his grave. Each one names his degree of 

 relationship. If he were the head of a family, the wife cries, ' My dear husband, oh ! how I regret you ! ' 

 The children cry, 'My dear father!' The others, 'My uncle!' 'My cousin!' etc. The nearest relations 

 continue this ceremony for three months; they cut off their hair in sign of grief, they abstain from 

 painting the body, and are never found at any assembly for festivity.'" 



Father Charlevoix, in his " Historical Journal," describes the obsequies of a female 

 chief, as he had it from a traveller who was witness of them, and on whose sincerity 

 he had good reason to depend. The husband of this woman not being noble, that 

 is to say, of the family of the great chief, his eldest son strangled him, according 

 to custom. They then cleared the cabin of all that it contained, and erected in 

 it a kind of triumphal stage, on which the body of the deceased woman and that of 

 her husband were placed. A moment afterwards they ranged around tliese carcasses 

 twelve little children, which their parents had strangled by order of the eldest 

 daughter of the Avoman chief, who succeeded to the dignity of her mother. This 

 being done they erected in the public place fourteen scaffolds, adorned with 

 branches of trees, and with clothes on which they had painted various figures. These 

 scaffolds were designed for as many persons, who were to accompany the female 

 chief into the other world. Their relatives were all around them, and esteemed as 

 a great honor for their families, the permission which they had obtained to sacrifice 



■ ' Historical Collections of Louisiana, iii, p. 141-149. 



