48 CREES. 



women and children sat in separate groups. This 

 feast was partaken silently, and without singing or 

 dancing. In the evening they departed to their 

 different villages." 



" The principal male attendant on the Kaugagis- 

 koda was the Kauga-gizhek, or " Everlasting Sun ;" 

 and his assistant was named Kanawaudenk-slikuda, 

 or the " Fire Keeper." The principal female was 

 called Gaubewekwa, or the " Everlasting standing 

 woman ;" and her assistant Kabagaubewekwa, " The 

 woman who stands all the time." 



" The Chippeways assert that they received this 

 custom from the Shawnees, who are the most 

 southern of the western Algonkins, their country 

 being in the present state of Kentucky. Traces of 

 its prevalence at a former period among other 

 North American nations exist. The Natchez and 

 most of the Louisiana tribes are represented by 

 Charlevoix as having had a perpetual fire in. their 

 temples. Both he and Du Pratz were eye-witnesses 

 of the rite. The hereditary ruler, or " Chief Sun," 

 whose title was equivalent to that of Inca or Em- 

 peror, exercised a more despotic power than ap- 

 pears to have been permitted in any other nation 

 north of Mexico. This power and this worship were 

 kept up with an oriental display of honor and cere- 

 mony long after the French had settled in the valley 

 of the Mississippi, and indeed up to the destruction 



