540 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
during the course of his trip down the Mississippi with La Salle, A. D. 
1682, will, with but few changes, apply equally well to all of them. 
After premising that these tribes ‘“‘have a form of worship, and adore 
the sun,”* he goes on to say that the temple is very like the cabin of 
the chief, which stands opposite, except that on top of it there were 
the figures of three eagles which looked toward the rising sun. It was 
about 40 feet square, and the walls, 10 feet high and 1 foot thick, were 
made of earth and straw mixed. The roof was dome-shaped, and about 
15 feet high. Around this temple were strong mud walls, in which are 
fixed spikes, and on these are placed the heads of their enemies, whom 
they sacrificed to the sun. Within it there is an altar, and at the foot 
of this altar three logs of wood are placed on end, and a fire is kept up 
day and night by two old priests, who are the directors of their wor- 
ship.t 
We are are also told that, at one time, these temples were quite com- 
mon throughout all the vast region then known as Florida, a majority 
of the tribes and even many of the villages having their own, and keep- 
ing up in them perpetual fires.{ Geographically speaking, they are 
found all the way from Arkansas to the southern extremity of the pen- 
insula of Florida; and in point of time they cover the one hundred and 
eighty years embraced between the expedition of De Soto and the visit 
of Charlevoix in A. D. 1721.§ About this time they seem to have gone 
somewhat out of fashion, as we are told that the one among the Natchez 
was the only one left; and although that is said to have been held in 
great veneration ‘by all the savages which inhabited this vast conti- 
nent,” and the eternal fire was still kept up, yet it is evident from the 
neglected and unguarded condition in which Charlevoix found it|| that 
it had lost much of its sacred and distinctive character. Indeed, he 
tacitly admits as much, and probably assigns the true cause when he 
*Memoir of Tonti in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part I, pp. 61 and 64. 
tMemoir of Tonti in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part 1, pp. 61 et seq. Narrative of 
La Salle’s voyage down the Mississippi by Father Membré, p. 171. Speaking of the In- 
dians of the lower Mississippi, the worthy father says: ‘‘We remarked a particular 
veneration they had for the sun, which they recognized as him who made and pre- 
serves all.” Compare this description of the temple of the Tensas with that of similar 
buildings among other tribes as given in Charlevoix, Letters, pp. 312 et seq., andin La 
Nouvelle France, vol. 1, p. 381: Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, vol. 11, chap. 3, 
sections 2 and 4; La Vega, premiere partie, pp. 266 et seqg.; Gentleman of Elvas in 
Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part 1, p. 1238, and Father Le Petit, in the same, part U1, note 
to pp. 141 et seg. This latter author says of the Natchez: ‘‘The sun is the principal 
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.” 
{Charlevoix, Letters, p. 323. Du Pratz, vol. u, pp. 210 and 11. Father Le Petit, 
l. c., note on p. 144. 
§ La Vega, Conquéte de la Floride, premiere partie, pp. 264 et seq. Ibid., seconde 
partie, p. 89: Paris, 1709. Gentleman of Elvas, l. ¢., p. 123. Charlevoix Letter, no. 
XxIx: London, 1763. Du Pratz, vol. 11, p. 211: London, 1763. 
|| Charlevoix, Letters, pp. 313 and 323. 
