THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 545 
The last-named writer gained access to one during the temporary absence 
of the guardians, and from the account he has left of it, there can not 
have been much difference between it and similar buildings among the 
tribes living further to the southward. He tells us that it was used as 
a receptacle for the bones of the deceased chieftains, which were done 
up in much the same manner as they were in the temple of the Natchez. 
It also contained a human figure or idol, which was variously termed 
Okee, Quioccos, or Kiwasa; and I mention this faet particularly, as it 
is one of the very few instances indicating the existence of idolatry 
among the Indians of the United States that is entitled to any weight, 
though there are reasons why even this statement should be taken 
with many grains of allowance. Round about the house, at some dis- 
tance from it, were set up posts with faces carved on them and painted. * 
According to Strachey, the priests who had the care of these temples 
‘“mainteyne a continuall fier in the same upon a hearth somewhat 
neere the east end.” Hariott speaks of “sacred fires,” in which 
tobacco was offered as a sacrifice; and in the plate which De Bryt 
gives of this temple a fire is represented as burning on the floor. We 
are also told that these tribes “annually present their first fruits of 
every Season and kind, namely of birds, beasts, fish, fruits, plants, 
roots, and of all other things which they esteem either of profit or 
pleasure to themselves; and that they repeat these offerings as fre- 
quently as they have great successes in their wars, or their fishing, 
fowling, or hunting. It was also their custom to offer sacrifice upon 
almost every occasion. When they travel or begin a long journey, they 
burn tobacco instead of incense to bribe the sun to send them fair 
weather and a prosperous voyage. Likewise, when they return from 
war, from hunting, from fresh journeys, or the like, they offer some pro- 
portion of the spoils of their chiefest tobacco, furs, and paint, as also 
the fat and choice bits of their game,”§ in which latter respect they did 
not differ from the Creeks and Chickasaws. || 
As we go towards the north the temples disappear, although traces 
of the rites that were associated with them remain. We are still 
among tribes belonging to the Algonquin family, and their religious 
belief is said to have resembled that of ‘cognate tribes of other stocks 
* Compare is Vega, Hisloire i la Floride, premiere partie, p. 267 et seq.: Paris, 
1709. Charlevoix Letfer no. xxix: London, 1763. Du Pratz, Louisiana, vol. u, p. 
211: London, 1763. Father Le Petit, in Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part 11, note to p. 
41. 
t Virginia, 7. ¢., p. 90. Hariot in Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. 111, p. 330: London, 1810. 
} Admiranda Narratio, plate xxii, Franckforti ad Moenum, 1590. Beverly, Virginia, 
plates xi and xii: London, 1705. 
§ Beverly, Virginia, book 111, pp. 42 and 43. Capt. Smith, in Purchas Pilgrins, 
vol. 1v, p. 1702. 
|| Adair, History of the North American Indians, pp. 117-118. He adds: ‘‘ For- 
merly every hunter observed the same religious economy, but now it is practiced 
only by those who are most retentive of their old religious mysteries.” 
H. Mis. 33 35 
