546 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
and lineage,” * whatever that may mean. Amid a host of supernatural 
beings or Manitous, big and little, good and bad, they seem to have 
recognized Michabou or Atahocan, the great hare, as the chief.t Ac- 
cording to Schooleraft, they ‘‘located him in the sun or moon, or in- 
definite skies. In their pictorial scrolls they painted the sun as < 
maw’s head surrounded with rays, and appeared to confound the sym- 
bol with the substance. They attributed light and life, vitality and 
intelligence, the world over, alike to Monedo and to Gézis, the sun.” ¢ 
Of the religious rites of these tribes, our accounts, though not so 
full and explicit as might be desired, are still sufficiently so to indicate 
most clearly the existence of the same form of worship as that which 
prevailed among the tribes of Virginia and Florida. The Chippewas,§ 
as we have seen, kept up the eternal fire until comparatively recent 
times. They said they had received the institution from the Shawnees, 
and this is probable, as that tribe, although belonging linguistically 
to the Algonquin family, was more or less closely connected with the 
Creeks, Natchez, and other sun-worshiping tribes of the South, || and 
must perforce have been familiar with, if not a sharer in, their religious 
*Schooleraft, Indian Tribes, vol. v, p. 402. Hariot, A. D. 1586, speaking of the 
Virginia Indians, says: ‘They believe in many gods and in one chief God, who is 
eternal and the creator of the world. After this he created an order of inferior gods 
to carry out his government, among whom were the sun, moon, and stars, The 
waters were then made, out of which by the gods came all living creatures. He 
next created a woman, who, by the ‘working’ of one of the gods, brought forth 
children, and ‘in such sort they had their beginning.’ They thought the gods were 
all of human shape, and so represented them in their temples where they ‘ worship, 
sing, pray, and make many times offering unto them. They believed in the immor- 
tality of the soul, which was destined to future happiness in heaven, or to inhabit 
Popogusso, a pit or place of torment:’” Hakluyt, Voyages. vol. 1, p. 3386: London, 
1810. This account is so evidently colored by Christian ideas that it is almost 
worthless for purposes of comparison, and the same may be said of Du Pratz’s state- 
ment of the religious belief of the Natchez, in which the interpolations are even 
more marked. For obvious reasons, the study of the religious beliefs of the abo- 
rigines is attended with many difficulties, though I am inclined to think that Park- 
man is not far wrong when he asserts that ‘‘the primitive Indian yielding his un- 
tutored homage to One All-pervading and Omnipotent Spirit is a dream of poets, 
rhetoricians, and sentimentalists:” Jesuits in North America, p. 1xxxix of the pre- 
face: Boston, 1867. 
tCharlevoix, Letters, p. 248. La Potherie, Historie de V Amerique, vol. U1, p. 3: 
Paris, 1753. 
t{Schooleraft, Indian Tribes, vol. v, p. 402. 
§ See ante, foot-note on p. 537.“ Vestiges of the former prevalence of fire worship 
exist over immense spaces, and its rites are found to lie at the foundation of the 
aboriginal religion throughout the geographical area of the United States. In one 
of the Indian traditions the preservation of a sacred fire is carried to the banks of 
Lake Superior: ” Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. v, p. 64. 
|| drehwologia Americana, vol. 1, p. 273. Adair, Hist. North American Indians, p. 410. 
Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country, pp. 16-18. Lawson, Carolina, p. 171. Char- 
levoix, Nouvelle France, vol. 1, p. 40: Paris, 1744. Historical Collections of Louisiana 
and Florida, new series, p. 126: New York, 1869. Milfort, Memoirs sur le Creek, p. 
283: Paris, 1802, Schooleraft, Indian Tribes, vol. v, p. 260. 
