THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 5AT 
observances. Indeed, the “ceremony of thanksgiving for the first 
fruits of the earth,” as observed among the Shawnees, attended as it 
was by a general amnesty for all crimes except murder, and also the 
custom of “suspending the head, horns, and entrails of the animals 
killed for the sacrifice on a large white pole, with a forked top, which 
extends over the house,” * are so similar to the same rites as practiced, 
respectively, among the Creekst and the Indians of the Floridian Pen- 
insula t as to leave no doubt upon this point, even if we had not posi- 
tive assurance from other quarters that they looked upon the sun as 
the Great Spirit, for the reason that he “animates everything, and 
is, therefore, clearly the master of life.”§ The Delawares were closely 
connected with the Shawnees, and appear to have had many of the 
same religious ceremonies. They offered sacrifices of tobacco to the 
sun,|| and had a festival in honor of fire, which (Lieut. Whipple, in 
vol. 111, p. 20, of the Explorations of a Railroad to the Pacific) ‘they 
renew once a year.” They also, according to Van der Donck, swore by 
the sun, saying: ‘‘that he sees all. They regard him and the moon 
as being better than all the Christian gods, for they warm the earth 
and cause the fruits to grow.” 
Among the New England Indians the same form of worship pre- 
vailed. Roger Williams and others tell us that they worshiped the 
sun for a god,** and had a festival at harvest time.}+ This is confirmed 
by Cotton Mather so far as relates to the worship of the sun and moon, 
and he adds that they believe that every remarkable creature has a 
peculiar god within it or aboutit.¢¢ Inthe famous Dighton rock inserip- 
tion which stands in the country once held by the Wampanoags the 
symbolof the sun was discovered by Chingwauk, the Algonquin Meda,§§ 
* Archwologia Americana, vol. 1, p. 286. 
tSee above, note ft, on page 543; and Lafitau, vol. 1, p. 180. 
tLe Moyne, in De Bry, pl. xxxy. Franekforti ad Moenum, 1591. 
§ Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, vol. 11, p. 237: New York, 1845. 
|| Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians of North 
America, pp. 41 and 45: London, 1794. 
q In Collections New York Hist. Soc., new series, vol. 1, pp. 218-14. Compare Doc. 
Hist. of New York, vol. 111, p. 22. 
*“Williams’s Key, pp. 39-77-110. ‘‘Some for their God adore the sun:” Gookin, in 
Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., first series, vol. 1, p. 154. ‘‘ Devotion to the principles of sun- 
worship - - - spread to the prominent peaks of the Monadnock and to the waters 
of the Narragansett:” Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. v, p. 104. ‘IIs croyent un 
Dieu, ce disent ils: mais il ne scauent le nommer que du nom du soleil, - - - 
quand ils etoient en necessité, il prenoit sa robe sacrée, et se tournant vers Orient 
disait: Nostre soleil, ou nostre Dieu donne-nous a manger:” Relation des Jesuites, 
A. D 1611-1522, vol. 1, p. 20: Quebec, 1858. Indians of Martha’s Vineyard “ begged 
of the sunandmoon - - - to send them the desired favor:” Mass. Hist. Coll., 
first series, vol. 1, p. 140. 
tt Williams’s Key, p. 111. 
tt} Magnalia, vol. 1, p. 505; Harttord, 1820. 
$§ Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. v, p. 64. 
