548 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
Winslow, ‘had a great spacious house, wherein only some few (that 
are, as we may term them, priests) come; thither at certain known times 
resort all their people, and offer all the riches they have to their gods, 
as kettles, skins, hatchets, beads, knives, ete., all of which are cast by 
the priests into a great fire that they make in the midst of the house 
and there consumed to ashes. To this offermg every man brought 
freeiy, and the more he is known to bring, hath the better esteem of 
allmen. This the other Indians about us approve of as good, and 
with their sachems would appoint the like.”* Farther to the east the 
Souriquois, as we are told by Father Sagard,t had the same form of 
worship. 
In the Northwest, the sun and thunder were the gods of the tribes 
that lived around Green Bay, and in all that region out of which were 
subsequently formed the States of Wisconsin and Hlinois.¢ When the 
Tllinois came to meet Marquette on the occasion of his voyage—the 
first ever made by a white man—down that portion of the Mississippi, 
they marched slowly, lifting their pipes to the sun, as if offering them 
to him to smoke. They also make a similar offering to him when they 
wish to obtain calm, or rain, or fair weather. Among the Ottawas, of 
Michigan, prayers were offered to the sun, and tobacco was burned as 
a sacrifice to the same deity.|| Indeed, the use of tobacco as an offering 
*Purchas Pilgrims, vol. Iv, p. 1868: London, 1625. 
t Voyages des Hurons, p. 226: Paris, 1652. ‘Soleil quiiis ont adoré et quia tou- 
jours été V object constant de leur culte, de leurs hommages et de leur adoration :” 
Nouvelie Relation de la Gaspesie, p. 166: Paris, 1691. ‘Ils appellent le Soleil 
Jesus. - - - De la vient que quand nous faisons nos priére il leur semble que 
comme eux nous addressons nos priere au soleil:” Relation de la Nouvelle France 
en V année 1626, p. 4: Quebec, 1858. 
{Father Marquette, in Relation, 1670, p. 90. Charlevoix, Letters, p. 210: Lon- 
don, 1763. ‘*Some of the savages will confess - - - that the Sun is God:” Hen- 
nepin, Voyage into a Newly Discovered Country, p. 65: London, 1698. Father Mar- 
quette, in Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, y. 54. 
§ Relation of Father Marquette (A. D. 1678), l. c., pp. 21-22-35: New York, 1852. The 
Sioux, though belonging to a different linguistic family, and living on the other side of 
the Mississippi, had similar customs. According to Hennepin, who is not always good 
authority, but who may, I think, be followed in this instance, ‘‘ they offer also to 
the Sun the best Part of the Beast they kill; - - - also the first Smoak of their 
Calumets, - - - whichmakes me believe they havea religious veneration for the 
Sun:” New Discovered Country, ete., vol. 1, p. 140: London, 1698. Compare on 
this point Schooleraft, Indian Tribes, vol. ut, pp. 226-7, and Nuttall, Arkansa Ter- 
ritory, p. 276: Philadelphia, 1821. 
|| Un viellard des plus considerables de la Bourgade fait fonction de Prétre; il com- 
menece par une Harangue étudiée qu’ il addresse au Soleil; - - - il declare tout 
haut qu’il fait ses remerciemens A cet astre, de ce qu 7iUé a éclairl pour tuer heureuse- 
ment quelque béte: il le prie et 1’ exhorte par ce festin a lui continuer les soins charita- 
bles qu’il ade sa famille. Pendant cette invocation, tous les conviés mangent Jusqw 
au dernier morceau: apres quoi un homme destiné a cela prend un pain de Petun, le 
rompt en deux et le jette dans le fen. Tout le monde erie pendant que le petun se 
consume, et que Ja fumée monte en haut: et ayec ces clameurs termine le sacrifice :” 
Lafitau, vol. it, p. 184. “Sacrifice to the Sun:” La Hontan, vol. m1, p. 32. Relation 
en UV année 1667, pp. 7, 11: Quebec, 1858, 
