550 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
If now we turn to the tribes of the Huron-Iroquois stock, we shall 
find that the sun was not less an object of worship. In the Relation of 
1648 we are told that they invoked him as a judge of their sincerity, 
who saw into the depth of all hearts, and who would punish the per- 
fidy of those who broke their faith, or failed to keep their word. Lafitau 
states positively that Areskoui and Agreskoué (the difference is said to 
be linguistic), the war god of the Hurons and the Iroquois, was but 
another name for the sun, ‘* who was their Divinity as he was that of 
all the Americans.”* La Hontan confirms the fact of their worship of 
this Imminary, and says that, when ‘asked why they adore God in the 
sun rather than in a tree or a mountain,” their answer is that they 
choose to admire the Deity in public, pointing to the most glorious 
thing that nature affords.t According to Lafitaut they had no tem- 
ples, and did not keep up a perpetual fire; at least there was not a ves- 
tige left of any such building in his time, and no mention of any such 
institution in any of the “ Relations” of the Jesuit Fathers. This how- 
ever can hardly be considered decisive of the point, since we are given 
to understand that these tribes had lost many of their religious cus- 
toms;§ and in this very connection are assured that the tire on their 
hearths took the place of an altar, and that as was the case among the 
Creeks and Cherokees, their ‘‘ council houses served them as temples.” || 
Bearing upon this point, and as an evidence of the identity of the 
religious rites and ceremonies everywhere prevalent, we may note that 
once a year they were accustomed to put out all the fires of the tribe 
and to rekindle them with fire supplied by the priests,{] as was the 
case among the Southern tribes. Morgan it is true does not mention 
this custom in his account of the Iroquois festivals, but he describes 
the practice of ‘stirring the ashes on the hearth,” which took place at 
their New Yeavr’s Jubilee,** and it is possible that there may have been 
some connection between the two. 
Among their sacrifices there were some that seem to have been pe- 
culiar to the northern nations. Thus, for instance, although the dog 
was a favorite article of food among the tribes both north and south of 
the Ohio, and was not unfrequently offered as a sacrifice, yet I do not 
find that anywhere else they “hung him up alive on a tree by the hind 
feet and let him die there raving mad.”}t They were in the habit of ex- 
, 
contracts.” ‘Osages smoke to God or to the Sun:” Nuttall, 4rkansa Territory, p. 
95: Philadelphia, 1821. 
* Mocurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, vol. 1, p. 132-206: Paris, 1724. 
tLa Hontan, Voyages vol. 11, pp. 22 and 33: London, 1703. 
{Lafitau, vol. 1, p. 165. 
§ Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 282-341. 
| Zbid., vol. 1, p. 167. 
{| Schooleratt, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 85: New York, 1846. 
““Morgan, League of the Iroquois, p. 207, et seq.: Rochester. 
tt Lafitau, vol. 1, p. 180, says that this custom prevailed among the Montagnais and 
other Algonquin tribes to the north, but Charlevoix makes no such distinction. He 
