552 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
for their better government; and having conducted them into a better 
land, he became at last, after much solicitation, their sovereign. It 
was through him that the Natchez claimed their descent from the sun, 
and from him they took the official title of their chief. This is the 
myth as told by Du Pratz,* and though, unfortunately, the religious 
precepts which are said to have been ineuleated bear a most suspicious, 
and, under the circumstances, absurd likeness to the Ten Command- 
ments, yet it is possible that the rest of the story may be genuine. 
Among the Algonquin tribes we are on firmer ground. Here we 
have the old story of ‘‘ the conflict between light and darkness, in which 
the former, personified under the name of Michabo, is the conqueror, 
He is the giver of light and life, the creator and preserver, - - - 
and in origin and deeds he is the not unworthy personification of the 
purest conception they possessed of the Father of All. To him, at 
early dawn, the Indian stretched forth his hands in prayer; and tothe 
sky or the sun as his home”t or, it may be added, as his representative, 
or as this deity himself, he offered the first whiff of his morning pipe. 
Among the Huron-Ivoquois we find the same myth, though under 
different names. With them the contest was between Ioskeha and 
Tawiseara, names which, according to Brinton, signify, in the Oneida 
dialect, the White one and the Dark one. “They were twins, born of 
a virgin mother, who died in giving them life. Their grandmother was 
the moon, called by the Hurons Ataensic. - - - The brothers quar- 
reled, and finally came to blows, the former using the horns of a stag 
and the latter the wild rose. He of the weaker weapon was very nat- 
urally discomfited and surely wounded. Fleeing for his life, the blood 
gushed from him at every step, and turned into flint stones. The vic- 
tor returned to his grandmother, and established his lodge in the far 
east, on the borders of the great ocean whence the sun comes. In time 
he became the father of mankind, and the special guardian of the Iro- 
quois. The earth was at first arid and sterile, but he destroyed the 
gigantic frog which had swallowed the waters, and guided the torrents 
into smooth streams and lakes. The woods hestocked with game; and 
having learned from the tortoise how to make fire, he taught his chil- 
dren, the Indians, this indispensable art.”+ ‘ Without his aid,” says 
Father Breboeut, “they did not think their pots would boil. - - - 
He it was who gave them the corn which they ate, and who made it 
grow and ripen; if their fields were green in the spring-time, if they 
* History of Louisiana, vol. 1, p. 175 et seq., and London, 1763. 
t Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 183: New York, 1876. Compare Schdoleraft, 
Indian Tribes, vol. v, pp. 402-417. elation de la Nouvelle France enV année 1635- 
1654, pp. 16 and 13 respectively: Quebec, 1858. Lafitau, vol. 1, pp. 126-145: Paris, 
1724. La Potherie, vol. u, chapteri: Paris 1753. 
¢Thus far I have copied Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 183, who bas fol- 
lowed Father Breboeuf, Relation de la Nouvelle France en V anneé, 1636, seconde 
partie, chap. 1: Quebec, 1858. In what follows I prefer to stick to the text of the 
old Father. 
