168 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



ages, and the sun OUa-ChiU; that is to say, fire jjar excellence, the most excel- 

 lent of all fires, or, if one wishes, the supreme fire. Also in this sense Coyocop- 

 Chill would signify the spirit par excellence, the supreme spirit. They say 

 that this great spirit has created all things by his goodness alone, even the 

 angels which they call Coyocop-Thecoii, that is ministering sjiirits. According 

 to them these ministering spirits have been created in order to be always 

 present before the supreme spirit. It is through them that all nature has been 

 formed by the order and the will of the supreme spirit except man who alone 

 has been formed by this same spirit from a little earth and water kneaded 

 together. They add that when he had made, formed, completed, and rounded 

 him and found him good, he placed him on the earth and breathed upon him, 

 that immediately this little figure put itself in motion, had life, and began to 

 grow. I asked them how the woman had been formed. They replied that they 

 did not know anything about that, but that apparently she had been formed in 

 the same manner. I said no and explained to them the manner in which it was 

 done. They appeared very well satisfied with that enlightenment.'^ 



Following- is Dii Pratz's more elaborate narrative contained in his 

 own work: 



I wished to know first of the guardian of the temple what he and his fellow 

 countrymen thought of God. In the common [i. e., Mobilian] language coustine 

 signifies ' spirit,' tchito, ' great,' and as all the natives, whatever language they 

 speak, employ the words Great Spirit to express the word God, I asked him in 

 the Natchez language what he thought of the Great Spirit, Coyocop-cliguip, 

 because in their language, which I knew passably, coyocop signifies ' spirit,' and 

 cliguip signifies 'great.' I was mistaken, however, for just as in French the 

 word grand does not always signify the height or the length, but the qualities 

 revealed, as wheu one says un grand roi, iin grand general, in the same way the 

 word cliguip has the two significations,- and in spite of that I had not yet 

 attained by this word to the idea they have of God. The guardian of the 

 temple then told me that they did not call him so but Coyocop-chill. To give 

 an accurate idea of what this word chill signifies I will make use of an ex- 

 ample. The Natchez call common fire oila, they call the sun oiia-chill, the very 

 great fire, the supreme fire. Thus in giving to God the name Coyocop-chill 

 they mean the spirit infinitely great, the spirit par excellence, and the spirit ac- 

 cording to their way of thinking, as far above other spirits as the sun by means 

 of his heat exceeds the fiery element. I think myself obliged to give this ex- 

 planation and to adduce this example in order to develop the idea which they 

 have of God through the name which they give him. 



He then told me that God was so powerful that all things were nothing before 

 him, that he had made all that we see, and that we are able to see; that he was 

 so good that he was not able to do harm to anyone even if he wished it : that he 

 thought that God had made all things by his will ; that nevertheless the little 

 spirits who were servants of God might, indeed, at his order have made in the 

 universe the beautiful works which we admire, but that God himself had formed 

 man with his own hands. 



He added that they called these little spirits Coyocop-techou, which signifies 

 free servant,* but also one as submissive and respectful as a slave; that the 

 spirits were always present before God, ready to execute his wishes with ex- 

 treme diligence; that the air was filled with other spirits of which some were 

 worse than others ; that they had a chief yet worse than themselves, but that God 



" Dumont, M<5m. Hist, sur La Louisiane, i, 161-163. 



" Dico'n is the Natchez word for " servant " at the present day. — J. R. S. 



