268 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



The 22d M. de Montigny joined me at noon, liavinc seen my brother set out 

 at S o'elock in the uiornin.i;; witli a Siiawnee, a Ouacliita, wlio is his guide, and 

 six Taensas, wlioni he liad liad given liini to aid him in carrying his baggage." 



Ponicaut. who acconipanietl Iberville on this trip, as was his ten- 

 dency, " improves on the truth " in some particulars, especially as to 

 the number of children sacrificed. His narrative is as follows: 



* * * Eight leagues higher uii one finds the Grand Gulf, which we passed, 

 and two gunshots distance higher ui) on the left we set foot to earth to go to 

 a village which is in the interior 4 leagues from the bank of the river. These 

 savages are called Tinsas. We were very well received there, but I have 

 never seen a sadder and at the same time more frightful spectacle than that 

 which happened the second day we were at this village. Suddenly a terrible 

 storm ai'ose; a thunderbolt fell on their temple, burned all their idols, and 

 reduced their temple to ashes. Immediately these savages ran toward their 

 temple, making terrible howls, tearing their hair, and elevating their arms. 

 AVith faces turned toward their temple they invoked their great Spirit, crying 

 like people possessed for him to extinguish the fire; then they took earth with 

 which they rubbed their bodies and faces. The fathers and mothers brought 

 their children and, after having strangled them, they threw them into the fire. 

 M. d'Iberville was horrified at such a cruel spectacle, and commanded to stop 

 this frightful spectacle and snatch the little innocents from them, which did not 

 prevent them, in spite of all our efforts, from throwing 17 into it, and if we 

 had not prevented them they would have thrown in more than 200. 



At the end of three days, during which they sang their calumet of peace, 

 M. d'Iberville made them a present more considerable than he had given to 

 the others and told them to abandon this place in order to come and estab- 

 lish themselves on the banks of the Mississippi; and. seeing that the time 

 aiiproached for him to return to France, and that the other nations were too 

 distant, he determined to descend the river again. ^ 



Yet another version is that of Father Gravier, w'ho passed down 

 the river late the same year : 



The Taensas, who speak the same language, have the same habits also; 

 their village is 20 leagues from the river of the Tounika. It is 4 leagues 

 inland. After 1 league's march you come to a lake where there are always a 

 number of alligators. It unist be crossed in a canoe to reach the village, which 

 is more close set than that of the Tounika. 



The temple, having been reduced to ashes last year [1700] by lightning, 

 which fell on a matter as combustible as the canes, with which it is thatched, 

 the old man, who is its guardian, said that the Spirit was incensed because no 

 one was put to death in it on the decease of the last chief, and that it was 

 necessary to appease him. Five women had the cruelty to cast their children 

 into the fire, in sight of the French, who recounted it to me, or rather gave 

 them to the old man, who cast them into the fire while making his invocations 

 and chanting with these women during the cruel ceremony, and but for the 

 P'rench there would have been a great many more children burned. The chief's 

 cabin, having been converted into a temple, the five unnatural mothers were 

 borne to it in triumph as five heroines. '- 



" Margry, Decouvortcs, iv, 412-417. 



* Penicaut in Marsry, D^couvortes, v^ .'597-30S. 



<^ Gravier in Shoa's Early Voy. Miss., 136, 1.37, 1861. 



