swANTON] INDIAN TIUBKS OF TIIK I,()Wi:i{ M ISSISSI IM'I VALLKV 2G9 



I'ciluips because it was iloslroyeil so early in the I'^iciich pei'iod 

 (his Taensa temple was afterward repeatedly eon Founded witii that 

 of the Natchez. ieadini»; to many accusations of falsehood where only 

 a blunder had l)een connnitted. 'I'his error was made by Le Petit, 

 amonj; others, who describes the ^ui)posed Natchez temple thus: 



Tliey liMvo a tnuplt^ fillod will! idols, wliiili are different figures of men and of 

 animals, and for wiiicli tlu-y liave the most profound veneration. Tbeir temple 

 in sliai)e resembles an earthen oven, 100 feet in eireumferenee. They enter it by 

 a little door about 4 feet hifih and not more than 3 in breadth. No window is 

 t«) be seen there. The arched roof of the editiee is covered with three rows of 

 mats, placed one uiioii the other, to prevent the rain from injuring the masonry. 

 Above on the outside are three figures of eagles made of wood, and painted red, 

 yellow, and while. Heroic the door is a kind of shed with folding doors, where 

 the guardian of llie temple is lodged; all around it runs a circle of palisades, on 

 which are seen exposetl the skulls of all the heads which their warriors had 

 brought back from the battles in which the.y had been engaged with the enemies 

 of their nation. 



In the interior of the temple are some shelves arranged at a certain distance 

 from each other, on which are placed cane baskets of an oval shape, and in 

 these are inclosed the bones of their ancient chiefs, while by their side are those 

 of their victims, who had caused themselves to be strangled to follow their 

 masters into the other world. xVnother separate shelf supports many flat 

 baskets very gorgeously painted, in which they preserve their idols. These are 

 figures of men and women made of stone or baked clay, the heads and the tails 

 of extraordinary serpents, some stuffed owls, some pieces of crystal, and some 

 jawbones of large fish. In the year 1G99 they had there a bottle and the foot of 

 a glass, which they guarded as very precious. 



In this temple they take care to keei) up a perpetual fire, and they are very 

 particular to prevent it ever blazing; they do not use anything for it but dry 

 wood of the walnut [hickory] or oak. The old men are obliged to carry, each 

 one in his turn, a large log of wood into the inclosure of the palisade. The 

 number of the guardians of the temple is fixed, and they serve by the quarter. 

 He who is on duty is placed like a sentinel under the shed, from whence he 

 examines whether the fire is not in danger of going out. He feeds it with two 

 or three large logs, which do not burn except at the extremity, and which they 

 never i)lace one on the other for fear of their getting into a blaze. 



Of the women, the sisters of the great chief alone have liberty to enter within 

 the temple. The entrance is forbidden to all the others, as well as to the 

 common people, even when they carry something there to feast to the memory 

 of their relatives, whose bones repose in the temple. They give the dishes to 

 the guardian, who carries them to the side of the basket in which are the bones 

 of the dead ; this ceremony lasts only during one moon. The dishes are after- 

 ward i)laced on the palisades which surround the temple and are abandoned to 

 the fallow deer." 



The missionary expected from Canada was not sent, St. Cosme hav- 

 ing advised against it on account of the great reduction in population 

 suifered by this tribe,** and no missionar}^ work appears to have been 

 undertaken among them after De Montigny left except a visit or two 



« Le Petit in Jes. Rel., Lxvm, 122-12.5. 



^ In a quotation furnished the writer by Professor Gosselin, of Laval University, 

 Quebec, from an unpublished letter of St. Cosme, written Aug. 1, 1701. 



