SWANTOX] INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 319 



post which supports it. at the foot of which there are two or three little 

 earthen pots near the fire, out of which they take a little ashes to put in these 

 pots, frcnn I know not what superstition. This is the post of the spirit or 

 genius. They are so closemouthed as to all the mysteries of their religion that 

 the missionai'y could not discover anything about it." 



This selection of deities is about what was to have been expected. 

 The only unexpected feature is the existence of separate beings, and 

 apparently all important ones, for the sun, fire, and heaven. An 

 independent and at the same time prominent fire deity is found 

 among the Pueblo and the Navaho, but the celestial and solar deities 

 in any tribe are usually one and the same. The primacy of the sun 

 in this enumeration probably indicates its preeminence, and that 

 more reverence was given to it than to the others is rendered likely by 

 La Harpe's statement just quoted as well as by the regard paid this 

 deity among the neighboring Natchez, At the same time it seems 

 strange that no solar myth, even in a fragmentary form, has come 

 down to us, inasmuch as a very complete thunder legend is still 

 remembered. One version of the thunder myth was collected by 

 Doctor Gatschet from William Johnson (pi. 18, a) in both Tunica 

 and English. A second, in English only, was obtained by the writer 

 from Volsine Chiki, the present chief of the tribe, and is as follows : 



An orphan boy was shut in the house that he might fast. His uncle fastened 

 him in and told him not to go out. He had only one sister, who brought him 

 his food. But when his uncle was off hunting his imcle's wife tried to make 

 him come out. He did not want to do this because his uncle had forbidden 

 him. She told him to come outside and kill a white squirrel, but he was unwill- 

 ing to do so. Then she told him to shoot it through a hole In the roof. She 

 said, " Shoot through a crack and I will aim your arrow from the outside." So 

 he shot the white squirrel and killed it, and said to her, " Hand the squirrel in 

 to me." She gave it to him and he took it and cleaned it, removing all the 

 claws except one, which escaped his notice. Then he gave the squirrel back to 

 his uncle's wife. Now, his uncle's wife went back to the house with the claw 

 and scratched her body all over with it until she was covered with blood. She 

 was seated in this condition when her husband came home. The sight made 

 him angry. She told him that his nephew had come out of his place of confine- 

 ment and had treated her in this manner. Her husband was very angry and 

 sent his nephew into the woods to get small canes for making arrows, thinking 

 to kill him. When the boy reached the canebrake to which his uncle had di- 

 rected him he found it was so dangerous that he could not enter. A rabbit came 

 to him and told him that he could not go in, but promised to bring out the canes 

 for him. At tir.st the rabbit was no more able to penetrate this canebrake than 

 the boy, but after a time he cut some vines, rolled them into a bunch, and threw 

 them inside. Then the hostile beings who were there ran at the vines, and 

 while they were engaged with them the rabbit rushed in, cut the canes, and 

 brought them out, whereupon the boy carried them to his uncle. 



Next the boy's uncle sent him to get some feathers from the fish-catcher 

 (nini-tae'ri), a kind of bird which is very fierce. He reached the place where 

 its nest hung and climbed up to it. The big bird was away, but he found the 

 four young ones. By and by their mother came back and asked him what he 



o Shea, Early Voy. Miss., 133-134. 



