104 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



its religi/on, Avhicli flatters the evil inclinations of their corrupt 

 nature, for anyone ever to have made any progress in conversion and 

 to have established Christianity there." (Margry, (1), V, p,p. 

 452-455.) 



This barbaric ceremony was unknown among any other eastern 

 tribe, and while so much pomp attended the burial of a Noble, the 

 less important were conducted to their last resting places with simple 

 rites. And mourning among the Natchez, so Charlevoix wrote, con- 

 sisted of " cutting off their hair, and in not painting their faces, and 

 in absenting themselves from public assemblies," but, so he con- 

 tinued, " I do not know how long it lasts. I know not, either, Avhcther 

 they celebrate the grand festival of the dead. ... It seems as if 

 in this nation, where everybody is in some sort the slave of those 

 who command, all the honors of the dead are for those who do so, 

 especially for the great chief and the woman chief." 



The Temple of the Natchez, which in many respects resembled the 

 temple-tomb of the Algonquian tribes of Virginia and Carolina, was 

 described by all the early historians of lower Mississippi Valley. 

 These accounts have been grouped by Swanton ((1), pp. 158-167), 

 and consequently only the earliest will be quoted at the present time : 

 " There are only four cabins in [the village] in which is the temple. 

 It is very spacious and covered with cane mats, which they renew 

 every year with great ceremonies, which it would be prolix to insert 

 here. They begin by a four days' fast with emetics till blood comes. 

 There is no window, no chimney, in this temple, and it is only by 

 the light of the fire that you can see a little, and then the door, which 

 is very low and narrow, must be open. I imagine that the obscurity 

 of the place inspires them with respect. The old man who is the 

 keeper keeps the fire up and takes great care not to let it go out. It 

 is in the center of the temple in front of a sort of mausoleum after 

 the Indian fashion. There are three about 8 oi' 9 feet long, 6 feet 

 broad, and 9 or 10 feet high. They are supported by four large posts 

 covered with cane mats in quite neat columns and surmounted by a 

 platform of plaited canes. This would be rather graceful were it 

 not all blackened with smoke and covered with soot. There is a 

 large mat which serves as a curtain to cover a large table, covered 

 with five or six cane mats on which stands a large basket that it is 

 unlawful to open, as the spirit of each nation of those quarters re- 

 poses there, they say, with that of the Natchez. . . . There are 

 others in the other two mausoleums, where the bones of their chiefs 

 are, thej^ say, which they revere as divinities. All that I saw some- 

 what rare was a piece of rock crystal, which I found in a little basket. 

 I saw a number of little earthen pots, platters, and cups, and little 

 cane baskets, all well made. This is to serve up food to the spirits 

 of the deceased chiefs, and the temple keeper finds his profit in it." 

 (Gravier, (1), pp. 138-141.) 



