78 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 73 
provided he be able to effect it; if not, he may embrace the first opportunity that 
offers of killing him without any danger to his tribe. Then the debt is paid, and the 
courage of the husband proved. 1 
No mention being made of punishment inflicted on the wife, it may 
be concluded that the custom of punishing only the male offender 
existed as it did among the Siouan tribes to the north. 2 
The comparative absence of theft among our southeastern Indians 
is attested in this section also by the circumstance that when two 
Indians whom Ribault had retained on board his vessel by force 
escaped they left behind all of the presents the Frenchmen had made 
them, although some of these were articles of high value in their eyes. 3 
A relation published in 1682 says of their religious beliefs: 
Their religion chiefly consists in the adoration of the sun and moon. At the appear- 
ance of the new moon I have observed them with open extended arms, then folded, 
with inclined bodies, to make their adorations with much ardency and passion. 4 
The personal observation is of some value, but little or none can 
be attached to the first statement, which seems to be made by 
explorers in all parts of the world for want of any definite information. 
Laudonniere notes of the two Cusabo Indians kept overnight on 
Ribault's vessel that they " made us to understand that before eating 
they were accustomed to wash their faces and wait until the sun was 
set," 5 from which it may be inferred that they were fasting. The 
fullest account of the religious beliefs of these people is the following 
from Hewat: 
The Indians, like all ignorant and rude nations, are very superstitious. They believe 
that superior beings interfere in, and direct, human affairs, and invoke all spirits, 
both good and evil, in hazardous undertakings. Each tribe have their conjurers and 
magicians, on whose prophetic declarations they place much confidence, in all matters 
relating to health, hunting, and war. They are fond of prying into future events, 
and therefore pay particular regard to signs, omens, and dreams. They look upon 
fire as sacred, and pay the author of it a kind of worship. At the time of harvest and 
at full moon they observe several feasts and ceremonies, which it would seem were 
derived from some religious origin. As their success, both in warlike enterprises and 
in procuring subsistence depends greatly on fortune, they have a number of ceremo- 
nious observances before they enter on them. They offer in sacrifice a part of the first 
deer or bear they kill, and from this they flatter themselves with the hopes of future 
success. When taken sick they are particularly prone to superstition, and their 
physicians administer their simple and secret cures with a variety of strange ceremo- 
nies and magic arts, which fill the patients with courage and confidence, and are 
sometimes attended with happy effects. 6 
Among the Carolina notes in the Shaftesbury Papers is this by 
Locke: "Kill servants to wait on them in the other world." 7 This 
would be interesting if we could feel sure that it applied to the Indians 
1 Carroll, op. cit., I, p. 68. a Laudonniere, op. cit., p. 28. 
2 Lawson, Hist. Carolina, p. 300. « Carroll, op. cit., 1, pp. 69-70. 
3Laudonni6re,op. cit., p. 31. 7 S. Car. Hist. Soc. Colls., v, p. 462. 
Carroll, op. cit., n, pp. 80-81. 
