BWAMTON] EARL'S HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 381 
they turn their backs they are presently upon them. They avoid nothing more 
easily than the flight of an arrow. They never remain quiet, hut are continually 
running, traversing from place to place, so that neither crossbow nor arquebuse can 
be aimed at them. Before a < 'hristian can make a single shot with either, an Indian 
will discharge three or four arrows; and he seldom misses of his object. Where the 
arrow meets with no armor, it pierces as deeply as the shaft from a crossbow. 1 
Regarding games Laudonnierc says: 
They exercise their young men to run well, and they make a game, among them- 
selves, which he winneth that hath the longest breath. They also exercise them- 
selves much in shooting. They play at the ball in this manner: They set up a tree 
in the midst of a place, which is eight or nine fathoms high, in the top whereof there 
is set a square mat, made of reeds, or bullrushes, which whosoever hitteth in playing 
thereat winneth the game. 2 
And Le Moyne: 
Their youth are trained in running, and a prize is offered for him who can run 
longest without stopping: and they frequently practise with the bow. They also 
play a game of ball, as follows: In the middle of an open space is set up a tree some 
eight or nine fathoms high, with a square frame woven of twigs on the top; this is to 
be hit with the ball, and he who strikes it first gets a prize. 3 
To be sure Le Challeux remarks, "they never teach their children 
and do not correct them in any way;" 4 but L, is referring to the 
training of young children in matters connected with morals and 
manners. 
According to our French informants the sun and moon were the 
principal objects of adoration among these Indians, particularly 
the former. 5 This probably means that their beliefs were sub- 
stantially like those of the Creeks and Chickasaw. A side light 
on their cult is furnished in the following account of a ceremony 
by Le Moyne: 
The subjects of the Chief Outina were accustomed every year, a little before their 
spring — that is, in the end of February — to take the skin of the largest stag they could 
get, keeping the horns on it; to stuff it full of all the choicest sorts of roots that grow 
among them, and to hang long wreaths or garlands of the best fruits on the horns, 
neck, and other parts of the body. Thus decorated, they carried it, with music and 
songs, to a very large and splendid level space, where they set it up on a very high 
tree, with the head and breast toward the sunrise. They then offered prayers to the 
sun, that he would cause to grow on their lands good things such as those offered him. 
The chief, with his sorcerer, stands nearest the tree and offers the prayer; the common 
people, placed at a distance, make responses. Then the chief and all the rest, saluting 
the sun, depart, leaving the deer's hide there until the next year. This ceremony 
they repeat annually. 6 
Pareja says that there^ were many different ceremonies, varying 
from tribe to tribe, and he mentions one called "the ceremony of 
1 Bourne, Narr. of De Soto, i, pp. 25-26. 
« Laudonniere, La Floride, p. 7; French, Hist. Colls. La., 1S69, p. 171. 
» Le Moyne, Narrative, p. 13 (ill.). 
1 Gaffarel, Hist. Floride francaise, p. 461. 
s French, Hist . Colls. La., 1869, p. 171; Laudonniere, La Floride, p. 8. 
6 Le Moyne, op. cit. 
