382 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 73 
the laurel performed to serve the Demon." 1 When passing a ledge 
in the ocean where surf broke, the Timucua Indian whistled to it so 
that he would not be upset, and he also whistled to the storm to 
make it stop. 2 
If we may believe Le Moyne, the high opinion in which chiefs were 
held had resulted in a kind of chief cult accompanied by human 
sacrifice. 
Their custom is to offer up the first-born son to the chief . When the day for the 
sacrifice is notified to the chief, he proceeds to a place set apart for the purpose, where 
there is a bench for him, on which he takes his seat. In the middle of the area before 
him is a wooden stump two feet high, and as many thick, before which the mother 
sits on her heels, with her face covered in her hands, lamenting the loss of her child. 
The principal one of her female relatives or friends now offers the child to the chief 
in worship, after which the women who have accompanied the mother form a circle, 
and dance around with demonstrations of joy, but without joining hands. She who 
holds the child goes and dances in the middle, singing some praises of the chief. 
Meanwhile, six Indians, chosen for the purpose, take their stand apart in a certain 
place in the open area; and midway among them the sacrificing officer, who is deco- 
rated with a sort of magnificence, and holds a club. The ceremonies being through, 
the sacrificer takes the child, and slays it in honor of the chief , before them all, upon 
the wooden stump. The offering was on one occasion performed in our presence. 3 
This suggests, in a way, the rites and customs of the Natchez Indians. 
Elvas declares that human sacrifice existed also among the people 
of Tampa Bay: 
The Indians are worshippers of the devil, and it is their custom to make sacrifices 
of the blood and bodies of their people, or of those of any other they can come by; 
and they affirm, too, that when he would have them make an offering, he speaks, 
telling them that he is athirst, and that they must sacrifice to him. 4 
As an example of the reverence which they paid to particular 
objects may be cited their treatment of the column set up by Ribault 
in 1562. When Laudonniere saw it three years later it was "crowned 
with crowns of bay, and, at the foot thereof, many little baskets 
full of mill [i. e., corn], which they call in their language tapaga 
tapola. Then, when they came hither, they kissed the same with 
great reverence, and besought us to do the like." 5 
Le Moyne says of this : 
On approaching, they found that these Indians were worshipping this stone as an 
idol; and the chief himself, having saluted it with signs of reverence such as his sub- 
jects were in the habit of showing to himself, kissed it. His men followed his example, 
and we were invited to do the same. Before the monument there lay various offerings 
of the fruits, and edible or medicinal roots, growing thereabouts; vessels of perfumed 
oils; a bow, and arrows; and it was wreathed around from top to bottom with flowers 
of all sorts, and boughs of the trees esteemed choicest. 6 
The Spaniards speak of temples among some Timucua tribes, but 
it is probable that these were identical with the town houses men- 
1 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soe., xvm, p. 491. 6 Laudonniere, La Floride, pp. 69-70; French, 
2 Ibid., xvi, p. 637. Hist. Colls. La., p. 224. 
• Le Moyne, Narrative, p. 13. 6 Le Moyne, Narrative, p. 4 (ill.). 
i Bourne., Narr. of De Soto, I, pp. 29-30. 
