SWANTON] RELIGIOUS BELIEFS IN GENERAL 249 
new year’s unpolluted holy fire.’“* On this subject he enlarges 
elsewhere as follows: 
The Indians call the lightning and thunder Hloha [Hiloha is thunder}, 
and its rumbling noise, Rowah, ... and the Indians believe . . . that Minggo 
Ishto Eloha Alkaiasto, “the great chieftain of the thunder, is very cross or 
angry when it thunders,” and have heard them say, when it rained, thundered, 
and blew sharp, for a considerable time, that the beloved, or holy people, were 
at war above the clouds. And they believe that the war at such times is 
moderate, or hot, in proportion to the noise and violence of the storm. 
I have seen them in these storms fire off their guns, pointed toward the sky; 
some in contempt of heaven and others through religion—the former to show 
that they were warriors and not afraid to die in any shape; much less afraid 
of that threatening, troublesome noise, and the latter because their hearts 
directed them to assist Ishtohoolo Eloha.** 
From the above quotations we learn that the supreme spirit was 
accompanied by a number of subordinate spirits. Adair states that 
the Chickasaw called these “ Hottuk Ishtohoollo ” [Hatak ishto holo, 
holy great persons]|.” With them he contrasts the “ Hottuk ook- 
proose” [Hatak okpulosi], or “ Nana ookproose” [Nana okpulosi], 
“very bad men,” or “very bad people,” who, he says, were supposed 
to inhabit the dark regions of the west.7° Further on will be found 
a reference to a Thunder being who seemingly had no connection 
with the Sky God. 
The respect entertained for fire in general is thus enlarged upon 
by the same writer when he has occasion to describe native methods 
of deadening the trees and clearing fields: 
With these trees they always kept up their annual holy fire; and they reckon 
it unlawful, and productive of many temporal evils, to extinguish even the 
culinary fire with water. In the time of a storm, when I have done it, the 
kindly women were in pain for me, through fear of the ill consequences attend- 
ing so criminal an act. I never saw them to damp the fire, only when they 
hung up a brand in the appointed place, with a twisted grape-vine, as a 
threatening symbol of torture and death to the enemy; or when their kinsman 
dies. In the last case, a father or brother of the deceased takes a firebrand, 
and brandishing it two or three times round his head, with lamenting words, 
he with his right hand dips it into the water and lets it sink down.” 
In the woods certain beings were supposed to live which had the 
appearance of men 10 feet or more in height and with long arms but 
small heads. They carried off women, but most Indians thought 
they seldom attacked men. However, one informant claimed that 
they sometimes killed and flayed men, and from this circumstance 
derived their name to"fa, which means “to skin.” They could run 
very fast. Some were stronger than men; some not so strong. They 
7 Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 92. %Tbid., p. 36. 
74 Tbid., p. 65. 7 Tbid., p. 405. 
55231°—28. 17 
