402 



SACHERITON SACRIFICE 



[b. a. e. 



The plural form given by Roger Williams 

 (1643) shows that the word is an abbre- 

 viation of sdch'nnnu. The name is from 

 the Narraganset dialect, one of the prom- 

 inent phonetic peculiarities of which 

 was the assibilation of gutturals. Sdchi- 

 mau ( =sdtshimau ) is by assibilation of orig- 

 inal k from sdkimau =AhnB,k[ sa^ig'Tnan 

 (whence, by corruption, sagamore) =Fas- 

 samaquoddy sogmo=I^enape sakimau= 

 Chippewa sdgima, all radical words — 

 words that cannot now be referred to any 

 known root. 



The word has given rise to the adjective 

 sachemic, and the substantives sachemdom 

 and sachem ship (Gookin, 1674). A Long 

 Island serpent, probably the milk-snake, 

 has been called sachem-snake. See Chiefs, 

 Government, Sagamore. (w. r. g. ) 



Sacheriton (Sa-cher-i-ton) . A division 

 of the Skoton, mentioned in the treaty of 

 Nov. 18, 1854 (U. S. Ind. Treat., 23, 1873) , 

 as dwelling on Rogue r., Oreg. 



Sachim. See Sachem. 



Sachueii. A Costanoan village situated 

 in 1819 within 10 m. of Santa Cruz mis- 

 sion, Cal. — Taylor in Cal. Farmer, Apr. 5, 

 1860. 



Sackagoming. See Sagakomi. 



Sackhoes {SukJioos, 'Black Kettle,' a 

 chief's name. — Ruttenber). A Kitcha- 

 wank village in 1684, on the site of Peeks- 

 kill, Westchester co., N. Y. 

 Sackhoes.— Ruttenber, Tribes Hudson R., 79, 1872; 

 see also Ruttenber, Ind. Geog. Names, 30, 1906. 

 Saeckkill. — Van der Donck (1658) quoted by Rut- 

 tenber, ibid., 72. 



Saclan. A former group or division of 

 the Costanoan family inhabiting the shore 

 of San Francisco bay, Cal., opposite San 

 Francisco, at Oakland or somewhat to 

 the s. They were subject to the Dolores 

 mission. Their dialect appears to have 

 been very different from other Costanoan 

 dialects. 



Chaclan.— Taylor in Cal. Farmer, Oct. 18, 1861. 

 Chaclanes.— Bancroft, Hist. Cal., I, 709, 1884. Saca- 

 lanes. — Ibid. Saclan. — Arrovo de la Cuesta, 

 Idiomas Californias, 1821, MS. trans., B. A. E. 

 Saklans.— Choris, Voy. Pitt., 6, 1822. Soclan.— 

 Chamisso in Kotzebue, Voy., iii, 51, 1821. 



Saconnet. A band or small tribe living 

 near Sakonnet pt., Newport co., R. I., 

 connected with the Wampanoag or the 

 Narraganset. Under the woman chief 

 Ashawonks they took the side of the 

 English in King Philip's war of 1675, and 

 from her their land was purchased by the 

 whites. In 1700 they numbered about 

 400; but in 1763 they were visited by an 

 epidemic which considerably diminished 

 their nuinbers, so that by 1803 they had 

 dwindled to a dozen persons, living near 

 Compton. Their chief village bore the 

 name of the tribe. (.i. m. ) 



Saconet.— Williams (1619) in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 

 3d s., IX, 281, 1846. Saconnet. — Parsons, Ind. 

 Names R. I., 25, l,s(;i (the point). Sagkonate. — 

 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st s., ix, 199, 1801. 

 Sakonett.— Cotton (1674), ibid., I, 200, 1806. Saug- 

 konnet.— Stiles (1672), ibid., X, 114, 1809. Scato 



neck.— Doc. of 1676 quoted by Drake, Ind. Chron., 

 53, 1836. Seaconet. — Winslow (1676) in Mass. 

 Hist. Soc. Coll., 4th s., v, 10, 1861. Seaconnet.— 

 Walley (1690), ibid., 247. Seakonnet.— Ibid., 1st s., 

 IX, 199, 1804. Seconett.— Hinckley (1682), ibid., 

 4th s., v, 78, 1861. Seconnett.— Mayhew (1671), 

 ibid., 1st s., vr, 196, 1800. Sekonet't.— Hinckley 

 (1685), ibid., 4th .s., v, 133, 1861. Sekunnet.— 

 Hinckley (1685), ibid., 134. Sogkonate.— Church 

 (1716), ibid., 1st s., ix, 199, 1804. 



Sacrifice. In spite of the present very 

 general application of this term, its orig- 

 inal connection with religion is shown 

 by the meaning of the word itself, "to 

 make sacred." Instead of the simple 

 dedication of objects to a deity or deities, 

 however, such as this would imply, it is 

 associated in the minds of most people 

 with the idea of self-abnegation, or the 

 giving up of something valuable on the 

 part of the sacriticer. Yet this is but 

 one of several ideas pertaining to sacrifice 

 in the minds of primitive people, and 

 Tylor in his standard work on Primitive 

 Culture has put the matter in a nutshell 

 while summing up the evolution — or per- 

 haps we should rather say devolution — 

 of sacrifice when he states that "the ruder 

 conception that the deity takes and 

 values the offering for itself, gives place on 

 the one hand to the idea of mere homage 

 expressed by a gift, and on the other to 

 the negative view that the virtue lies in 

 the worshipper depriving himself of some- 

 thing prized." "These ideas," he adds, 

 may be broadly distinguished as the gift- 

 theory, the homage-theory, and the ab- 

 negation-theory." From what follows 

 it will be seen that the gift-theory was 

 the dominant one among Indian tribes, 

 yet the ordeals of such a ceremony as the 

 Sun-dance show plainly that the abnega- 

 tion-theory occupied a prominent posi- 

 tion in the thought of some tribes; nor can 

 we deny that the homage-theory was 

 also entertained, however difficult it may 

 be to isolate it thoroughly from the others. 

 In all this the differences in point of view 

 between North American Indians and 

 the lower classes of so-called civilized 

 races on the subject of sacrifice is not 

 very great. A far greater distinction is 

 that between the view that sacrifice pro- 

 duces a change in the deity beneficial to 

 the worshipper, and the view that sacri- 

 fice produces a beneficial change in the 

 worshipper himself. 



To understand each sacrifice properly, 

 six cjuestions need to be answered: (1) 

 who sacrifices, (2) to what being or beings 

 the sacrifice is offered, (3) the nature of 

 the sacrifice, (4) the method of offering 

 it, (5) the time when it was performed, 

 and (6) its object. 



In that part of North America n. of 

 Mexico by far the greater number of 

 sacrifices were offered by individuals, 

 either male or female, as when bits of food 

 were thrown into the fire during meals, or 



