404 



SACRIFICE 



[b. a. e. 



sible that similar devices were employed 

 elsewhere, since Maximilian mentions in 

 a Mandan sacrifice "little sticks or rods 

 to which some feathers were attached." 

 Sticks without any such attachment the 

 Iroquois were accustomed to throw upon 

 a certain sacred stone whenever they 

 passed. Among I ima offerings Eussell 

 mentions twigs of the creosote bush, and 

 small stones. Next to tobacco, corn was 

 the most highly prized vegetal product in 

 most of North America, and we conse- 

 quently find it used in sacrifices and cere- 

 monies by most of the agricultural tribes. 

 Adair states that the only sacrifice of corn 

 among the Creeks was at their annual 

 festival which corresponds to the harvest 

 feast, or feast of ingathering, in the Old 

 World (see Busk). In some form or 

 other it is probable that this was repre- 

 sented among all the corn-raising tribes 

 of the E. and S. As might have been ex- 

 pected, this form of sacrifice also assumes 

 important proportions among the tribes 

 of the S. W. — the Pueblos, Navaho, and 

 Apache — a constant sacrifice among them 

 being sacred meal, while among the Paw- 

 nee of the plains mush was used. Among 

 other sacrifices of vegetal character should 

 be mentioned the red cedar-bark which 

 figures so prominently in the secret- 

 society performances of the Indians on 

 the N. Pacific coast. A large Iroquois 

 sacrifice, made in response to a dream, 

 contained, among other articles, four 

 measures of sunflower seed and as many 

 of beans. The incense root of the Hupa 

 should also be noted in this connec- 

 tion. Manufactured articles were repre- 

 sented by blankets, arrows, powder and 

 lead, shell beads and articles made of 

 them, pans, kettles, elk-skin fishing-lines, 

 cloth of various kinds, especially red 

 cloth, rings, bracelets, pipes, knives, 

 wooden and clay images, guns, and hatch- 

 ets. The predilection for red, already 

 remarked in connection with feathers and 

 cloth, finds expression also in a very wide 

 use of red paint for sacrificial purposes. 

 Paint, like any other article, might be of- 

 fered loose to a supernatural being, but 

 usually it was daubed upon the stone, 

 tree, or other object to which it was de- 

 sired to show respect. In their own cere- 

 monies Dakota women use blue paint 

 oftener than red, but this is not a con- 

 stant indication of sex. 



Unless the customary immolation of 

 a number of captives at the end of a 

 war expedition may be considered sacri- 

 ficial, human sacrifices do not seem to 

 have been particularly common n. of 

 Mexico, though there are a number of 

 instances. Perhaps the best known is 

 that of the sacrifice of a female captive 

 to the morning star by the Skidi Pawnee. 

 An early missionary tells of the sacrifice 



of a female captive by the Iroquois, and 

 states that parts of her body were sent 

 to the other villages of the tribe to be 

 eaten. It appears from Cuoq that the 

 Nipissing formerly offered a young female 

 captive upon an elevated platform as a 

 sacrifice to "the god of war," but the 

 wording leaves us somewhat in doubt 

 whether the sacrifice was anything 

 more than symbolic. In ancient times 

 Kansa Indians put the hearts of slain 

 foes into the fire as a sacrifice to the 

 winds, but later, animals such as deer 

 and grouse were substituted. The Hu- 

 rons burned the viscera and a portion of 

 the flesh of one who had been drowned 

 or had died of a cold as a sacrifice to the 

 Sky god, who was supposed to be angry. 

 In 1700, when Iberville was among the 

 Taensa villages, their temple was struck 

 by a thunderbolt and burned, upon which 

 five women threw their infants into the 

 flames as a sacrifice to the offended deity, 

 and more would have done the same had 

 not the French interposed. On another 

 occasion the Iroquois drove arrows into 

 the body of a new-born babe, ground up 

 its bones, and swallowed a little of the 

 resultant powder before starting out to 

 war; but this may have been a war-medi- 

 cine rather than a true sacrifice. Since 

 the highest class of nobles among the 

 Natchez and Taensa were supposed to be 

 of divine origin, the slaughter of a num- 

 ber of servants, and of other members 

 of their families, to wait on them in the 

 hereafter, was of the nature of a sacrifice, 

 although of an unusual character. An- 

 other form of human sacrifice was the 

 offering of scalps. Among the Arapaho 

 these were hung up in the medicine lodge, 

 and on one occasion De Smet passed a 

 pole on the bank of the Missouri on which 

 hung a scalp offered by the Arikara. He 

 assumed that this was a sacrifice to the 

 sun, but more likely it was to some river 

 monster. At the time of the Sun-dance, 

 pieces of flesh were cut from their bodies 

 by the participants, offered to the sun, 

 and then placed under a buffalo chip. 

 In fact all the mutilations inflicted at the 

 Sun-dance and related ceremonies, such 

 as cutting off finger-joints and slitting the 

 flesh for the attachment of thongs, par- 

 took of the character of sacrifices. It is 

 said that the blood shed in tearing these 

 thongs through the flesh was acceptable 

 to Tirdwa, chief deity of the Pawnee. 

 On one occasion each member of a war- 

 party sacrificed a small piece of flesh 

 cut from his tongue. Hair — presiimably 

 human hair — is mentioned among sacri- 

 fices offered by the Arikara and the 

 Ntlakyapamuk, but more often it was 

 cut or singed off out of respect for the 

 dead. Before passing from this suVjject 

 it should be noted that certain other 



