BULL. 30] 



SACRIFICE 



405 



sacrifices are believed to have been sub- 

 stituted for an earlier sacrifice of human 

 beings, just as the Kansa substituted 

 animals of various kinds for human 

 hearts. Hewitt is of the opinion that 

 the white dog of the Iroquois has been 

 substituted in this way; while Fewkes 

 regards the prayer-sticks of the S. W. as 

 representing animals or human beings. 

 There are many points in favor of such 

 viewH, but it will not do to theorize too 

 far on the basis of general resemblances. 

 Finally, it is important to remark that 

 the object of sacrifice being usually to 

 please a supernatural being by acting in 

 accordance with his supposed desires, it 

 is obvious that songs, dances, feasts, and 

 ceremonies generally may be employed 

 for the same end and in such cases prop- 

 erly fall within the same category. They 

 are viewed in this light by the Indians 

 themselves. 



The method of sacrificing depended 

 on the nature of the sacrifice itself and 

 the being who was supposed to receive 

 it. Offerings were generally made to 

 sacred stones by laying the articles on or 

 near them, inserting them in crevices, or 

 throwing them in their direction. As 

 already noted, red paint was usually 

 smeared upon objects considered sacred, 

 and Ntlakyapamuk women always paint- 

 ed their faces red when they went to 

 gather berries or to dig roots on certain 

 mountains, or just before they came in 

 sight of certain lakes. When mountains 

 or rocks were close to some body of water, 

 however, they might be considered, 

 as among the Haida, the dwellings of 

 subaqueous beings, and sacrifices were 

 then thrown into the water in front of 

 them. The Haida always placed on a 

 paddle the articles to be sacrificed, re- 

 peated a prayer or request, and let them 

 slide into the sea. Sacrifices to more dis- 

 tant beings or those not so distinctly local- 

 ized were put into the fire. Sometimes, 

 as in the case of the white dog of the 

 Iroquois, the human victim of the Skidi, 

 and a Muskhogean deer sacrifice men- 

 tioned by Adair, in which the animal 

 was burned on a fire of green boughs, 

 complete cremation took place. Usually, 

 however, only part of the animal or arti- 

 cle was consumed, the rest being eaten 

 or otherwise employed or thrown away. 

 At feasts or even ordinary repasts a little 

 meat, fish, grease, etc., was often thrown 

 into the fire, though sometimes merely 

 on the ground. Among the Kiowa any 

 drink-offering, such as water or coffee, 

 was poured out on the ground as a sacri- 

 fice to the earth, but by the N. W. coast 

 tribes the same thing was done for the 

 benefit of the departed. An early mis- 

 sionary observes that the Hurons threw 

 tobacco on the red-hot stones in their 



sweat-lodge when bathing. Still another 

 method of offering sacrifices was to place 

 them on trees or poles. Dogs were hung 

 on trees or tall poles by the central Al- 

 gonquians and some of the Plains tribes, 

 and white buffalo-skins were treated in 

 the same manner by the Mandan an4 

 by other tribes of the northern plains. 

 These were offered to the sun, the lord 

 of life, or to other principal or celestial 

 deity, but offerings were made in the 

 same manner to beings in lakes, rivers, 

 and springs, except that in such cases the 

 poles were placed at the edge of the wa- 

 ter. One case of sickness is recorded in 

 which three dogs were hung to the door 

 of the house as an offering for recovery. 

 Such sacrifices, as well as those placed 

 upon rocks and other natural features, 

 were allowed to remain until they rotted 

 to pieces, though they were sometimes 

 plundered by foreign tribes and quite 

 uniformly by white people. In other 

 cases valuable objects were simply pre- 

 sented or allowed to remain for a time 

 and afterward removed. Vessels or uten- 

 .sils so offered may have been regarded 

 as lent to the deity, but in the case of 

 food the idea was usually present that su- 

 pernatural beings partook only of the spirit 

 of the food and man could very properly 

 devour its substance. Fewkes states this 

 to be the belief of the Hopi; and a 

 missionary to one of the Eastern tribes 

 remarks that during a certain feast they 

 would ask their deity to take food, yet 

 offered him nothing. A large number 

 of feasts among American Indian tribes 

 doubtless had this communion character. 

 In other cases the deity might be fed by 

 placing food in the mouth of a mask rep- 

 resenting him. At most sacrificial feasts 

 the food was devoured by all alike. Only 

 occasionally do we find that function ap- 

 propriated by shamans, priests, or some 

 special class of persons as was so fre- 

 quently the case in the Old World. The 

 Natchez, however, present an example to 

 the contrary, food being taken to the 

 temple, offered to the gods there, and 

 then sent to the houses of the chief and 

 his principal men. Tobacco was some- 

 times offered loose, but oftener in a pipe, 

 the stem of the pipe being presented to 

 the deity, or whiffs of smoke directed 

 toward him, a common custom being to 

 offer it to the four cardinal points, zenith, 

 and nadir, successively. Even without 

 any accompanying actions it was often 

 supposed that the spiritual part of to- 

 bacco, when smoked ceremonially, was 

 wafted to the presence of the gods. 

 Powdered tobacco was sometimes blown 

 into the air or upon some sacred object, 

 and eagle down was treated in the same 

 manner. Not infrequently the sacrifice 

 l)ore a symbolic resemblance to the ob- 



