ABORIGINAL SACRED ENCLOSURES. 133 



the natives. The ground which they occupied was considered sacred, and an area 

 around them was sometimes enclosed and consecrated to rehgious rites. Like the 

 rehgious structures of the Druids, they were usually places of deliberation and 

 council ; within them the priests performed the ceremonies of their religion, and 

 within them the chiefs and warriors gathered to consult on public affairs, to make 

 war and conclude peace. Within them also was maintained the sacred fire of 

 those nations which adhered to the requirements of sun-worship. The Narragan- 

 sett Indians of New England, and the nations of Virginia, both kept up perpetual 

 fires in their temples, as did also the Natchez and the other tribes which assimilated 

 to the semi-civilized natives of Central America. — (Purchas''s Pilgrims, IV., p. 1868 ; 

 McCullocli's Researches, p. 3 ; Loskiel, p. 39 ; Catlin's N. A. Indians, Vol. I., pp. 

 88, 158.) Amongst the Natchez, these temples were sometimes decorated with 

 rude carvings and paintings, which probably were not without their significance. 



Berkley describes with some minuteness a Quioccosan or sacred building of 

 the Virginia Indians. It was constructed in precisely the same manner with their 

 cabins generally, but was somewhat larger. It was thirty feet long by eighteen 

 broad ; and around and at some distance from it, were " set up posts, with faces 

 carved on them and painted." The entrance was barricaded with logs ; thus there 

 was neither window nor passage for the light, except the door. In the centre of 

 the building was a fire-place, and near one end was suspended a partition of mats, 

 behind which, on shelves, were found three other mats, carefully rolled up. " In 

 one of them," says our author, " we found some bones, which we judged to be 

 the bones of men ; in another we found some Indian tomahawks, finely graven and 

 painted ; and in the third, some materials which, v^hen put together, formed a rude 

 figure of a man, which was their okee, kiwassee, Quioccos, or idol." — {Hist. Virginia, 

 p. 166.) 



Smith, in his description of Virginia, says, that " in every territory of a We- 

 rowance is a temple and a priest — two or three, or more." He mentions also, 

 " upon the top of certain red sandy hills, great houses filled with images of their 

 kings and devils, and tombs of their predecessors. Which houses are neere sixty 

 foot in length, built arborwise. This place they account so holy, that none but 

 priests or kings dare come into it, nor the savages dare not go up in boats by 

 it, but that they solemnly cast some pieces of copper, white beads, or pocones in 

 the river. In this place are commonly resident seven priests." — {Smith in Purchas, 

 Vol. IV., p. 1701.) 



Marchand mentions a temple among the natives of Coxe's Channel (N. W. 

 Coast), which had some relation to the primitive open temples of the Old World. 

 " It is surrounded by strong posts, seven or eight feet high, in which are preserved 

 all the tall trees that are then growing ; but all the shrubs are carefully torn up, 

 and the ground is everywhere put in order and well beaten. In the midst of this 

 enclosure, where a cave is sometimes made, is seen a square and uncovered edifice, 

 constructed with handsome planks, the workmanship of which is admirable ; and 

 a stranger cannot behold without admiration that they are twenty-five feet in 

 length, by four in breadth, and two and a half inches in thickness."— (Marchaiid^s 

 Voy., Vol. I., p. 409.) Vanegas states that there was a temple, in his day, at the 



