, ( *5* .) 

 pofTible that the neighbourhood of the French 

 made the Natchez apprehenfive of lofing the dead 

 bodies of their chiefs, and whatever was mod 

 precious in their temple, for which caufe they have 

 carried them el fe where •, and that the little regard 

 they pay to their temple at prefent is owing to its 

 having been ftript of whatever was held moft facred 

 amongft them. It is however true, that, clofe by 

 the wall, and oppofite to the gate, there is a table, 

 the dimenfions of which I was not at the trouble 

 to take, as I had then no fulpicion of its being an 

 altar. I have been fince informed, that it is three 

 feet in height, five in length, and four in breadth. 



I have further heard, that they make a fmall 

 fire on it with the bark of the oak, which never goes 

 out, but this is falfe, for I faw no fire, nor any 

 thing from which it could be imagined there ever 

 was a fire there. They fay likeways that four old 

 men lie in the temple by turns, in order to keep up 

 this fire ; that he who is upon guard muft not go 

 out during the eight days he is upon duty ; that 

 they take the lighted charcoal of the logs that are 

 burning in the middle of the temple, to put upon 

 the altar ; that twelve men are employed in pro- 

 viding oak-bark; that there are monkeys of wood, 

 and the figure of a rattlefnake, likewife of wood, 

 placed upon the altar, to which they pay great 

 honours : that when their chief dies he is buried, 

 and, when they imagine his flefh is confumed, the 

 keeper of the temple takes up his bones, wafhes 

 them, wraps them up in their moft precious robes, 

 places them in large bafkets made of canes, which 

 he covers with deer fkins, and difpofes them before 

 the altar, where they remain till the death of the 

 reigning chief; and that then he ihuts them up within 



