SWANTON] INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 161

fruits of their harvest-we must certainly abate a great deal of all this. I
never saw anything more slovenly and dirty, nor more in disorder. The
billets burnt upon the bare ground; and I saw no mats on it, no more than
the walls. M. le Noir, who was with me, only told me that every day they put
a new billet on the fire, and that at the beginning of every moon they made a
provision for the whole month. But he knew this only by report; for it was
the first time he had seen this temple, as well as myself.'"
 The description of the Natchez temple given by Le Petit is really
that of the Taensa temple, though it is impossible to say from what
source it was derived, whether from P6nicaut, Tonti, or some other
of the former companions of La Salle. From the absence of any ref-
erence to the riches of the place, however, it would seem to be from
some authentic narrative. Dumont's account is as follows:
 The Natchez also had a temple; that is to say, a good-sized cabin, to which it
has pleased our Europeans to give this name; but it was never ornamented
in the manner described by a certain author who says that this pretended
temple was covered with gold. If he has taken for gold the cane mats which
covered this cabin, well and good. I will not oppose him at all. But I have
difficulty in excusing what he adds, that this temple was surrounded by a
palisade of pointed stakes on which these savages planted the heads of their
enemies taken or killed in war,b since it is a well-known fact that the savages
do not amuse themselves in cutting off the head of their enemy, and that
they content themselves with taking his scalp. Besides, it is certain that this
pretended temple, situated in a corner of the plain to 1he right in going from
the French post to the village of the savages, was not surrounded with any
palisade, and that there was no other ornament which distinguished it from
ordinary cabins. It is also false that in this temple, as the same writer dares
to state, there were 100 or 200 persons appointed as guard of the perpetual
fire. I admit that fire was always preserved here without any savage ever
being able to explain on what this ceremony was founded. Besides, it is certain
that there were in all only four guardians destined to the service of the
temple, who relieved each other by turns every eight days (tour-4.-touir tons
les huit jours), and who were charged with the duty of bringing wood to
preserve the fire. If by their negligence it became extinguished, it is a fact that
not only would it cost them their lives, but also those of their wives and their
children. But as only the great chief of the nation as well as some Honored
men and the female chief ever entered the temple, as they did not go there
every day but only when the fancy seized them, it may be imagined that the
guardians were the entire masters of this fire, that if it happened by any
chance to be extinguished they were not obliged to boast of it and could
relight it at once. It was in this temple that the Natchez interred their chiefs
and preserved the bones of their ancestors.c
 Du Pratz says:
 Of all the temples of these people [of Louisiana] that of the Natchez, which
it was easy for me to examine, is also that of which I am going to give the
most exact description that I can. None of the people of the nation enter this
temple except the Suns and those who are attached to the temple service by
their employment, whatever they are. Ordinarily, strangers never enter there,
but being a particular friend of the sovereign he has allowed me to see it.
 a Charlevoix's Journal, in French, Iist. Coll. La., 160-162, 1851.
 b It was the Taensa temple that was so surrounded.
 Dumont, Mdm. Hist. sur La Louisiane, I, 158-160.
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