SWANTON] INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 165

 In the inner sanctuary Du Pratz could make out nothing except
 "two planks worked by hand on which are many minute carvings."
 It is to be suspected, however, that these were only accessories to a
 more important inhabitant of the inner sanctuary, and that this was
 no other than the stone statue, referred to by St. Cosme, into which
 the founder of the rites of the Natchez nation and the progenitor of
 its royal family had metamorphosed himself. This was without
 doubt the principal treasure of the temple, and the real object of its
 existence.a
 Charlevoix states that all the nations of Louisiana were obliged
 to rekindle their sacred fires at the temple of the Mobilians," but the
 position here assigned to them seems strange in view of the distance
 of that tribe from the Natchez, their comparative insignificance,
 and P6nicaut's statement that they had no temple." Charlevoix
 was probably led to his conclusion by the prominent position
 occupied by them in the De Soto chronicles and still more by
 the use of their language as a common medium of communication.
 Du Pratz quotes the Natchez tradition to the effect that anciently
 they had had two temples,' so that if the fire went out in one they
 could relight it from the other, but he does not indicate where the
 second was located in his day or, if it no longer existed, what supplied
 its place. One is tempted to think that the fire would have been
 brought from the Taensa temple, the Taissa being an offshoot of the
 Natchez, or possibly from that of the Chitimachla, who, according
 to Du Pratz, were called brothers by the Natchez. That we have
 no direct statement regarding fire being brought from the Tainsa
 may be partly explained by the fact that their temple was destroyed
 in the earliest period of European intercourse. However, the posi-
 tive statement of Father Poisson would seem to be better than any
 conjecture, however plausible, and he says they know by tradition
 that, if it (the fire) happen to be extinguished, they must go to the
 Tonicas to relight it."' The full possible significance of this does
 not appear until one remembers that the Tunica and their neighbors
seem to represent the pre-Muskhogean culture of the Mississippi
valley.
 Of the respect shown to their temple by the Natchez, Gravier says:
 All the men who pass before the temple lay down what they carry and
extend their arms toward the temple with loud howlings, and if they have
small children they take theum up in their arms and, turning toward the temple,
they make them touch the ground three times with the forehead.f
 a See p. 172.
 lCharlevoix in French, lust. Coll. La., 170, 1851.
 Margry, Decouvertes, v, 427.
 d See pp. 170-171.
 SPoisson in Jes. Rol., .xvir, 312-313.
 SGravier in Shea's Early Voy. Miss., 141, and Jes. Rel., LXV, 14:3.