282 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [nULL. 43

of their life there P6nicant records several interesting matters con-
cerning the ethnology of the people. He says:
 The Nassitoches are handsomer and better formed than the Colapissas,
because the latter, as well men as women, have the body entirely tattooed.
They tattoo themselves almost all over the body with needles, and rub these
punctures with charcoal from the willow crushed very fine, which does not
poison the puncture. The women and girls of the Colapissas have the arms and
face thus tattooed, which disfigures them villainously; but the Nassitoches, as
well men as women and girls, do not provide themselves with these tattooings,
which they hate. This is why the women are more beautiful, besides the fact
that they are naturally lighter.
 With regard to their religion they (the Acolapissa) have a round temple,
before which they present themselves evening and morning, rubbing their bodies
with white earth and raising their arms on high; they mutter some words in
a very low voice during a quarter of an hour. There are at the door of the
temple wooden figures of birds: there are in the temple a quantity of little
idols, as well of wood as of stone, which represent dragons, serpents, and
varieties of frogs, which they keep inclosed in three coffers which are in the
temple, and of which the great chief has the key.
 When a savage dies they prepare a kind of tomb, or rather scaffold, raised 2
 feet from the ground. on which they place the dead body. They cover it well
 with rich earth and put over it the lark of trees, for fear of the animals and
birds of prey; then, underneath, they place a little pitcher filled with water,
with a dish full of neal. Every evening and morning they light a lire there
beside it and go to weep there. The richer hire women to perform this latter
office. At the end of six months they unwrap the body of the dead; if it is
consumed, they put the bones into a basket and carry them to their temple;
if it is not consumed, they remove the bones and bury the flesh.
 They are quite n11t (propirc.) in their eating. They have particular pots for
 each thing they are going to cook-that is to say. the pot which is for meat is
 not used for fish; they dress all their food with bear fat, which is white in
 winter, when it is coagulated. like hog's lard, and in summer it is like olive oil.
 It has no bad taste; 1hey eat it with salad, make of it pastry, fried dishes, and
 all that that suits them generally.
 With regard lo fruits, few are found. They have, however, peaches in the
 season which are even larger than in France and more sugary; strawberries,
 plums, and a grape which is rather small (nmaigrc) and not at all as large as
 that of France. There are also nuts which they crush, of which they make flour
 in order to make porridge for their children witl water: they also make of
 them holminy, or bread, by mixing it with cornmeal. '
 These savages have no other hairs than those of the head. They pull them
 out as well from the face ais elsewhere; they take off the hair by means of the
 ashes of shells and hot water, as one would do to a sucking pig, as well the
 men as the women and girls.
 They have an extraordinary manner of lighting a fire. They take a little piece
 of cedar wood as large as the finger and a little piece of mulberry (murct ?)
 wood, which is very hard; they put one against the other between their hands
 and by turning them together as if they were going to stir chocolate, there
 comes out from the cedar wood a little piece of moss [or perhaps a little dust],
 which takes fire. That is done in an instant.
 When they go to hunt they are dressed in skins of deer with their horns, and
 when they see one of these animals at a distance in the woods they make the
 same gestures as it does, which, as soon as it perceives them. runs up, and when