The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1898-07-20
THE SACRED FIRE
A Legend of the worship of the Natcirez
indians.

Indians
In the belief of the Natchez Indians
the extinguishing, from whatsoever
cause, of the sacred or eternal" fire
which had been maintained from time
immemorial in their temple would be
followed by a great mortality among
tie Suns" or royal family of the ma
ton, who had been their hereditary
chiefs as they declared, since the re-
mote and Legendary period when mys-
FERROUS, shining parsonage who gave his
name to their ancestors "The, - mean
ing Thou, had descended from space,
or from the sun, and after founding the
royal family of Suns Of which he
himself was the first, had commanded
them to keep ever burning in a temple,
called the temple of the Sun, a fire
which he himself ignited, and which
should be forever kept burning from
the original fire in memory of him.
There was no custom of the Natchez
that was more religiously attended to
than this of maintaining the eternal
fire" unimpaired, as 'The" had given
it to their ancestors, as they constantly
dreaded the misfortunes and Affections
to the nation predicted by "Ihe" if
they allowed the fire to become extin-
guished. Death was to be the portion
allotted to any of the guardians of the
temple who might allow the fire to go
out LIE Page du Pratz relates a strange
story, told him by one Of the old men
of the nation, to the effect that on one
occasion a watcher Of the fire went to
sleep at his post in the temple, aud
waking discovered that the eternal
fire" was extinct.
Terrified at the thought Of the death
that awaited him because of his negli-
gence, he sought to conceal his guilt by
relighting the fire with what the
Natohez deemed "profane" fire, since
it was not the "sacred' fire that had
first been lighted so many centuries be-
fore by the hands of the mysterious
"The. " Accordingly the guardian asked
an Indian passing by to bring him a
few Goals wherewith to light his cal
umet. This was done, and the fire was
stealthily relighted from the Goals by
the guardian, who, however, kept the
dread secret to himself. Then followed
the threatened trouble.
THUS, said the old man who relat-
ed the circumstance to Mr. LIE Page,
this fire was rekindled with profane
fire. Immediately the sickness overlook
the Suns. They were seen to die one
after the other in few days, and it
was necessary to send after them to the
country of the spirits many Of the pee
pie to wait on them. This mortality
lasted four years, without any one being
able to assign cause for it. Nine
Great Suns who succeeded each other
died in this interval, and an infnitude
of the people died with them " Fortu-
nately-sO runs the story told by the
old man-the guilty guardian himself
fell sick. Feeling that he could not re-
cover he summoned the "Great Sun" of
the nation in all haste and confessed to
him all that had occurred in the matter
of the extinguishing of the eternal fire
through his negligence in having gone
to sleep. He added that unless the err
ror were rectifed the entire nation
would perish. Happily, the sacred"
fire lighted by "The" was not utterly
lost to the Natchez, for they possessed
another temple which also contained
fire which 1.-THE" had kindled. The
profane and evil working fire was ex-
tlnguished and new flame was kindled
from the genuine fire in the other tenn
pie. The cuIprit guardian duly died and
then the dreadful mortality that was
carrying off the Natchez by tens of
thousands became a thing of the past,
to the great joy of the nation. New
Orleans Picayune~
Tbaro YVoO No EoA4o6 Gale