The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1905-10-13
THE NATCHEZ INDIAN
HE AscRlBED THE SALVATION OF
HIS RACE TO A WOMAN.

Traditions of Tribe of Fire Wor-
shippers That Were of Oriental ORR
gin-The Legend of How the Sacred
Flame Was Allowed to Die.
OF all Indian tribes, none was more
interesting or more rudely destroyed
than the Natchez. What is remembered
of them is calculated to make deep
impression upon the imagination and
to cause regret that some historian has
not preserved truthful history of this
singular people. In the early tradi-
lions Of the Mexicans, preserved to us
In their hieroglyphical paintings, there
is presented the wonderful spectacle
Of families and nations, from innate
impulses, moving from 1.-THE north"
and, ever restless, wandering over an
unoccupied continent in search Of
homes. 1t is evident that the same
wisdom that COMPOUNDED the primitive
language at Babel and scattered the
swarming millions of Asia impelled the
early occupants of our continent to
move onward like advancing waves Of
the sea.
Inthese strange migrations some chief
must have separated from the parent
multitude and turned his face with
his followers toward the southwest,
and, finally reaching the delectable
lands of the valley Of the lower Mis-
sissippi, there established what was
afterward known as the tribe of the
Natchez.
The country selected is of SURPRISING
loneliness, for from the precipitOus
bluff that so Unexpectedly frowns down
upon the Mississippi, inland, to where
the nation erected it's great mound is
one continuous undulation of pic
turesque scenery, originally enriched
with groves Of live oaks and magno-
las. 1t was really fairyland, and
enough of the primitive forest still re-
mains to give the sanction of truth to
the most fiorid description Of it pre-
served in legendary lore.
There cannot be doubt that at the
time these nomadics took possession
of their adopted homes the surround
ing country was comparatively with
out inhabitants, for the savage and
warlike nations which lived in the
neighborhood never would have per-
mitted the Natchez in their infancy to
occupy lands which even afterward
the latter defended more by moral
than by physical force.
As fire worshipers the Natchez dis
played their oriental origin, and they
were more sincere in this most poetic
Of all idolatries than the magi of the
east They possessed a tradition
which, unlike the traditions of any
other nation, CALAMITY ascribed the
This was that after the destruction Of
all the inhabitants of the earth save
single family, which family was about
to die because of the continued dark
ness of the heavens, a young girl, in
spired with a wish to save her race,
threw herself into the fire which was
used as light and that no sooner was
her body consumed than she arose in
the east, surrounded with such sur
passing glory that her form could not
be looked upon. Thus enshrined she
became the chief, her nearest female
relative being elected her successor;
hence were established the worship Of
the sun and the living sacrifice of the
sacred fire, together with the belief
that so long as it blazed upon their
affairs the Natchez would be powerful
and happy.
The sun, female sovereign, was abb
solute in power. The rewards Of the
chase and Of the cultivation of the soil
were placed under her charge, imply
ing that they were the results Of her
genial rays, and through her, as If di-
rect from the hands Of Providence,
they were distributed among the peo-
Pile.
The Natchez must have rapidly in
creased after their establishment on
the banks of the Mississippi, for their
tradition was that in the first century
of their settlement they raised those
monuments Of industry on which to
erect their temples and bury their
dead, and the remains Of which are SO
much admired to this day. Their great
work was built upon hill, where they
believed fire fell from the sun, indicat-
ing that their wanderings were at an
end. This series of mounds, the most
remarkable in the valley Of the Mis-
sissippi, has been almost entirely over
looked by the curious in such relics Of
ancient days.
A natural hillock was leveled upon
the top and used as the foundation Of
the mounds, the only example known.
Upon base thus prepared were raised
the grand elevation for the great tenn
pie of the sun, the inferior works used
for defense and the graves Of the no
bles. In examining these singular
ruins, now covered with trees Of a
century's growth, it is not difficult to
conceive them rising in their perfec-
ton from the open plain, their sum-
mits smoking with sacrifcial fires and
covered with priests and people. 1t
was only upon the great mound and
o. tho faoffva1 Of ft,1ff, kba+ <to ..xx,