siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL. LIFE 195
evil spirit, but it is probably significant that Rev. Alfred Wright,
who has left us the best account of primitive Choctaw religion, says
nothing whatever regarding the latter. True, a native missionary,
Israel Folsom, declares that "they also believed in the existence
of a devil, whom they designated Na-lusa-chi-to, a great black
being, or soul eater, who found full occupation in terrifying and
doing all manner of harm to people." "^^ He, however, was probably
only one of a number of hobgoblins in no way to be compared
with the great marplot of orthodox Christianity. Wright says that
four terms were applied to God, Nanapesa, IshtahuUo-chito or
Nanishta-hullo-chito, Hushtahli, and Uba Pike [Aba Pi°ki]. As he
suggests, the last of these, which means "Our Father," was prob-
ably adopted from the whites. The word Nanapesa, " director," or
" judge," at first seems to indicate a like origin, but, as we shall see
presently, the aboriginal solar deity was supposed to have power of
life and death, and I am therefore inclined to consider it as purely
native. " Ishtahullo or Nanishtahullo is applied," says Wriglij:, " to
whatever excites surprise, and also to anything which they conceive
to possess some occult or superior power. Hence it is a name they
give to witches." By the Chickasaw, at least, it was also bestowed
upon priests or any men who could perform wonders, whether good
or bad. The term Shilup chitoh osh is used by Cushman but it is
merely a translation into Choctaw of the words " The Great Spirit,"
in agreement with a supposed widely spread Indian conception.
Byington gives another term, Chitokaka, " The Great One,"
which again is probably modern. The only name which we may
set down with confidence as aboriginal Choctaw is Hushtahli (Hashtahli),
compounded of hashi, "sun," and tahli, "to complete an
action," but Wright could not suggest an explanation for the compound.
It may have had the significance of " culminated or noonday
sun " like the word Kutnahin, applied by the Chitimacha to
their own sun god, though tabokoa is the ordinary word for " noon."
Byington says that Hashtahli was applied to " the governor of the
world, whose eye is the sun," from which we may perhaps infer that
the beinsf so designated was celestial rather than solar. With this
reservation, the following remarks by Wright may be accepted as
giving us the best extant view of the character of this belief
That the Choctaws anciently regarded the sun as a deity, is probable for
several reasons. 1. To the sun was ascribed the power of life and death. He
was represented as looking down upon the earth, and as long as he kept his
flaming eye fixed on any one, that person was safe, but as soon as he turned
away his eye, the individual died. To the sun, also, they attributed their
success in war. An aged native has given me the form of a speech used by
the war-leaders after returning from a successful expedition. In this they
«5 Cushman, Hist. Inds., p. 363.