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212 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bdll.103
A different explanation was given Bushnell by the Choctaw of
Bayou Lacomb.
The Choctaw stiy that since the sun works every day he becomes dirty and
smoked from the great fire within. It is necessary therefore for him to rest
and clean himself, after doing which he shines the brighter. During the
eclipse he is removing the accumulated dirt. A similar explanation applies
to the dark of the moon."
Hence the solar eclipse was known as " sun dark or dirty," and
the lunar eclipse as " moon cleaning itself."
The last-mentioned writer has the following on thunder and
lightning and the comet
Thunder and lightning are to the Choctaw two great birds—Thunder
(Heloha), the female; Lightning (Mela'tha), the male. When they hear a
great noise in the clouds, Heloha is laying an egg, " just like a bird," in the
cloud, which is her nest. When a tree is shattered the result is said to have
been caused by Mala'tha, the male, he being the stronger ; but when a tree
is only slightly damaged, the efilect is attributed to Heloha, the weaker.
Great trouble or even war was supposed to follow the sight of a comet.*"
Prayer, Sacrifice, Dreams, Etc.
An old Choctaw informed Wright that, before the arrival of the
missionaries, they had no conception of prayer. However, he adds,
" I have indeed heard it asserted by some, that anciently their
hopaii, or prophets, on some occasions were accustomed to address
the sun ; but whether in the way of prayer or not I do not know." ®^
Nor must we forget the invocations to various powers in nature
which were contained in the medical formuloe.
At a later time Simpson Tubby claims that the head chief of the
Choctaw was wont to kindle a fire on a still day when the smoke
would go straight upward, and bend over it in prayer to some
unknown power.
Romans gives us this description of a hunting taboo which is
suggestive of sacrifice:
When a deer or bear is killed by them, they divide the liver into as many
pieces as there are fires, and send a boy to each with a piece, that the men
belonging to each fire may burn it, but the Avomen's tires are excluded from
this ceremony, and if each party kills one or more animals, the livers of
them are all treated in the same manner."'
Adair says that the Indians of his acquaintance believed the time
of a man's death to be fated, and the following item regarding
B* Bull. 48, Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 18.
«» Ibid.
" The Missionary Herald, op. cit., p. 181.
0' Rornaus, .Nat. Hist. E. and W. Fla., p. 83.