La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

302 SUCCESS OF LA SALLE. [1682.accepted the gifts which Tonty laid before him. 1This interview over, the Frenchmen repaired to thetemple, wherein were kept the bones ofthe departedchiefs. In construction, it was much like the royaldwelling. Over it were rude wooden figures, representingthree eagles turned towards the east. Astrong mud wall surrounded it,on which were stuck the skulls ofplanted with stakes,enemies sacrificedto the Sun; while before the door was a block ofwood, on which lay a large shell surrounded with thebraided hair of the victims. The interior was rudeas a barn, dimly lighted from thedoorway, and fullof smoke. There was a structure in the middlewhich Membre* thinks was a kind of altar;and beforeit burned a perpetual fire, fed with three logs laidend to end, and watched by two old men devoted tothis sacred office. There was a mysterious recess,too, which the strangers were forbidden to explore,but which, as Tonty was told, contained the richesof the nation, consisting of pearls from the Gulf, andtrinkets obtained, probably through other tribes, fromthe Spaniards and other Europeans.The chief condescended to visit La Salle at hiscamp, — a favor which he would by no means havegranted, had the visitors been Indians. A master ofceremonies and six attendantspreceded him, to clear1Tonty, 1684, 1693. In the spurious narrative, published inTonty's name, the account is embellished and exaggerated. CompareMembre' in Le Clerc, ii. 227. La Salle's statements in theRelation of 1682 (Thomassy, 12) sustain those of Tonty.