Note 853 — Chapter XVII · THE ORIGIN OF PERPETUAL FIRES

Du Pratz, History of Louisiana (London, 1774), pp. 330-334, 346 sq., 351-358; Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, vi. 172 sqq.; Lafitau, Mœurs des sauvages Ameriquains, i. 167 sq.; Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, Nouvelle Édition, vii. (Paris, 1781) pp. 7-16 (reprinted in Recueil de voyages au nord, ix. Amsterdam, 1737, pp. 3-13); “Relation de la Louisianne,” Recueil de voyages au Nord, v. (Amsterdam, 1734) pp. 23 sq.; Bossu, Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes Occidentales (Paris, 1768), i. 42-44; Chateaubriand, Voyage en Amérique (Paris, 1870), pp. 227 sqq.; H. R. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, v. 68. The accounts differ from each other in some details. Thus Du Pratz speaks as if there were only two fire-temples in the country, whereas the writer in the Lettres édifiantes says that there were eleven villages each with its fire-temple, and that formerly there had been sixty villages and temples. The account in the text is based mainly on the authority of Du Pratz, who lived among the Natchez on terms of intimacy for eight years, from the end of 1718 to 1726.