| CONSECRATING
A STAG TO THE SUN -- The
subjects of the chief Outina were accustomed
every year, a little before their spring, that
is, in the end of February, to take the skin
of the largest stag they could get, keeping the
horns on it, to stuff it full of all the choicest
sorts of roots that grow among them, and to hang
long wreathes or garlands of the best fruits
on the horns, neck, and other parts of the body.
Thus decorated they carry it, with music and
songs, to a very large and splendid level space,
where they set it up on a very high tree, with
the head and breast toward the sunrise. They
then offer prayers to the sun that he would cause
to grow on their lands good things such as those
offered him. The chief, with his sorcerer, stands
nearest the tree and offers the prayer. The common
people, placed at a distance, make responses.
Then the chief and all the rest, saluting the
sun, depart, leaving the deer's hide there until
the next year. This ceremony they repeat annually. |
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