Though these people have no family names, they generally take a kind of honorary title or _sobriquet_, as is also the case with the wild tribes, upon the occurrence of any important incident, or the performance of a meritorious feat. A singular mode of inheritance prevails among the Cherokees, the Creeks, and perhaps others. Though the women in other respects are mostly held as very inferior beings, the clans are all reckoned by them: the children pertain to [Pg317] the mother, and the estates descend through the female branch of the family. They say it is easy enough to verify the mothers of families, but it is difficult to identify the fathers. The remaining tribes, inhabiting the more northern frontier, as well as the Seminoles who are located among the Creeks, possess so few distinct or striking characteristics, and, indeed, are mostly so few in number, that a particular notice of them seems hardly to be required. Suffice it to say, that all of them, {275} as I believe, still retain their ancient systems of arbitrary chiefs and councils of sages and braves, nearly in their primitive state; and that the greater portion of them live in log huts, and cultivate the soil to a considerable extent. Though the Shawnees, Delawares, and Kickapoos, are among the most agricultural of the northern Indians, yet a few of these spend the greater portion of their time on the Prairies in hunting and in trading with the wild tribes.[204] FOOTNOTES: [174] Consult Thwaites, _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_, (New York, 1904-05) v, p. 347.--ED. [175] The consensus of modern opinion is, that the Indians worshipped the sun only as a symbol. They were in a stage neither monotheistic nor pantheistic, but recognized all manifestations of the unseen, without a sense of personal unity. Consult on this subject, J. W. Powell, "Mythology of North American Indians," in U. S. Bureau of Ethnology _Report_, 1879-80, pp. 17-56; D. G. Brinton, _Myths of the New World_ (third edition, Philadelphia, 1896); R. M. Dorman, _Origin of Primitive Superstitions among the Aborigines of America_ (Phila., 1881).--ED. [176] José de Acosta, a Jesuit historian (1539-1600), born in Spain, was missionary to Peru for many years. Upon his return to Spain he published _Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias_ (Seville, 1590), both in Latin and Spanish. An English translation appeared in 1604.--ED. [177] Clavigero asserts of the Indians of Mexico, that their first heaven (that of the warriors, &c.) they called "_la casa del sol_" (the house of the sun), which luminary they worshipped every morning at sunrise.--GREGG. [178] I have since met with the same, in substance, related by Mr. Schoolcraft.--GREGG. _Comment by Ed._ Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864), for many years Indian agent at Mackinac, and a prolific writer on Indian subjects.