because he had persuaded them to suspend their ancestral customs. After exhortations from the native priest, five women threw their children onto the flames of the burning temple as sacrificial victims. Great honor was associated with such a sacrifice, and the women were held in high esteem. After the sacrifice they were clothed in special white garments made of mulberry bark thread usually reserved for the nobility and had a white feather placed on their heads. They then were led in a procession to the chief's house, which was in the process of being converted into the new temple. People gave them gifts and there were eight days of ceremonies to honor them. Taensa mortuary traditions for the elites was to first bury the deceased and at a later date exhume and burn the body. The defleshed bones were then collected into a bundle and placed in a split cane basket which would then reside in the temple which also acted as a mortuary house. Language Early chroniclers de Montigny, Saint-Cosme, and Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz described the Taensa language as being nearly identical with the Natchez language; the missionaries were learning the latter language in their efforts to convert the Natchez and Taensa to Christianity. Linguists consider the Natchezan language family to be a language isolate. The best known connection proposed between Natchezan languages and other languages is Mary Haas' Gulf hypothesis, in which she conceived of a macrofamily comprising Muskogean and a number of language isolates of the southeastern US: Atakapa, Chitimacha, Natchez/Taensa, and Tunica. This hypothesis is now generally rejected by historical linguists; but a number of Muskogean scholars continue to believe that Muskogean is related to Natchez. The meaning of the Taensa name is unknown, although it is believed by anthropologists and linguists to be an autonym. The Chitimacha, the group with which they eventually merged, referred to them by the exonym Chō´sha. Taensa language hoax Between 1880-1882, a young clerical student in Paris named Jean Parisot published what was purported to be "material of the Taensa language, including papers, songs, a grammar and vocabulary"; this generated considerable interest among philologists. There was doubt about this material for many years; noted American anthropologist and linguist John R. Swanton conclusively proved the work to be a hoax in a series of publications in 1908-1910. See also History of the Tunica people Tunica-Biloxi References Further reading External