photo: jetheriot
LAKE CATA-OULOU is the sacred lake of the Indians. It lies ensconced, as it were, in the deep solitude of the great forest which skirts the ATTAKAPAS prairie on the East of the Teche, about nine miles from the town of ST. MARTINVILLE, the word CATA-OULOU meaning sacrifice.
The beauty of its scenery and its picturesque landscape have probably no equal in the State. Its water has the transparency of crystal and its depth averages from ninety to one hundred feet. The sinuosities of its deep and precipitous banks and its width, which does not exceed 500 yards, lead us to believe that at one time it may have been the bed of some mighty river, perhaps the Mississippi itself. The Indians of the surrounding country came to this spot to propitiate, with their offerings and sacrifices, the GREAT SPIRIT, the all powerful Manitou.
In its crystalline waters they plunged themselves to get cleansed of their moral and physical impurities. In its sacred waters they dipped their amulets and arrows to avert approaching calamities, and as a protection against the devices of the evil spirit. He who could not make this pilgrimage felt despondent and unhappy, and his inability to follow the others in their saintly journey bode him no good. If his memory was executed and his death was considered the judgment of the Great Manitou in atonement for his crimes committed by him. The lake is still called CATA-OULOU, the lake of sacrifice, but the Great Manitou, like his Indian worshipper, is now a thing of the past.
The picturesque and beautiful lake, with its transparent waters, is now a summer resort, where the lover of solitude and the people of St. Martinville and of the adjoining villages in the sultry hours of the dog days seek the coolness and shade of the majestic oaks that line its banks.