[125-2] Narrative of _Oceola Nikkanoche, Prince of Econchatti_, p. 141; Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, iv. p. 650. [126-1] The term in Maya is _caput zihil_, corresponding exactly to the Latin _renasci_, to be re-born, Landa, _Rel. de Yucatan_, p. 144. [126-2] Dumont, _Mems. Hist. sur la Louisiane_, i. p. 233. [127-1] Acosta, _Hist. of the New World_, lib. v. cap. 25. [127-2] _Senate Report on Condition of Indian Tribes_, p. 358: Washington, 1867. [128-1] Sahagun, _Hist. de la Nueva España_, lib. vi. cap. 37. [128-2] Ternaux-Compans, _Pièces rel. à la Conq. du Mexique_, p. 233. [128-3] Velasco, _Hist. de la Royaume de Quito_, p. 106, and others. [128-4] Whipple, _Rep. on the Indian Tribes_, p. 35. I am not sure that this practice was of native growth to the Cherokees. This people have many customs and traditions strangely similar to those of Christians and Jews. Their cosmogony is a paraphrase of that of Genesis (Squier, _Serp. Symbol_, from Payne's MSS.); the number seven is as sacred with them as it was with the Chaldeans (Whipple, u. s.); and they have improved and increased by contact with the whites. Significant in this connection is the remark of Bartram, who visited them in 1773, that some of their females were "nearly as fair and blooming as European women," and generally that their complexion was lighter than their neighbors (_Travels_, p. 485). Two explanations of these facts may be suggested. They may be descendants in part of the ancient white race near Cape Hatteras, to whom I have referred in a previous note. More probably they derived their peculiarities from the Spaniards of Florida. Mr. Shea is of opinion that missions were established among them as early as 1566 and 1643 (_Hist. of Catholic Missions in the U. S._, pp. 58, 73). Certainly in the latter half of the seventeenth century the Spaniards were prosecuting mining operations in their territory (See _Am. Hist. Mag._, x. p. 137). [129-1] Sprague, _Hist. of the Florida War_, p. 328. [129-2] Basanier, _Histoire Notable de la Floride_, p. 10. [130-1] Sahagun, _Hist. de la Nueva España_, lib. iii. app. cap. i.; Meyen, _Ueber die Ureinwohner von Peru_, p. 29. [130-2] Gabriel Thomas, _Hist. of West New Jersey_, p. 6: London, 1698. [131-1] Gama, _Des. de las dos Piedras_, etc., i. p. 36. [131-2] Garcia, _Or. de los Indios_, p. 109. [131-3] Oviedo, _Rel. de la Prov. de Nicaragua_, p. 41. The name is a corruption of the Aztec _Quiauhteotl_, Rain-God. [132-1] Gumilla, _Hist. del Orinoco_, ii. cap. 23. [132-2] _Doc. Hist. of New York_, iv. p. 130. [132-3] Gama, _Des. de las dos Piedras_, ii. p. 41; Gallatin, _Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc._, i. p. 343. [133-1] Adrian Van Helmont, _Workes_, p. 142, fol.: London, 1662.