[106-1] Called in the Aztec tongue Tecolotl, night owl; literally, the stone scorpion. The transfer was mythological. The Christians prefixed to this word tlaca, man, and thus formed a name for Satan, which Prescott and others have translated “rational owl.” No such deity existed in ancient Anahuac (see Buschmann, Die Voelker und Sprachen Neu Mexico’s, p. 262).
[106-2] Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, v. p. 420.
[106-3] William Bartram, Travels, p. 504. Columbus found the natives of the Antilles wearing tunics with figures of these birds embroidered upon them. Prescott, Conq. of Mexico, i. p. 58, note.
[107-1] Rel. de la Nouv. France, An 1636, ch. ix. Catlin, Letters and notes, Lett. 22.
[108-1] Rel. de la Nouv. France, An 1648, p. 75; Cusic, Trad. Hist. of the Six Nations, pt. iii. The latter is the work of a native Tuscarora chief. It is republished in Schoolcraft’s Indian Tribes, but is of little value.
[109-1] For example, in Brazil, Müller, Amer. Urrelig., p. 277; in Yucatan, Cogolludo, Hist. de Yucathan, lib. iv. cap. 4; among the western Algonkins, Hennepin, Decouverte dans l’Amer. Septen. chap. 33. Dr. Hammond has expressed the opinion that the North American Indians enjoy the same immunity from the virus of the rattlesnake, that certain African tribes do from some vegetable poisons (Hygiene, p. 73). But his observation must be at fault, for many travellers mention the dread these serpents inspired, and the frequency of death from their bites, e. g. Rel. Nouv. France. 1667, p. 22.
[109-2] Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, p. 356.
[110-1] See Gallatin’s vocabularies in the second volume of the Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc. under the word Snake. In Arabic dzann is serpent; dzanan a spirit, a soul, or the heart. So in Hebrew nachas, serpent, has many derivatives signifying to hold intercourse with demons, to conjure, a magician, etc. See Noldeke in the Zeitschrift für Voelkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, i. p. 413.
[111-1] Alexander Henry, Travels, p. 117.
[111-2] Bost. Med. and Surg. Journal, vol. 76, p. 21.