66 [98] TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



going through a water-course was nothing unusual then, for war- 

 parties often walked for long distances through rivers, against or 

 with the current, to conceal their tracks from the enemy. The 

 Kasi'hta took this as a sign that they had to do with a people 

 hostile to them. 



The name of the mountain which made a noise like a drum is 

 not Maskoki in this form, Moterell ; for there is no r in Maskoki 

 dialects (nor in Yuchi). This letter is probably meant for'/, but 

 even then no known word suggests itself to explain the local name, 

 which may refer to the noise heard. The war-custom referred to 

 — the beating of a drum — is probably the only reason for men- 

 tioning that mountain in the context. 



The fact that the population of the town which they captured 

 had flattened heads does not help us much in determining its site 

 or nationality ; for, as we have seen in a former item, this custom 

 was general among the Creeks, Apalachians, and Cha'hta. The 

 only deduction to be drawn from the statement is that the heads 

 of the invading tribe had not undergone this deformation.* The 

 town was evidently situated in the vicinity of Apala^tchiikla, the 

 friendly or white town which they had been seeking so long ; ac- 

 cording to Taskaya Miko's account, the captured town was at the 

 mounds in the Kasi'hta fields, and the attacking tribe crossed the 

 Chatahuchi river "at the island, near the mound." 



The Creeks possess a tradition according to which they con- 

 quered the Niikfalalgi (or Niikfila) at an earlier period than the 

 Yamassalgi, and that both peoples lived in the direction toward 

 Florida (fkana = faski fatchan). But did the Nukfalalgi dwell on 

 or near Chatahutchi river? if so, they may possibly represent the 

 people spoken of in the present passage. My inquiries on this 

 point met with no satisfactory reply ; some thought that they had 

 been of Creek origin. Kawita Miko, an aged chief, told me that 

 Nukfila was the name which the Kataba gave to this people, and 

 that they roamed in the country anciently called Florida, but not 

 in the point (peninsula) ; that the Creeks transformed the name 

 into '^Niikihotsi," spotted^ marked on the neck, taking over only 

 the nuk- from the name, which they did not understandf ; and 



* Dr. Brinton, Ch.-M. Legend, p. 7, thinks that this flat-headed race once inhabiting the 

 mounds along the Lower Chatahuchi consisted of pure-blooded Cha'lita. 

 f Inukwa means his neck. 



