e 261. The personal vanity of the Cherokees was so great that
after discovering the functions of a mirror the men were never without
one. Even in their most unimpeded war-trim they carried a mirror slung
over one shoulder and consulted it from time to time with pleasure
doubtless. When the small-pox broke out among them, those whose
appearance had suffered from that disease could not endure to survive
their disfigurement, and promptly took their own lives, although
suicides were buried without the highly esteemed honors usually paid to
the dead.

13 Page 366. The temperament of Atta-Kulla-Kulla seems far more complex
than the simple traits attributed usually to untrained character. Apart
from his savage craft, courage, and a sort of natural eloquence which he
shared with his tribe, the close discernment shown in some of his
speeches still extant, his magnanimity, his capacity to receive and
assimilate new impressions, his diplomatic talents, all suggest a
versatile mind, and he also possessed a caustic wit to which he was wont
to give rein touching the oft-broken promises of one of the governors of
South Carolina, from whom it is related he had received many letters
which he said "were not agreeable to the old beloved speech." He kept
them regularly piled in a bundle in the order in which he had received
them, and often showed them. "'The first,' he used to say, 'contained a
_little_ truth,' and he would devise fantastic excuses for the failure
of the rest of it, urging the governor's perplexing rush of official
business which had occasioned him to forget his strong promises. 'But
count,' said he, 'the lying black marks of this one'--and he would
descant minutely on every circumstance of it." His patience, he would
declare, was exhausted, and he felt that the letters were "nothing but
an heap of broad black papers and ought to be burnt in the old year's
fire." The old year's fire was a symbol of departed values, the new
year's fire being kindled with great ceremony by the Cheera-taghe, or
prophets, "men of the divine fire."

14 Page 386. It is pleasant to know that this strong friendship suffered
no diminution by reason of time and distance. Bartram relates that when
he traveled in the Cherokee country in 1773 he met descending the
heights a company of Indians all well mounted on horses. "I observed a
chief at the head of the caravan, and as they came up I turned off from
the path to make way in token of respect, which