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Source:
From
Myths of the Cherokee, James Mooney, 1900
Besides the friendly Nûñnë'hï of the streams and mountains there is a
race of cannibal spirits, who stay at the bottom of the deep rivers and
live upon human flesh, especially that of little children.
They come out just after daybreak and go about unseen from house to
house until they find some one still asleep, when they shoot him with
their invisible arrows and carry the dead body down under the water to
feast upon it.
That no one may know what has happened they leave in place
of the body a shade or image of the dead man or little child, that wakes
up and talks and goes about just as he did, but there is no life in it,
and in seven days it withers and dies, and the people bury it and think
they are burying their dead friend.
It was a long time before the people
found out about this, but now they always try to be awake at daylight and
wake up the children, telling them "The hunters are among you."
This is the way they first knew about the water cannibals: There was a man
in Tïkwäli'tsï town who became sick and grew worse until the doctors said
he could not live, and then his friends went away from the house and left
him alone to die, They were not so kind to each other in the old times as
they are now, because they were afraid of the witches that came to torment
dying people.
He was alone several days, not able to rise from his bed, when one morning
an old woman came in at the door. She looked just like the other women of
the settlement, but he did not know her. She came over to the bed and
said, "You are very sick and your friends seem to have left you. Come with
me and I will make you well."
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The man was so near death that he could not
move, but now her words
made him feel stronger at once, and he asked her
where she wanted him to go. "We live close by; come with me and I will
show you," said the woman, so he got up from his bed and she led the way
down to the water. When she came to the water she stepped in and he
followed, and there was a road under the water, and another country there
just like that above.
They went on until they came to a settlement with a great many houses, and
women going about their work and children playing. They met a party of
hunters coming in from a hunt, but instead of deer or bear quarters
hanging from their shoulders they carried the bodies of dead men and
children, and several of the bodies the man knew for those of his own
friends in Tïkwäli'tsï. They came to a house and the woman said "This is
where I live," and took him in and fixed a bed for him and made him
comfortable.
By this time he was very hungry, but the woman knew his thoughts and said,
"We must get him something to eat. She took one of the bodies that the
hunters had just brought in and cut off a slice to roast. The man was
terribly frightened, but she read his thoughts again and said, "I see you
can not eat our food." Then she turned away from him and held her hands
before her stomach--so--and when she turned around again she had them full
of bread and beans such as he used to have at home.
So it was every day, until soon he was well and strong again. Then she
told him he might go home now, but he must be sure not to speak to anyone
for seven days, and if any of his friends should question him he must make
signs as if his throat were sore and keep silent. She went with him along
the same trail to the water's edge, and the water closed over her and he
went back alone to Tïkwäli'tsï. When he came there his friends were
surprised, because they thought he had wandered off and died in the woods.
They asked him where he had been, but he only pointed to his throat and
said nothing, so they thought he was not yet well and let him alone until
the seven days were past, when he began to talk again and told the whole
story.
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