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Source:
From
Myths of the Cherokee, James Mooney, 1900
Long ago, while people still
lived in the old town of Kana'sta, on the French Broad, two strangers, who
looked in no way different from other Cherokee, came into the settlement
one day and made their way into the chief's house.
After the first greetings were over the chief asked them from what town
they had come, thinking them from one of the western settlements, but they
said, "We are of your people and our town is close at hand, but you have
never seen it. Here you have wars and sickness, with enemies on every
side, and after a while a stronger enemy will come to take your country
from you, We are always happy, and we have come to invite you to live with
us in our town over there," and they pointed toward Tsuwa`tel'da (Pilot
knob).
"We do not live forever, and do not always find game when we go for it,
for the game belongs to Tsul`kälû', who lives in Tsunegûñ'yï, but we have
peace always and need not think of danger. We go now, but if your people
will live with us let them fast seven days, and we shall come then to take
them." Then they went away toward the west.
The chief called his people together into the townhouse and they held a
council over the matter and decided at last to go with the strangers. They
got all their property ready for moving, and then went again into the
townhouse and began their fast. They fasted six days, and on the morning
of the seventh, before yet the sun was high, they saw a great company
coming along the trail from the west, led by the two men who had stopped
with the chief.
They seemed just like Cherokee from another
settlement, and after a friendly meeting they took up a part of the goods
to be carried, and the two parties started back together for Tsuwa`tel'da.
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There was one man from another town visiting
at Kana'sta, and he
went along with the rest.
When they came to the mountain, the two guides led the way into a cave,
which opened out like a great door in the side of the rock. Inside they
found an open country and a town, with houses ranged in two long rows from
east to west.
The mountain people lived in the houses on the south side, and they had
made ready the other houses for the new comers, but even after all the
people of Kana'sta, with their children and belongings, had moved in,
there were still a large number of houses waiting ready for the next who
might come.
The mountain people told them that there was another town, of a different
people, above them in the same mountain, and still farther above, at the
very top, lived the Ani'-Hyûñ'tïkwälâ'skï (the Thunders).
Now all the people of Kana'sta were settled in their new homes, but the
man who had only been visiting with them wanted to go back to his own
friends. Some of the mountain people wanted to prevent this, but the chief
said, "No; let him go if he will, and when he tells his friends they may
want to come, too. There is plenty of room for all."
Then he said to the man, "Go back and tell your friends that if they want
to come and live with us and be always happy, there is a place here ready
and waiting for them. Others of us live in Datsu'nalâsgûñ'yï and in the
high mountains all around, and if they would rather go to any of them it
is all the same. We see you wherever you go and are with you in all your
dances, but you can not see us unless you fast. If you want to see us,
fast four days, and we will come and talk with you; and then if you want
to live with us, fast again seven days, and we will come and take you."
Then the chief led the man through the cave to the outside of the mountain
and left him there, but when the man looked back he saw no cave, but only
the solid rock.
The people of the lost settlement were never seen again, and they are
still living in Tsuwa`tel'da. Strange things happen there, so that the
Cherokee know the mountain is haunted and do not like to go near it. Only
a few years ago a party of hunters camped there, and as they sat around
their fire at supper time they talked of the story and made rough jokes
about the people of old Kana'sta.
That night they were aroused from sleep by a noise as of stones thrown at
them from among the trees, but when they searched they could find nobody,
and were so frightened that they gathered up their guns and pouches and
left the place.
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