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They had large townhouses in Pilot knob and under the old Nikwasi' mound
in North Carolina, and another under Blood mountain, at the head of
Nottely river, in Georgia. They were invisible excepting when they wanted
to be seen, and then they looked and poke just like other Indians. They
were very fond of music and dancing, and hunters in the mountains would
often hear the dance, songs and the drum beating in some invisible
townhouse, but when they went toward the sound it would shift about and
they would hear it behind them or away in some other direction, so that
they could never find the place where the dance was.
They were a friendly people, too, and often brought lost wanderers to
their townhouses under the mountains and cared for them there until they
were rested and then guided them back to their home . More than once,
also, when the Cherokee were hard pressed by the enemy, the Nûñnë'hï
warriors have come out, as they did at old Nikwasi', and have saved them
from defeat. Some people have thought that they are the same as the Yûñwï
Tsunsdi', the "Little People"; but these are fairies, no larger in size
than children.
There was a man in Nottely town who had been with the Nûñnë'hï when he was
a boy, and he told Wafford all about it. He was a truthful, hard-headed
man, and Wafford had heard the story so often from other people that he
asked this man to tell it. It was in this way:
When he was about 10 or 12 years old he was playing one day near the
river, shooting at a mark with his how and arrows, until he became tired,
and started to build a fish trap in the water. While he was piling up the
stones in two long walls a man came and stood on the bank and asked him
what he was doing. The boy told him, and the man said, "Well, that's
pretty hard work and you ought to rest a while. Come and take a walk up
the river."
The boy said, "No"; that he was going home to dinner soon.
"Come right up to my house," said the stranger, and I'll give you a good
dinner there and bring you home again in the morning." So the boy went
with him up the river until they came to a house, when they went in, and
the man's wife and the other people there were very glad to see him, and
gave him a fine dinner, and were very kind to him. While they were eating
a man that the boy knew very well came in and spoke to him, so that he
felt quite at home.
After dinner he played with the other children and slept there that night,
and in the morning, after breakfast, the man got ready to take him home.
They went down a path that had a cornfield on one side and a peach orchard
fenced in on the other, until they came to another trail, and the man
said, "Go along this trail across that ridge and you will come to the
river road that will bring you straight to your home, and now I'll go back
to the house."
So the man went back to the house and the boy went on along the trail, but
when he had gone a little way he looked back, and there was no cornfield
or orchard or fence or house; nothing but trees on the mountain side.
He thought it very queer, but somehow he was not frightened, and went on
until he came to the river trail in sight of his home. There were a great
many people standing about talking, and when they saw him they ran toward
him shouting, "Here he is! He is not drowned or killed in the mountains!"
They told him they had been hunting him ever since yesterday noon, and
asked him where he had been.
"A man took me over to his house just across the ridge, and I had a fine
dinner and a good time with the children," said the boy, "I thought
Udsi'skalä here"--that was the name of the man he had seen at
dinner--"would tell you where I was."
But Udsi'skalä said, "I haven't seen you. I was out all day in my canoe
hunting you. It was one of the Nûñnë'hï that made himself look like me."
Then his mother said, "You say you had dinner there_"
"Yes, and I had plenty, too," said the boy; but his mother answered,
"There is no house there--only trees and rocks--but we hear a drum
sometimes in the big bald above. The people you saw were the Nûñnë'hï."
Once four Nûñnë'hï women came, to a dance at Nottely town, and danced half
the night with the young men there, and nobody knew that they were
Nûñnë'hï, but thought them visitors from another settlement. About
midnight they left to go home, and some men who had come out from the
townhouse to cool off watched to see which way they went. They saw the
women go down the trail to the river ford, but just as they came to the
water they disappeared, although it was a plain trail, with no place where
they could hide.
Then the watchers knew they were Nûñnë'hï women. Several men saw this
happen, and one of them was Wafford's father-in-law, who was known for an
honest man. At another time a man named Burnt-tobacco was crossing over
the ridge from Nottely to Hemptown in Georgia and heard a drum and the
songs of dancers in the hills on one side of the trail.
He rode over to
see who could be dancing in such a place, but when he reached the spot the
drum and the songs were behind him, and he was so frightened that he
hurried back to the trail and rode all the way to Hemptown as hard as he
could to tell the story. He was a truthful man, and they believed what he
said.
There must have been a good many of the Nûñnë'hï living in that
neighborhood, because the drumming wits often heard in the high balds
almost up to the time of the Removal.
On a small upper branch of Nottely, running nearly due north from Blood
maintain, there was also a hole, like a small well or chimney, in the
ground, from which there came up a warm vapor that heated all the air
around. People said that this was because the Nûñnë'hï had a townhouse and
a fire under the mountain. Sometimes in cold weather hunters would stop
there to warm the selves, but they were afraid to stay long. This was more
than sixty years ago, but the hole is probably there yet.
Close to the old trading path from South Carolina up to the Cherokee
Nation, somewhere near the head of Tugaloo, there was formerly a noted
circular depression about the size of a townhouse, and waist deep. Inside
it was always clean as though swept by unknown hands. Passing traders
would throw logs and rocks into it, but would always, on their return,
find them thrown far out from the hole. The Indians said it was a Nunne'hi
townhouse, and never liked to go near the place or even to talk about it,
until at last some logs thrown in by the traders were allowed to remain
there, and then they concluded that the Nunne'hi, annoyed by the
persecution of the white men, had abandoned their townhouse forever.
There is another race of spirits, the Yûñwï Tsunsdi', or "Little People,"
who live in rock eaves on the mountain side. They are little fellows,
hardly reaching up to a man's knee, but well shaped and handsome, with
long hair falling almost to the ground. They are great wonder workers and
are very fond of music, spending half their time drumming and dancing.
They are helpful and kind-hearted, and often when people have been lost in
the mountains, especially children who have strayed away from their
parents, the Yûñwï Tsunsdi' have found them and taken care of -them and
brought them back to their homes. Sometimes their drum is heard in lonely
places in the mountains, but it is not safe to follow it, because the
Little People do not like to be disturbed at home, and they throw a spell
over the stranger so that he is bewildered and loses his way, and even if
he does at last get back to the settlement he is like one dazed ever
after.
Sometimes, also, they come near a house at night and the people inside
hear them talking, but they must not go out, and in the morning they find
the corn gathered or the field cleared as if a whole force of men had been
at work. If anyone should go out to watch, he would die. When a hunter
finds anything in the woods, such as a knife or a trinket, he must say,
"Little People, I want to take this," because it may belong to them, and
if he does not ask their permission they will throw stones at him as he
goes home.
Once a hunter in winter found tracks in the snow like the tracks of little
children. He wondered how they could have come there and followed them
until they led him to a cave, which was full of Little People, young and
old, men, women, and children. They brought him in and were kind to him,
and he was with them some time; but when he left they warned him that he
must not tell or he would die.
He went back to the settlement and his friends were all anxious to know
where he had been. For a long time he refused to say, until at last he
could not hold out any longer, but told the story, and in a few days he
died. Only a few years ago two hunters from Raventown, going behind the
high fall near the head of Oconaluftee on the East Cherokee reservation,
found there a cave with fresh footprints of the Little People all over the
floor.
During the smallpox among the East Cherokee just after the war one sick
man wandered off, and his friends searched, but could not find him. After
several weeks he came back and said that the Little People had found him
and taken him to one of their eaves and tended him until he was cured.
About twenty-five years ago a man named Tsantäwû' was lost in the
mountains on the head of Oconaluftee. It was winter time and very cold and
his friends thought he must be dead, but after sixteen days he came back
and said that the Little People had found him and taken him to their cave,
where he had been well treated, and given plenty of everything to eat
except bread. This was in large loaves, but when he took them in his hand
to eat they seemed to shrink into small cakes so light and crumbly that
though he might eat all day he would not be satisfied.
After he was well rested they had brought him a part of the way home until
they came to a small creek, about knee deep, when they told him to wade
across to reach the main trail on the other side. He waded across and
turned to look back, but the Little People were gone and the creek was a
deep river. When he reached home his legs were frozen to the knees and he
lived only a few days.
Once the Yûñwï Tsunsdi' had been very kind to the people of a certain
settlement, helping them at night with their work and taking good care of
any lost children, until something happened to offend them and they made
up their minds to leave the neighborhood. Those who were watching at the
time saw the whole company of Little People come down to the ford of the
river and cross over and disappear into the mouth of a large cave on the
other side. They were never heard of near the settlement again.
There are other fairies, the Yûñwï Amai'yïnë'hï, or Water-dwellers, who
live in the water, and fishermen pray to them for help. Other friendly
spirits live in people's houses, although no one can see them, and so long
as they are there to protect the house no witch can come near to do
mischief.
Tsäwa'sï and Tsäga'sï are the names of two small fairies, who are
mischievous enough, but yet often help the hunter who prays to them.
Tsäwa'sï, or Tsäwa'sï Usdi'ga (Little Tsäwa'sï), is a tiny fellow, very
handsome, with long hair falling down to his feet, who lives in grassy
patches on the hillsides and has great power over the game.
To the deer hunter who prays to him he gives skill to slip up on the deer
through the long grass without being seen. Tsäga'sï is another of the
spirits invoked by the hunter and is very helpful, but when someone trips
and falls, we know that it is Tsäga'sï who has caused it. There are
several other of these fairies with names, all good-natured, but more or
less tricky.
Then there is De'tsätä. De'tsätä was once a boy who ran away to the woods
to avoid a scratching and tries to keep himself invisible ever since. He
is a handsome little fellow and spends his whole time hunting birds with
blowgun and arrow. He has a great many children who are all just like him
and have the same name. When a flock of birds flies up suddenly as if
frightened it is because De'tsätä is chasing them.
He is mischievous and sometimes hides an arrow from the bird hunter, who
may have shot it off into a perfectly clear space, but looks and looks
without finding it. Then the hunter says, "De'tsätä, you have my arrow,
and if you don't give it up I'll scratch you," and when he looks again he
finds it.
There is one spirit that goes about at night with a light. The Cherokee
call it Atsil'-dihye'gï, "The Fire-carrier," and they are all afraid of
it, because they think it dangerous, although they do not know much about
it. They do not even know exactly what it looks like, because they are
afraid to stop when they see it. It may be a witch instead of a spirit.
Wafford's mother saw the "Fire-carrier" once when she was a young woman,
as she was coming home at night from a trading post in South Carolina. It
seemed to be following her from behind, and. she was frightened and
whipped up her horse until she got away from it and never saw it again.
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