Nol^ 80]^" ^^^' EASTERN CHEROKEE FOLKTALES — KILPATRICK 435 



They were very much worn out, and on the top of the mound the 

 Cherokees overtook them and killed all of them except one. They 

 took the scalps from all of those that they killed, and they also brought 

 back the Cherokee scalp which the Ani:gh(i)sgi had taken. 



From the one that they did not kill, they took the scalp, just the 

 same, and then let him go. As soon as they told him to go back to 

 his people the earth became dry again. (This was brought about 

 by the powerful Wa^dho:gi magician.) They let one man go after 

 having taken his scalp in order to let him go tell his people that the 

 Cherokees were not afraid, and that they wanted all the Ani:gh{i)sgi 

 to come so that the Cherokees could do the same thing to them. 



With the Ani:gh{i)sgi was living a Cherokee girl whom they had 

 captured many years ago, and who could speak theu- language. She 

 later told her people all that the Ani:gh{i)sgi had said. 



When the scalped man got back to where his people lived, he told 

 them all that had happened. Then the chiefs of the Ani:gh(i)sgi 

 assembled, and they decided that there must be peace between the 

 Ani:gh(i)sgi and the Cherokee. (The Cherokee were very powerful 

 at that time, and all the tribes were afraid of them.) 



This is how peace came about between the Cherokee and the 

 Ani:gh{i)sgi. This battle was the last one of the war. 



The Cherokee girl came back to her people and told them all that 

 the Ani:gh{i)sgi had said about them. 



LOCAL LEGENDS 



1.— THE DANCING GHOSTS 



Between Bryson City and Almond, and Topton, along the Nantahala 

 River, is a place they call Dudv:hnv:yi.^^ It is a rock like two rooms; 

 there is something like a portal to it, and there is a room on each side. 



Once a few hunters went there and built a fire in one of the rooms. 

 Later a few more hunters came. They all lay down to sleep. But 

 one of them was mischievous, and he began to sing the Add^ho:nd 

 ("wood, cut it, you [imp.]"), the Women's Dance,^^ which is sung 

 by men. He kept saying, "Ditsa:nv:sv:dhv:ga! (fasten them [solid] 

 on, you all [imp.])." 



As soon as he started to sing, all the men heard the sound of shells 

 in the other room. 



The man became nervous and said, "Let's go away from here! 

 There are people living here, and they might not like for us to stay." 



»8 'He stated them-place'? Seemingly this would be in Swain County, N.C. 



«» Speck and Broom (1951, p. 80) refer to this as the Women- Gathering-Wood Dance. The Cherokee term 

 for it, which they translate as 'make wood,' contains a form of a verb used principally in reference to ob- 

 taining firewood. Its stem Is merely -o-. It has no real English equivalent. 



