MooNKY] THE tla'nuwa 315 



release him. Then the pole shakes and the crows at the top crj- Ka! 

 Ka! Ka! and scare the beavers away. 



64. THE NEST OF THE TLA'NUWA 



On the nortli hiiiik of l^ittk^ Tennessee river, in a h(>nd below the 

 mouth of Citico creelv. in IMoiint county. Tennessee, is a hio-h i-liti' lianjj;- 

 ing over the water, and about halfway up the face of the rock is a cave 

 with two openings. The rock projects outward above the cave, so that 

 the mouth can not be seen from above, and it seems impossi})le to 

 reach the cave either from above or below. There are white streaks 

 in the rock from the cave down to the water. The Chei-okee call it 

 Tla'nuwa'i. '"the place of the Tla'nuwa," or great mythic hawk. 



In the old time, away back soon after the creation, a pair of Tla'nuwas 

 had their nest in this cave. The streaks in the rock were made by the 

 droppings from the nest. The}' wei'e immense l)irds, larger than any 

 that live now, and very strong and savage. They were forever tlA'ing 

 up and down the river, and used to come into the settlements and carry 

 off dogs and even .young children playing near the houses. No one 

 could reach the nest to kill them, and when the people tried to shoot 

 them the arrows only glanced off and were seized and carried awaj' in 

 the talons of the Tla'nuwas. 



At last the people went to a great medicine man, who promised to 

 help them. Some were afraid that if he failed to kill the Tla'nuwas 

 they would take revenge on the people, but the medicine man said he 

 could fix that. He made a long I'opeof linn bark, just as the Cherokee 

 still do, with loops in it for his feet, and had the people let him down 

 from the top of the cliff' at a time when he knew that the old birds were 

 away. When he came opposite the mouth of the cave he still could 

 not reach it, because the rock above hung over, so he swung himself 

 backward and forward several times until the rope swung near enough 

 for him to pull him.self into the cave with a hooked stick that he car- 

 ried, which he managed to fasten in some bushes growing at the 

 entrance. In the nest he foiuid four young ones, and on the floor of 

 the cave were the bones of all sorts of animals that had been carried 

 there bj' the hawks. He pulled the young ones out of the nest and 

 threw them over tlie cliff into the deep water below, where a great 

 Uktena serpent that lived there finished them. Just tlien he saw the 

 two old ones coming, and had hardly time to climb up again to the top 

 of the rock before thej' reached the nest. 



When they found the nest empty they were furious, and circled 

 round and round in the air until they saw the snake put up its head 

 from the water. Then they darted straight downward, and while one 

 seized the snake in his talons and flew far up in the sky with it. his 

 mate struck at it and bit otl' ])icc(> after j)iece until nothing wiis left. 

 They were so high up ti;at wlicn the pieces fell they made holes in the 



