316 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19 



rofk. which aro still to be seen there, at the place which we cull "■ Where 

 the Thl'nuwa cut it up," opposite the mouth of Citico. Then the two 

 Tla'nuwas circled up and up until they went out of sight, and they have 

 never been seen since. 



65. THE HUNTER AND THE TLA'NUWA 



A hunter out in the woods one day saw a Tla'nuwa overhead and 

 tried to hide from it, but the great bird had already seen him, and sweep- 

 iu",'' down struck its claws into his ]iuntin<>- pack and carried him far up 

 into the air. As it flew, the Tla'nuwa, wiiich was a mother bird, spoke 

 and told the hunter that he need not be afraid, as she would not luirt 

 him, l)ut only wanted him to stay for a while with her young ones to 

 guard them until they were old enough to leave the nest. At last 

 they alighted at the mouth of a cave in the face of a .steep ciitf. Inside 

 the water was dripping from the roof, and at the farther end was a 

 nest of sticks in which were two young birds. The old Tla'nuwa .set 

 the hunter down and then flew away, returning soon with a fresh- 

 killed deer, which it tore in pieces, giving the first piece to the hunter 

 and then feeding the two young hawks. 



The hunter stayed in the cave many days until the young birds were 

 nearly grown, and every day the old mother hawk would fly away from 

 the nest and return in the evening with a deer or a bear, of which she 

 always gave the first piece to the hunter. He grew very anxious to 

 see his home again, but the Tla'nuwa kept telling him not to be uneasy, 

 but to wait a little while longer. At last he made up his mind to 

 escape from the cave and finally studied out a plan. The next morn- 

 ing, after the old bird had gone, he dragged one of the young l)irds to 

 the mouth of the cave and tied himself to one of its legs with a strap 

 from his hunting pack. Then with the flat side of his tomahawk he 

 sti'uck it several times in the head until it was dazed and helpless, and 

 pushed the bird and himself together ofl the shelf of rock into the air. 



They fell far, far down toward the earth, but the air from below 

 held up the bird's wings, so that it was almost as if they were flying. 

 As the Tla'nuwa revived it tried to fly upward toward the nest, but the 

 hunter struck it again with his hatchet until it was dazed and dropped 

 again. At last they came down in the top of a poplar tree, when the 

 hunter untied the strap from the leg of the young bird and let it fly 

 away, first pulling out a feather from its wing. He climbed down 

 from the tree and went to his home in the settlement, but when he 

 looked in his pack for the feather he found a stone instead. 



66. U'TLUN'TA, the SPEAR-FINGER 



Long, long ago — hUahl'yu — there dwelt in the mountains a terrible 

 oo-ress, a woman monster, whose food was human livers. She could 

 take on any shape or appearance to suit her jiurpose, but in her right 



