318 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEK [Erji. ann.19 



cautious of allowing any stranger to approach the camp. But it' one 

 went down to the spring for a drink thej'^ never knew hut it might he 

 the liver eater that came hack and sat with them. 



Sometimes she took her proper forui, and once or twice, when far 

 out from the settlements, a solitary hunter had seen an old woman, with 

 a queer-looking hand, going through the woods singing low to herself: 



Uwe'la na'tslkiV. Su' s&' mi/. 

 Liver, I eat it. Su' sa' wai'. 



It was rather a pretty song, but it chilled his blood, for he knew it 

 was the liver eater, and he hurried away, silently, before she might see 

 him. 



At last a great (council was held to devise some means to get rid of 

 U'tluiTta before she should destroy everybody. The people came from 

 all around, and after much talk it was decided that the best way would 

 be to trap her in a pitfidl where all the warriors could attack her at 

 once. So they dug a deep pitfall acro.ss the trail and covered it over 

 with earth and grass as if the ground had never been disturbed. Then 

 thev kindled a lai'ge fire of brush near the trail and hid themselves in 

 the laurels, because they knew she would come as soon as she saw the 

 smoke. 



Sure enough they soon saw an old woman coming along the trail. 

 She looked like an old woman whom thej' knew well in the village, and 

 although several of the wiser men wanted to shoot at hei", the others 

 interfered. })ecause they did not want to hurt one of their own people. 

 The old woman came slowly along the trail, with one hand under her 

 blanket, until she stepped upon the pitfall and tumbled through the 

 brush top into the deep hole below. Then, at once, she showed her 

 true nature, and instead of the feeble old woman there was the terrible 

 U'thln'ta with her stony skin, and her sharp awl finger reaching out in 

 every direction for some one to stal). 



The hunters rushed out from the thicket and surrounded the pit, but 

 shoot as true and as often as they could, their arrows struck the stony 

 mail of the witch only to lie broken and fall useless at her feet, while 

 she taunted them and tried to climb out of the pit to get at them. They 

 kept out of her way, liut were only wasting their arrows when a small 

 bird, Utsu'gi, the titmouse, perched on a tree overhead and began to 

 sing " ;m, un, «»." They thought it was saying u'vuhn!, heart, mean- 

 ing that they should aim at the heart of the stone witch. They directed 

 their arrows where the heart should be, but the arrows only glanced 

 otl with the Hint heads broken. 



Then thej^ caught the Utsu''gi and cut off its tongue, so that ever since 

 its tongue is short and everyljody knows it is a liar. AVhen the hunters 

 let it go it flew straight up into the sky until it was out of sight and 

 never came back again. The titmouse that we know now is only an 

 imaae of the other. 



