MOONEV] THK NrNNk'lII 331 



wanted to 1)0 .■^ct'ii, ami thfii lln'v lookcil and spoke ju.st like t)tlK'r 

 Indians. They were very fond of music and <lanciny. and luinters in 

 the mountains would ofttMi heai- the danee sonys and the drum l)eating 

 in some invisible townhouse. l)ut when they went toward the sound 

 it would shift about and they would hear it behind them oi- away in 

 some othei- direction, so that they could never lind the place wher(> the 

 dance was. They wer(> a frien(ily peoj)le. too. and often bi'outi'ht lost 

 wanderers to their townhouses under the mountains and cared for them 

 there until they were rested and then guided them l)ack to their homes. 

 ^Nlore than once. also, when the Cherokee wen^ hard pressed by the 

 enemy, the Niinne'hi warriors have eome out, as they did at old Xikwasi', 

 and have saved them from defeat. Some people have thoueht that 

 they arc the same as the Yunwi 'i'sunsdi'. the " Little People": but 

 these are fairies, no larger in size than children. 



There was a man in Nottely town who had ln-en with the Xufine'hi 

 when he was a hoy, and he told Waii'ord all about it. He was a truth- 

 ful, liard-h -aded man. and Wati'ord 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 playint;' one day near 

 the ii\er. shooting- at a mark with his bow and arrows, until he became 

 tired, and started to V)uild a tish trap in the water. While he was piling 

 up th(^ stones in two long walls a man came and stood on the baidi and 

 asked him what he was doing. Tht^ boy told him, and the man said, 

 ■'Well, that's pretty hard work and you ougiit to rest a while. ( 'om(> and 

 take a walk up the river." Thi^ boy said. "" No"; that he was going home 

 t« dinner soon. "'Come right up to my hou.se," .said the strangei-. "and 

 I'll give you a good dinner there and liring you honn' again in the 

 morning." So the l)oy 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 tine dinnei'. and Mere 

 very kind to him. While they were eating a man that the l)oy knew 

 very well came in and spoke to him. so that he felt (piite at home. 



After dinner he played with the other children and slept there that 

 night, and in the moriung, after breakfast, the man got ready to take 

 him home. They went down a path that had a corntield 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 ridg(> and you 

 will come to the river road that will bring you straight to your home, 

 and now I'll go back to the hou.se." So the man went liack to the 

 house and the boy went on along the trail, but when he had gone a 

 little way he looked back, and there w as no coridield 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 th(> river trail in sight of his home, '{'here 

 were a great many people standing about talking, and when they .saw 



