MOOSEY) THE CANNIHAL SPIRITS 349 



the stone house iniiy have been destroyed by this time, but more than 

 one old man's father saw it and heard the sonjjs and the bells a hundred 

 years ago. When the Cherokee went from Georgia to Indian Terri- 

 tory in 1S8S some of them said, "Maybe Yahula has gone there and 

 we shall hear him." but thty have never heard him again. 



87. THE WATER CANNIBALS 



Besides the friendly Niinne'hl of the streams and mountains ther(> is a 

 raee of cannibal spirits, who stay at the bottom of the deep rivers and 

 live upon human flesh, especially that of little children. They come 

 out just after daj'break and go about unseen from house to house until 

 they find some one still asleep, when they shoot him with their invisi- 

 l)le arrows and carry the dead body down under the water to feast upon 

 it. That no one may know what has happened they leave in place 

 of the body a shade or image of the dead man or little child, that wakes 

 uj) and talks and goes about just as he did, but there is no life in it, 

 and in seven days it withers and dies, and the people bury it and think 

 they are burying their dead friend. It was a long time before the 

 people found out about this, but now they alwa\'s trj- to be awake at 

 daylight and wake up the children, telling them "'The hunters are 

 among you." 



This is the way they first knew about the water cannibals: There was 

 a man in Tikwali'tsi town who became sick and grew worse until the 

 doctors said he could not live, and then his friends went away from 

 the house and left him alone to die, They were not so kind to each 

 other in the old times as they are now, because they were afraid of the 

 witches that came to torment dying people. 



He wtis alone several days, not able to rise from his bed, when one 

 morning an old woman came in at the door. She looked just like the 

 other women of the settlement, but he did not know her. She came 

 over to the bed and said, "You are very sick and your friends seem to 

 have left a^ou. Come with me and I will make you well." The man 

 was so near death that he could not move, but now her words made 

 him feel stronger at once, and he asked her where she wanted him to 

 go. "We live close by; come with me and 1 will show you," said the 

 woman, so he got up from his bed and she led the way down to the 

 water. When she came to the water she stepped in and he followed, 

 and there was a road under the water, and another country there just 

 like that above. 



They went on imtil they came to a settlement with a great many 

 houses, and women gt-ing about their work and cliildrcn playing. 

 They met a party of hunters coming in from a hmit. but instead of 

 deer or bear quarters hanging from their shoulders they carried the 

 bodies of dead men and children, and s(>veral of the bodies the man 

 knew for those of his own fiiends in Tikwiili'tsi. Thev came to a 



