MOOKEY] INCIDKNTS OF HKKOISM 895 



read}' to make for the woods as soon iis the i;iins of {\w wliitos were 

 empty. They agreed, and the door was opened, wlu'ii he suddenly 

 rushed forth, dodj^iiig and runnino- in a ziyzaii' conrse, so that every 

 gun was emptied at him before he fell dead, eovered with wouiuls. 

 ^A'hih' the wiiites were reloading, the oth(>r wari'iors ran out and suc- 

 ceeded in reaching the woods before the besiegers could i'ecov(>r from 

 their sur))rise. Th(> historian adds, "' IIow gre;itly it is to he regr(>tted 

 that th(^ name of this hero is not known to the writer, that it might he 

 recorded with this specimen of CherokiH' l)ra\'ery and jjatridti-m. 

 firmness and presence of mind in the hour of danger."' 



More tliaii onee women s(>em to have shown tht> courage of warriors 

 when the occasion demanded. At the beginning of the last century 

 there was still living among the Cherokee a woman who had killi>d her 

 husband's slayer in one of the Revolutionary engagements. For this 

 deed she was treated with so much consideration that she was per- 

 mitted to join the warriors in the war dance, carrying hei- gun and 

 tomahawk. The Wahnenauhi manuscript has a tradition of an attack 

 upon a Cherokee town and the killing of the ciiief )iy a hostile war 

 party. His wife, whose name was Cuhtahlatah ((iatun'lati. "AVild- 

 hemp"?), on seeing her husband fall, snatched up his tomahawk, 

 shouting, "Kill! Kill!" and rushed upon the enemj' with such fury 

 that the reti'eating Cherokee rallied and renewed the battle witli so 

 great courage as to gain a complete \ictory. This ma}' l)e a diU'erent 

 statement of the same incident. 



In Rutherford's expedition against the Cherokee, in 177(5, the 

 Indians made a stand near Waya gap, in the Xantahala mountains, and 

 a hard-fought engagement took place, witii a loss to the Americans of 

 nineteen men, although the enemy was finally di'iven from the ground. 

 After the main body had retreated, an Indian was seen looking out 

 from behind a tree, and was at once shot anfl killed l)y the soldiei's, 

 who, on going to the spot, found that it was a woman, painted and 

 stripped like a warrior and armed with bow and arrows. She had 

 already been shot through the thigh, and had therefore been unable 

 to flee with the rest. 



III. THE MOUNDS AND THE CONSTANT FIRE: THE OLD SACRED 



THINGS 



Some saj' that the mounds were built by anotiier people. Others 

 say they were built by t he ancestors of the old Ani'-Kitu'hwagi for town- 

 house foundations, so that the townhouses would be safe when fn>shets 

 came. The townhouse was always built on the level l)ott(>m lands by 

 the river in ()rd(>r that the jjcople might have smooth ground for their 

 dances and ballplays and might be able to go down to water during 

 the danc^e. 



' Haywood, Nat. aud Aborig. Hist. Tciin.,p. 239. 



