418 MYTHS OF THE CHEUOKEE [etii.ann.19 



covereil a dreadful fissure in an unknown part of the eountry, tlirough which a 

 mountain torrent took its way witli a deafening noise. They said tliat it was an 

 exceedingly wild place, and that its inhabitants were a species of little men and 

 women, who dwelt in the crevices of the rocks and in grottoes under the waterfalls. 

 They had attempted liy every artifice in their power to hold a council with the little 

 people, but all in vain; and, from the shrieks they frequently uttered, the medicine 

 men knew that they were the enemies of the Indian race, and, therefore, it was con- 

 cluded in the nation at large that the long-lost hunters had been decoyed to their 

 de'ath in the dreadful gorge, \Chich they called Tallulah. In view of this little legend, 

 it is worthy of remark that the Cherokee nation, previous to their departure for the 

 distant West, always avoided the Falls of Tallulah, and were seldom found hunting 

 or fishing in their vicinity.' 



Toc'coa: (1) A creek liowino' into Tugaloo river, in liuber.shaiii 

 county, with a fall upon it.s upper course, near the village of the same 

 name. (2) A river in upper Georgia, flowing' northwestward into 

 Hiwassee. The correct Cherokee form applied to the former settlement 

 on both streams is Tagwa'hi, "Catawba place," implying the former 

 presence of Indians of that trilH\ The lands aliout Toccoa falls were 

 sold b}' the Cherokee in 1783 and were owned at one time ))y Watiord's 

 grandfather. According to Watford, there was a tradition that when 

 the whites tirst visited the place they saw, as they thought, an Indian 

 woman walking beneatli the surface of the water under the falls, and 

 on looking .again a moment after they saw her sitting upon an over- 

 hanging rock 200 feet in the air, with her feet dangling over. Said 

 AVatf'ord, "'She uuist have been one of the Nunne'hi." 



Track Rock gap: A gap about 5 miles east of Blairsville, in Union 

 county, on the ridge separating Brasstown creek from the waters of 

 Nottely river. The micaceous soapstone rocks on ))oth sides of the 

 trail are covered with petroglyphs, from which the gap takes its 

 name. The Cherokee call the place I )atsu'nalasgiin'y i, " ' Where there are 

 tracks,'' or Degayelun'ha, "Printed (Branded) place." The carvings 

 are of many and various patterns, some of them resembling human 

 or animal footprints, while oth(»rs are squares, crosses, circles, "bird 

 tracks," etc., disposed without any apparent order. On the authority 

 of a Doctor Stevenson, writing in 1834, White (Historical Collections 

 of Georgia, p. 658, 1855), and after him Jones (Antiquities of the South- 

 ern Indians, 1873), give a misleading and greatly exaggerated account 

 of these carvings, without having taken the trouble to investigate for 

 themselves, although the spot is easily accessible. No effort, either 

 state or local, is made to preserve the pictographs from destruction, 

 and many of the finest have been cut out from the rock and carried off 

 by vandals, Stevenson himself IxMiig among the number, by his own 

 confession. The illustration (plate xx) is from a rough sketch made 

 by the author in 1890. 



The Cherokee have various theories to account foi- the origin of the 

 carvings, the more sensible Indians saj'ing that they were made by 



' Letters from the Alleghany Mountains, pages 41-42. 



