464 MYTHS I IF THE CHEROKEE [f.th.ann.19 



at their father's house. In the Ax version, also, the gambler flees directly t(j the 

 west, and as often as the brothers shoot at him with their arrows the thunder rolls 

 and the lightning flashes, but he escapes by smking into the earth, which opens for 

 him, to reappear in another form somewhere else. Swimmer makes the Little Peo- 

 ple help in the chase. In Cherokee figure an invitation to a ball contest is a chal- 

 lenge to liattle. Thunder is always personified in the plural, Ani'-Hyun'tikwrtlii'skl, 

 "The Thunderers." The father and the two older .sons seem to be Kana'tl and 

 the Thunder Boys (see number 3, "Kana'tl and .Selu" ), although neither informant 

 would positively assert this, while the boy hero, who has no other name, is said to 

 be the lightning. Nothing is told of his after career. 



UtVsaiyV — In this name (sometimes E'tsaiyI' or Tsaiyi') the first s\-llable is 

 almost silent and the vowels are prolonged to imitate the ringing sound produced by 

 striking a thin sheet of metal. The word is now translated "brass," and is applied 

 to any object made of that metal. The mythic gambler, who has his counterpart 

 in the mythologies of many trilies, is the traditional inventor of the wheel-and- 

 stick game, so popular among the southern and eastern Indians, and variously known 

 as gatayustt, chenco, or chunk! (see note under number 3, "Kana'tl and Selu'M. 

 He lived on the south side of Tennessee river, at Ifn'tiguhi'. 



L'n'tujuhV or The Suck — The noted and dangerous rapid known to the whites as 

 "The Suck" and to the Cherokee as Un'tiguhl', "Pot in the water," is in Tennessee 

 river, near the entrance of Suck creek, about 8 miles below Chattanooga, at a point 

 where the river gathers its whole force into a contracted channel to break through 

 the Cumberland mountain. The popular name. Whirl, or Suck, dates back at least 

 to 1780, the upper portion being known at the same time as "The boiling pot' 

 (Donelson diary, in Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 71),' a close paraphrase of the Indi'-> 

 name. In the days of pioneer settlement it was a most dangerous menace to naviga 

 tion, but some of the most serious oljstacles in the channel have nov»' been removed 

 by blasting and other means. The Cherokee name and legend were probably sug- 

 gested by the appearance of the rapids at the spot. Close to w'here Untsaiyi' lived, 

 according to the Indian account, may still be seen the large flat rock upon which he was 

 accustomed to play the gatayusti game with all who accepted his challenge, the lines 

 and grooves worn by the rolling of the wheels being still plainly marked, and the stone 

 wheels themselves now firmly attached to tlie surface of the rock. A similarly__ 

 grooved or striped rock, where also, it is said, Ufitsaiyf used to roll his wheel, is 

 reported to be on the north side of Hiwassee, just below Calhoun, Tennes.see. 



The Suck is thus described by a traveler in 1818, while the whole was still Indian 

 country and Chattanooga was yet midreamed of: 



"And here, I cannot forbear pausing a moment to call j'our attention to tlie grand 

 and picturesque scenery which opens to the view of the admiring spectator. The 

 country is still possessed by the aborigines, and the hand of civilization has done but 

 little to soften the wild aspect of nature. The Tennessee river, having concentrated 

 into one mass the numerous streams it has received in its course of three or four 

 hundred miles, glides through an extended valley with a rapid and overwhelming 

 current, half a mile in width. At this place, a group of mountains stand ready to 

 dispute its progress. First, the 'Lookout,' an independent range, commencingthirty 

 miles below, presents, opposite the river's course, its bold and rocky termination of 

 two thousand feet. Around its brow is a pallisade [sic] of naked rocks, from seventy 

 to one hundred feet. The river flows upon its base, and instantly twines to the right. 

 Passing on for six miles farther it turns again, and is met by the side of the Rackoon 

 mountain. C(.)llecting its strength into a channel of seventy yards, it severs the 

 moimtain, and rushes tumultuously through the rocky defile, wafting the trembling 

 navigator at the rate of a mile in two or tliree minutes. The passage is called 'The 



'J.G.M. Ramsey, Tlio Annals of Tennessee to the end o! the Eighteenth Century, etc., Philadel- 

 phia, lS.i3. 



