474 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEP: [eth.ann.I9 



Kahh'-dniKihi'la — See niimher 1"), "Tlie Four-footed Tribes." 



liidihad lii.i xlotitiicli — This very original iiieflu"! of procuring food occurs also in 

 nuinlier 3, "Kana'ti and Selu." 



'rnjiknolfi and SplUnoses — Tsunl'stsilhl', " Having topknots" — i. e., Indians, in allu- 

 sion to the crests of upright hair formerly worn by warriors of the Cherokee and 

 other eastern tribes. Timberlake tfius describes the Cherokee warrior's headdress 

 in 17ti2: "The hair of their head is shaved, tho' many of the old people have it 

 plucked out liy the roots, except a patch on the hiniler part of the head about twice 

 the bigness of a crown piece, which is ornamented with beads, feathers, wampum, 

 stained deer's hair, and such like bauliles" (Jleinoirs, p. 49) . Tsunu''liyu' sune- 

 stlii'tft, "they have split noses" — i. e., dogs. 



Coier the blood — The reincarnation of the slain animal from the drops of V)lood spilt 

 upon the ground or from the bones is a regular part of Cherokee hunting Ijelief, ami 

 the same idea occurs in the folklore of many tribes. In the Omahamyth, " Ictinike 

 and the Four Creators," th,e hero visits the Beaver, who kills and cooks one of his 

 own children to furnish the dinner. When the meal was over "the Beaver gathered 

 the bones and put them into a skin, which he plunged beneath the water. In a 

 moment the youngest beaver came up alive out of the water " (Dorsey, in Contri- 

 butions to North American Ethnology, vi, p. 557). 



Like a man again — It is a regular article of Indian belief, which has its parallels in 

 European fairy lore, that one who has eaten the food of the spirit jieople or super- 

 natnrals can not afterward return to his own people and live, unless at once, and 

 sometimes for a long time, put under a rigid course of treatment intended to efface 

 the longing for the spirit food and thus to restore his complete human nature. See 

 also number 73, "The Underground Panthers." In "A Yankton Legend," recorded 

 by Dorsey, a child falls into the water and is taken by the water people. The father 

 hears the child crying under the water and employs two medicine men to bring it 

 back. After preparing themselves properly they go down into the deep water, where 

 they find the child sitting beside the water spirit, who, when they declare their mes- 

 sage, tells them that if they had come before the child had eaten anything he might 

 have lived, but now if taken away "he will desire the food which I eat; that being 

 the cause of the trouble, he shall die." They return and report: "We have seen 

 your child, the wife of the water deity has him. Though we saw him alive, he had 

 eaten part of the food which the water deity eats, therefore the water deity says 

 that if we bring the child back with us out of the water he shall die," and so it hap- 

 pened. Some time after the parents lose another child in like manner, but this time 

 "she did not eat any of the food of the water deity and therefore they took her 

 home alive." In each case a white dog is thrown in to satisfy the water spirits for 

 the loss of the child (Contrilmtions to North American Ethnology, vi, p. 357). 



77. The Gee.\t Leech of Tlanusi'yi (p. 329): This legend was heard first from 

 Swimmer and Chief Smith, the latter of whom was born near Murphy; it was con- 

 firmed by Wafford (west) and others, being one of the best known myths in the tribe 

 and embodied in the Cherokee name for Murphy. It is apparently founded upon a 

 peculiar appearance, as of something alive or moving, at the bottom of a deep hole 

 in \'alley river, just below the old Unicoi turnpike ford, at Murphy, in Cherokee 

 county. North Carolina. It is said that a tinsmith of the town once ma<le a tin 

 bomb which he filled with powder and sank in the stream at this spot with the 

 intention of blowing up the strange object to see what it might be, but the contrivance 

 failed to explode. The hole is caused by a sudden drop or split in the rock bed of 

 the stream, extending across the river. Wafford, who once lived on Nottely river, 

 adds the incident of the two women and says that the Leech had wings and could fly. 

 He asserts also that he found rich lead ore in the hole, but that the swift current pre- 

 vented working it. About two miles above the mouth of Nottely river a bend of 

 the stream brings it within about the same distance of the Hiwassee at Murphy. 



