476 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19 



Kaper creek in Cheroke" county, North Carolina. The old townhouMe was upon a 

 large mound on the west side of the river and about five miles below the Georgia 

 line. The town was practically deserted before the removal in 1888 (see glossary). 



Heinptoum—Vvo]^eTly Gatunlti'yl, "Hemp place," existed until the Removal, on 

 Heniptow^n creek, a l)ranch of Toccoa river, a few miles north of the present 

 Morgan ton, in Fannin county, Georgia. 



Noted riiTular ilepresKion— This may have been a circular earthwork of about thirty 

 feet diameter, described as existing in 1890 a short distance east of Soquee post-office 

 near the head of Soquee creek, about ten miles northwest of Clarkesville, Haber- 

 sham county, Georgia. There are other circular structures of stone on elevated 

 positions within a few miles of Clarkesville (see author's manuscript notes on Chero- 

 kee archeology, in Bureau of American Ethnology archives). The same story about 

 throwing logs and stones into one of these sacred places, only to have them thrown 

 out again by invisible hands, is told by Zeigler and Grosscup, in connection with the 

 Jutacnlla old fields (see note under number 81, "Tsurkitlu')." 



Betmldered — "Crazy persons were supposed to be possessed with the devil or 

 aftlicted with the Nanehi" (Buttrick, Antiquities, p. 14). According to Hagar's 

 informant; "The little people cause men to lose their minds and run away and wander 

 in the forests. They wear very long hair, down to their heels" (MS Stellar Legends 

 of the Cherokee). In Creek belief, according to the Tuggle manuscript, "Fairies or 

 little people live in hollow trees and on rocky cliffs. They often decoy people fr.im 

 their homes and lose them in the woods. When a man's mind becomes bewil- 

 dered — not crazy — this is caused by the little people." 



Loaves seemed to shrink— The deceptive and unsatisfactory character of all fairy 

 belongings w^hen the spell is lifted is well known to the European peasantry. 



Tsawa'st and Tsaga' st— These sprites are frequently named in the hunting prayers 

 and other sacred formulas. 



Scrairhhig— This is a preliminary rite of the ballplay and other ceremonies, as 

 well as the doctor's method of hypodermic injection. As performed in connection 

 with the ballplay it is a painful operation, being inflicted upon the naked skin with a 

 seven-tpothed comb of turkey bone, the scratches being drawn in parallel lines upon 

 the breast, back, arras and legs, until the sufferer is bleeding from head to foot. In 

 medical practice, in order that the external application may take hold more effectually, 

 the scratching is done with a rattlesnake's tooth, a brier, a flint, or a piece of glass. 

 See author's Cherokee Ball Play, in American Anthropologist, April, 1890, and 

 Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, in Seventh Annual Report Bureau of Ethnol- 

 ogy, 1891. The practice seems to have been general among the southern tribes, and 

 was sometimes used as a punishment for certain delinquents. According to Adair 

 the doctor bled patients by scratching them with the teeth of garfish after the skin 

 had been first well softened by the application of warm water, while any unauthorized 

 person who dared to intrude upon the sacred square during ceremonial performances 

 "would be dry-scratched with snakes' teeth, fixed in the middle of a .split reed or 

 piece of wood, without the privilege of warm water to supple the stiffened skin" 

 (Hist.- Am. Indians, pp. 46, 120). 



The Fire-carrier — This is probably the gaseous phenomenon knowai as the will- 

 of-the-wisp, which has been a thing of mystery and fear to others beside Indians. 



79. The removed towshousbs (p. .335) : The first of these stories was told by John 

 Ax. The second was obtained from Sala'll, "Squirrel," mentioned elsewhere as a 

 self-taught mechanic of the East Cherokee. Wafford (west) had also heard it, but 

 confused it with that of Tsal'kalu' (number 81). 



Excepting GustI', the localities are all in western North Carolina. The large mound 

 of Se tsi is on the south side of Valley river, about three miles below Valleytown, 

 in Cherokee county. Anisgaya'yl town is not definitely located by the story teller, 

 but was probably in the same neighborhood. Tsudayelun'yi, literally "where it 

 is isolated," or "isolated place," is a solitary high peak near Cheowa Maximum, a 



