480 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19 



to escape punishment for their rejirehensible ccimluct. Tliey reporteil that they 

 were in league with the great spirit of evil, and to prove that they were, fre(|uentefl 

 this 'old field.' They deseribed his bed, under a large overhanging rock, as a 

 model of neatness. They had frequently thrown into it stones and brushwood 

 during the day, while the master was out, but the place was invariably as clean 

 the ne.xt morning 'as if it had been Vjrushed with a bunch of feathers' " (Heart of 

 the Alleghanies, p. 22). 



The footprints can still be seen — Shining rock or Cold mountain, between the Forks 

 of Pigeon river, in Haywood county. North Carolina, is known to the Cherokee as 

 Datsu'nalasgiin'yl, "where their tracks are this way," on account of a rock at its 

 base, toward Sonoma and three miles south of the trail, upon which are impressions 

 said to be the footprints made by the giant and his children on their way to 

 Tsunegufi'yl. Within the mountain is also the legendary alxide of invisible spirits. 

 Haywood confounds this with Track Rock gap, near Blairsville, Georgia, where are 

 other noted petroglyphs (see number 125, Minor Legends of Georgia). 



The rapid growth of the two children is paralleled in many other tribal mytholo- 

 gies. The sequence of growth as indicated by the footprints reminds us of the con- 

 cluding incident of the Arabian Nights, when Queen Scheherazade stands before the 

 king to make a last request: "And the king answered her, ' Request, thou shalt 

 receive, O Scheherazade.' So thereupon she called outto the nurses and the eunuchs 

 and said to them, ' Bring ye my children.' Accordingly they brought them to her 

 quicklv, and they were three male childi'en; one of them walked, and one crawled, 

 and one was at the breast." 



Mast not raise the war U'hooj:/ — See note under numljer 79, "The Removed Town- 

 houses." 



82. K.\na'sta, THE LO.ST SETTLEMENT (p. 341): This story, obtained from Swimmer, 

 bears resemblance to those of Tsul'kaiii', Tsuwe'nahl, The Removed Townhouses, 

 and others, in which individuals, or even whole settlements, elect to go with the 

 invisible spirit people in order to escape hardships or coming disaster. 



Kana'slu — Abbreviated from Kftnastun'yl, a name which can not be translated, is 

 described as an ancient Cherokee town on the French Broad where the trail from 

 Tennessee creek of the Tuckasegee comes in, near the present Brevard, in Transyl- 

 vania county. North Carolina. No mounds are known there, and we find no notice 

 of the town in history, but another of the same name existed on Hiwassee and was 

 destroyed in 1776. 



Tsuwatel'da — Abbreviated from Tsuwa teldiifi'yl, and known to the whites as Pilot 

 knob, is a high mountain in Transylvania county, about eight miles north of Bre- 

 vard. On account of the peculiar stratified ajipearance of the rocks, the faces of the 

 cliffs are said frequently to present a lieculiar appearance under the sun's rays, as of 

 shining walls with doors, windows, and shingled roofs. 



Datsu'n&ldsgM'yt — Shining rock. See note under number 81, "Tsurkillu'." 



Fast seoen days — This injunction of a seven days' fast upon those who would join 

 the spirit people appears in several Cherokee mytlis, the idea being, as we learn 

 from the priests, to spiritualize the human nature and quicken the spiritual vision 

 by abstinence from earthly food. The doctrine is exemplified in an incident of the 

 legend of Tsuwe'nahi, q. v. In a broader application, the same idea is a foundation 

 principle of every ancient religiim. In ordinary Cherokee ceremonial the fa.st is 

 kepi liji one day — i. e., from midnight to sun.set. On occasions of supreme importance 

 it continues four or even seven days. Among the plains tribes those who volunta- 

 rily enter the Sun dance to make supplication and sacrifice for their people abstain 

 entirely from food and drink during the four days and nights of the ceremony. 



The Thunders — See number 3, "Kana'tl and SeUi" and notes, and number 8, "The 

 Moon and the Thunders," with notes. 



83. TsuwE'N.\Hi, A LEGEND OP PiLOT KNOB (p. ,'343): This story, from Swimmer, 



