“The bride, grieved by the death of her brother and the failure of the council, prepared to abandon her new home and return to her kindred in the valleys. To reconcile her the promise was granted that all brave warriors and their faithful women should have an eternal home in the happy hunting ground above, after death. The great chief of the forest beyond the clouds became the guardian spirit of the Cherokees. All deaths, either from wounds in battle or disease, were attributed to his desire to make additions to the celestial hunting ground, or, on the other hand, to his wrath, which might cause their unfortunate spirits to be turned over to the disposition of the evil genius of the mountain tops.”—Heart of the Alleghanies, pp. 22–24.
Kănu′ga—An ancient Cherokee town on Pigeon river, in the present Haywood county, North Carolina. It was deserted before the beginning of the historic period, but may have been located about the junction of the two forks of Pigeon river, a few miles east of Waynesville, where there are still a number of mounds and ancient cemeteries extending for some miles down the stream. Being a frontier town, it was probably abandoned early on account of its exposed position. The name, signifying “scratcher,” is applied to a comb, used for scratching the ballplayers, and is connected with kănugû′ʻlă, or nugû′ʻlă, a blackberry bush or brier. There are other mounds on Richland creek, in the neighborhood of Waynesville.
Tsulʻkălû′ Tsunegûñ′yĭ—Abbreviated Tsunegûñ′yĭ; the mountain in which the giant is supposed to have his residence, is Tennessee bald, in North Carolina, where the Haywood, Jackson, and Transylvania county lines come together, on the ridge separating the waters of Pigeon river from those flowing into Tennessee creek and Cany fork of the Tuckasegee, southeastward from Waynesville and Webster. The name seems to mean, “at the white place,” from une′ga, “white,” and may refer to a bald spot of perhaps a hundred acres on the top, locally known among the whites as Jutaculla old fields, from a tradition, said to be derived from the Indians, that it was a clearing made by “Jutaculla” (i. e., Tsulʻkălû′) for a farm. Some distance farther west, on the north side of Cany fork and about ten miles above Webster, in Jackson county, is a rock known as Jutaculla rock, covered with various rude carvings, which, according to the same tradition, are scratches made by the giant in jumping from his farm on the mountain to the creek below. Zeigler and Grosscup refer to the mountain under the name of “Old Field mountain” and mention a tradition among the pioneers that it was regarded by the Indians as the special abode of the Indian Satan!
“On the top of the mountain there is a prairie-like tract, almost level, reached by steep slopes covered with thickets of balsam and rhododendron, which seem to garrison the reputed sacred domain. It was understood among the Indians to be forbidden territory, but a party one day permitted their curiosity to tempt them. They forced a way through the entangled thickets, and with merriment entered the open ground. Aroused from sleep and enraged by their audacious intrusion, the devil, taking the form of an immense snake, assaulted the party and swallowed fifty of them before the thicket could be gained. Among the first whites who settled among the Indians, and traded with them, was a party of hunters who used this superstition to escape punishment for their reprehensible conduct. They reported that they were in league with the great spirit of evil, and to prove that they were, frequented this ‘old field.’ They described 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 next morning ‘as if it had been brushed 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′nălâsgûñ′yĭ, “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 Tsunegûñ′yĭ. Within the mountain is also the legendary abode 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 mythologies. The sequence of growth as indicated by the footprints reminds us of the concluding 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 out to the nurses and the eunuchs and said to them, ‘Bring ye my children.’ Accordingly they brought them to her quickly, and they were three male children; one of them walked, and one crawled, and one was at the breast.”
Must not raise the war whoop—See note under [number 79], “The Removed Townhouses.”
[82.] Kăna′sta, the lost settlement (p. [341]): This story, obtained from Swimmer, bears resemblance to those of Tsulʻkălû′, Tsuwe′năhĭ, 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.
Kăna′sta—Abbreviated from Kănastûñ′yĭ, 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 Transylvania 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.
Tsuwaʻtel′da—Abbreviated from Tsuwaʻteldûñ′yĭ, and known to the whites as Pilot knob, is a high mountain in Transylvania county, about eight miles north of Brevard. On account of the peculiar stratified appearance of the rocks, the faces of the cliffs are said frequently to present a peculiar appearance under the sun’s rays, as of shining walls with doors, windows, and shingled roofs.