The Hunter and Selu.
A hunter had been tramping over the mountains all day long without finding any game, and when the sun went down, he built a fire in a hollow stump, swallowed a few mouthfuls of corn gruel and lay down to sleep, tired out and completely discouraged.
About the middle of the night he dreamed and seemed to hear the sound of beautiful singing, which continued until near daybreak, and then appeared to die away in the upper air.
All the next day he hunted, with the same poor success, and at night made his lonely camp in the woods. He slept, and the same strange dream came again, but so vividly that it seemed to him like an actual happening. Rousing himself before daylight, he still heard the same song, and feeling sure now that it was real, he went in the direction of the sound and found that it came from a single green stalk of corn (selu).
French Broad River.
Tahkeyostee, in the Mellow Indian Tongue.
Broad River.
“Sparkling, gleaming in the sunlight,