On the north bank of Little Tennessee river, in a bend below the mouth
of Citico creek, in Blount county, Tennessee, is a high cliff hanging
over the water, and about halfway up the face of the rock is a cave
with two openings. The rock projects outward above the cave, so that
the mouth can not be seen from above, and it seems impossible to reach
the cave either from above or below. There are white streaks in the
rock from the cave down to the water. The Cherokee call it Tla'nuwâ'i,
"the place of the Tla'nuwa," or great mythic hawk.
In the old time, away back soon after the creation, a pair of Tla'nuwas
had their nest in this cave. The streaks in the rock were made by the
droppings from the nest. They were immense birds, larger than any that
live now, and very strong and savage. They were forever flying up and
down the river, and used to come into the settlements and carry off
dogs and even young children playing near the houses. No one could
reach the nest to kill them, and when the people tried to shoot them
the arrows only glanced off and were seized and carried away in the
talons of the Tla'nuwas.
At last the people went to a great medicine man, who promised to help
them. Some were afraid that if he failed to kill the Tla'nuwas they
would take revenge on the people, but the medicine man said he could
fix that. He made a long rope of linn bark, just as the Cherokee still
do, with loops in it for his feet, and had the people let him down
from the top of the cliff at a time when he knew that the old birds
were away. When he came opposite the mouth of the cave he still could
not reach it, because the rock above hung over, so he swung himself
backward and forward several times until the rope swung near enough for
him to pull himself into the cave with a hooked stick that he carried,
which he managed to fasten in some bushes growing at the entrance. In
the nest he found four young ones, and on the floor of the cave were
the bones of all sorts of animals that had been carried there by the
hawks. He pulled the young ones out of the nest and threw them over
the cliff into the deep water below, where a great Uktena serpent that
lived there finished them. Just then he saw the two old ones coming,
and had hardly time to climb up again to the top of the rock before
they reached the nest.
When they found the nest empty they were furious, and circled round
and round in the air until they saw the snake put up its head from
the water. Then they darted straight downward, and while one seized
the snake in his talons and flew far up in the sky with it, his mate
struck at it and bit off piece after piece until nothing was left. They
were so high up that when the pieces fell they made holes in the
rock, which are still to be seen there, at the place which we call
"Where the Tla'nuwa cut it up," opposite the mouth of Citico. Then
the two Tla'nuwas circled up and up until they went out of sight,
and they have never been seen since.