Long ago, while people still lived in the old town of Kana'sta, on
the French Broad, two strangers, who looked in no way different from
other Cherokee, came into the settlement one day and made their way
into the chief's house. After the first greetings were over the chief
asked them from what town they had come, thinking them from one of
the western settlements, but they said, "We are of your people and
our town is close at hand, but you have never seen it. Here you have
wars and sickness, with enemies on every side, and after a while a
stronger enemy will come to take your country from you. We are always
happy, and we have come to invite you to live with us in our town
over there," and they pointed toward Tsuwa`tel'da (Pilot knob). "We
do not live forever, and do not always find game when we go for
it, for the game belongs to Tsul`kalû', who lives in Tsunegûñ'yi,
but we have peace always and need not think of danger. We go now,
but if your people will live with us let them fast seven days, and
we shall come then to take them." Then they went away toward the west.
The chief called his people together into the townhouse and they
held a council over the matter and decided at last to go with the
strangers. They got all their property ready for moving, and then
went again into the townhouse and began their fast. They fasted six
days, and on the morning of the seventh, before yet the sun was high,
they saw a great company coming along the trail from the west, led
by the two men who had stopped with the chief. They seemed just like
Cherokee from another settlement, and after a friendly meeting they
took up a part of the goods to be carried, and the two parties started
back together for Tsuwa`tel'da. There was one man from another town
visiting at Kana'sta, and he went along with the rest.
When they came to the mountain, the two guides led the way into a cave,
which opened out like a great door in the side of the rock. Inside they
found an open country and a town, with houses ranged in two long rows
from east to west. The mountain people lived in the houses on the south
side, and they had made ready the other houses for the new comers,
but even after all the people of Kana'sta, with their children and
belongings, had moved in, there were still a large number of houses
waiting ready for the next who might come. The mountain people told
them that there was another town, of a different people, above them
in the same mountain, and still farther above, at the very top,
lived the Ani'-Hyûñtikwalâ'ski (the Thunders).
Now all the people of Kana'sta were settled in their new homes, but the
man who had only been visiting with them wanted to go back to his own
friends. Some of the mountain people wanted to prevent this, but the
chief said, "No; let him go if he will, and when he tells his friends
they may want to come, too. There is plenty of room for all." Then he
said to the man, "Go back and tell your friends that if they want to
come and live with us and be always happy, there is a place here ready
and waiting for them. Others of us live in Datsu'nalâsgûñ'yi and in
the high mountains all around, and if they would rather go to any of
them it is all the same. We see you wherever you go and are with you
in all your dances, but you can not see us unless you fast. If you
want to see us, fast four days, and we will come and talk with you;
and then if you want to live with us, fast again seven days, and we
will come and take you." Then the chief led the man through the cave
to the outside of the mountain and left him there, but when the man
looked back he saw no cave, but only the solid rock.
The people of the lost settlement were never seen again, and they
are still living in Tsuwa`tel'da. Strange things happen there, so
that the Cherokee know the mountain is haunted and do not like to go
near it. Only a few years ago a party of hunters camped there, and as
they sat around their fire at supper time they talked of the story
and made rough jokes about the people of old Kana'sta. That night
they were aroused from sleep by a noise as of stones thrown at them
from among the trees, but when they searched they could find nobody,
and were so frightened that they gathered up their guns and pouches
and left the place.