Myths of the Cherokee · 120 of 220

Myth 79

THE REMOVED TOWNHOUSES Long ago, long before the Cherokee were driven from their homes in 1838, the people on Valley river and Hiwassee heard voices of invisible spirits in the air calling and warning them of wars and misfortunes which the future held in store, and inviting them to come and live with the Nûñnĕ′hĭ, the Immortals, in their homes under the mountains and under the waters. For days the voices hung in the air, and the people listened until they heard the spirits say, “If you would live with us, gather everyone in your townhouses and fast there for seven days, and no one must raise a shout or a warwhoop in all that time. Do this and we shall come and you will see us and we shall take you to live with us.” The people were afraid of the evils that were to come, and they knew that the Immortals of the mountains and the waters were happy forever, so they counciled in their townhouses and decided to go with them. Those of Anisgayâ′yĭ town came all together into their townhouse and prayed and fasted for six days. On the seventh day there was a sound from the distant mountains, and it came nearer and grew louder until a roar of thunder was all about the townhouse and they felt the ground shake under them. Now they were frightened, and despite the warning some of them screamed out. The Nûñnĕ′hĭ, who had already lifted up the townhouse with its mound to carry it away, were startled by the cry and let a part of it fall to the earth, where now we see the mound of Sĕ′tsĭ. They steadied themselves again and bore the rest of the townhouse, with all the people in it, to the top of Tsuda′yeʻlûñ′yĭ (Lone peak), near the head of Cheowa, where we can still see it, changed long ago to solid rock, but the people are invisible and immortal. The people of another town, on Hiwassee, at the place which we call now Du′stiyaʻlûñ′yĭ, where Shooting creek comes in, also prayed and fasted, and at the end of seven days the Nûñnĕ′hĭ came and took them away down under the water. They are there now, and on a warm summer day, when the wind ripples the surface, those who listen well can hear them talking below. When the Cherokee drag the river for fish the fish-drag always stops and catches there, although the water is deep, and the people know it is being held by their lost kinsmen, who do not want to be forgotten. When the Cherokee were forcibly removed to the West one of the greatest regrets of those along Hiwassee and Valley rivers was that they were compelled to leave behind forever their relatives who had gone to the Nûñnĕ′hĭ. In Tennessee river, near Kingston, 18 miles below Loudon, Tennessee, is a place which the Cherokee call Gustĭ′, where there once was a settlement long ago, but one night while the people were gathered in the townhouse for a dance the bank caved in and carried them all down into the river. Boatmen passing the spot in their canoes see the round dome of the townhouse—now turned to stone—in the water below them and sometimes hear the sound of the drum and dance coming up, and they never fail to throw food into the water in return for being allowed to cross in safety.

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Themes

◆Ancestor Venerationpraxis

Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. Shinto uji-gami and obon, Norse disir and the alfablot, Celtic samhain and the feast for the deceased, Roman lares and parentalia, Chinese ancestor rites, Vedic śrāddha. Practice-coded rather than belief-coded: distinct from soul_migration (cosmological doctrine of soul-transmigration) and theosis_deification (deification trajectory); ancestor_veneration centres the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the dead.

The text describes ongoing rituals where living Cherokee throw food into the water to propitiate their lost kinsmen who dwell underwater, maintaining a relationship with the dead.

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◆Animismcosmology

The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.

The passage is a quintessential example of animism, depicting spirits (Nûñnĕ′hĭ) inhabiting specific landscapes like mountains and rivers, possessing agency, and interacting directly with human communities.

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◆Divine Providencetheology

Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.

The spirits actively warn the people of future misfortunes and offer a path to safety, suggesting a divine ordering or intervention in human affairs.

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◆Fasting And Prayerpraxis

Ascetic disciplines that prepare the body and mind for spiritual receptivity or purification.

The narrative explicitly details the people gathering in townhouses to pray and fast for seven days as a necessary condition to be taken by the spirits.

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◆Prayerpraxis

Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.

The people engage in collective prayer within their townhouses as a central act of the narrative to invite the spirits.

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◆Psychopomp Journeycosmology

Guided passage of the soul through afterlife realms.

The Nûñnĕ′hĭ act as guides who physically lift and transport the souls of the living to an immortal realm under mountains or waters, functioning as psychopomps.

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◆Shapeshifting Transformationtheology

Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. Loki and Odin's transformations in Norse, Math's pigs and Blodeuwedd's owl-shape and Pwyll's exchange with Arawn in the Mabinogion, the Greek Proteus, the Indian dasavatara, Vainamoinen's bird-flight in the Kalevala, Ovid's metamorphoses, the shamanic and witch's capacity for ritual form-change. Distinct from anthropomorphism (divine taking specific human form, single embodiment) in that anthropomorphism establishes a stable form whereas this concept establishes form's plurality and instability.

The passage describes the transformation of a townhouse and its inhabitants into solid rock and stone, illustrating a change in physical form as a result of divine intervention.

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Related passages · 1 parallel

◆celtic|The Mabinogion|Tale MANAWYDDAN THE SON OF LLYRb

“And they began to make the circuit of Dyved, and to hunt, and to take their pleasure. And as they went through the country, they had never seen lands more pleasant to live in, nor better hunting grounds, nor greater plenty of honey and fis…”

Both passages describe a sudden disappearance or removal of people to another realm, leaving behind an empty and desolate world. The Cherokee passage involves the Nûñnĕ′hĭ taking people to live under mountains and waters, while the Welsh tale describes a mist that takes away the inhabitants of Dyved, leaving only four people behind. Both narratives involve a transition to a different state of existence and a sense of loss for those left behind.