Myths of the Cherokee · 126 of 220

Myth 81d

He asked why Tsulʻkâlû′ had not brought the new dresses, as he had promised, and the voice from the air said, “I came with them, but you did not obey my word, but broke the fast and raised the war cry.” The young man answered, “It was not done by our people, but by a stranger.

If you will come again, we will surely do as you say.” But the voice answered, “Now you can never see me.” Then the young man could not say any more, and he went back to Kănuga.

82.

KĂNA′STA, THE LOST SETTLEMENT Long ago, while people still lived in the old town of Kăna′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 Tsuwaʻtel′da (Pilot knob).

“We do not live forever, and do not always find game when we go for it, for the game belongs to Tsulʻkălû′, who lives in Tsunegûñ′yĭ, 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 Tsuwaʻtel′da.

There was one man from another town visiting at Kăna′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 Kăna′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′-Hyûñtĭkwălâ′skĭ (the Thunders).

Now all the people of Kăna′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.

§ Ask Guru about this passage →

Themes

◆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 a cosmos populated by distinct spirits like Tsulʻkâlû′ (Master of Game) and the Thunders who inhabit specific landscapes (mountains, caves) and interact directly with humans.

All passages →

◆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 narrative implies a divine ordering of events where the strangers appear to offer salvation from impending war and sickness, suggesting a purposeful intervention in human affairs.

All passages →

◆Fasting And Prayerpraxis

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

The text explicitly details a seven-day fast undertaken by the community as a necessary ritual condition to facilitate their migration to the divine settlement.

All passages →

◆Living Godtheology

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

The divine entities (Tsulʻkâlû′, the Thunders) are portrayed as active, personal agents who speak, make promises, judge human behavior, and respond to petitions.

All passages →

◆Psychopomp Journeycosmology

Guided passage of the soul through afterlife realms.

The strangers act as guides leading the people from their mortal settlement into a hidden, supernatural realm within the mountain, mirroring the function of psychopomps guiding souls to otherworldly domains.

All passages →

◆Ritual Puritypraxis

The maintenance of a state of cleanliness—physical, moral, or spiritual—required for encounter with the divine.

The failure of the young man to maintain his fast and the subsequent requirement for the community to fast seven days highlight the necessity of ritual purity for divine encounter.

All passages →

◆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 strangers appear indistinguishable from ordinary Cherokee despite being supernatural guides, suggesting a capacity for disguise or form-mutability common in such mythologies.

All passages →