THE MAN WHO MARRIED THE THUNDERER'S SISTER
- and the saddle was another turtle
"In the old times people used to dance often and all night.
Once there was a dance at the old Town of Sakwiyi, at the head of the
Chattahoochee, and after it was well started two young women with beautiful
long hair came in, but no one knew who they were, or whence they had come. They
danced with first one partner and then another, and in the morning slipped away
before any one knew that they were gone; but a young warrior, who had fallen in
love with one of the sisters on account of her beautiful hair, and after the
manner of the Cherokees, had asked her, through an old woman, if she would
marry him and let him live with her. To which the young woman replied that her
brother at home must first be consulted, and she promised to return for the
next dance, seven days later, with an answer, but in the meantime, if the young
man really loved her, he must prove his constancy by a rigid fast until then.
The eager lover readily agreed and impatiently counted the days.
In seven nights there was another dance. The young warrior
was on hand early, and later in the evening the two sisters appeared, as
suddenly as before. The one with whom he was infatuated told him that her
brother was willing, and after the dance she would conduct the young man to her
home, but warned him if he told any one where he went or what he saw he would
surely die.
He danced with her again, and about daylight he left with
the two sisters, just before the dance closed, so as to avoid being followed,
and they started off together. The women led the way along a trail through the
woods, which the young man had never noticed before, until they came to a small
creek, where, without hesitating, they stepped into the water. The young man
paused in surprise on the bank, and thought to himself, “They are walking in
the water; I do not wish to do that.” The women understood his thoughts, just
as though he had spoken, and turned and said to him, “This is not water; this
is the road to our house.” He still hesitated, but they urged him on until he
stepped into the water and found it was only soft grass that made a fine level
trail. They went on until the path came to a large stream, which he knew to be
Tallulah River. The women plunged boldly in, but again the warrior hesitated on
the bank, thinking to himself, “That water is very deep and will drown me! I
cannot go on.” They knew his thoughts again, and turned and said, “This is not
water, but the main trail that goes past our house, which is now close by.” He
stepped in, and instead of water, there was tall waving grass that closed above
his head as he followed them. They went only a short distance and came to a cave of
rock close under Ugunyi, the Cherokee name for Tallulah Falls. The women
entered, while the warrior stood at the mouth, but they said, “This is our
house; come in, our brother will soon be at home; he is coming now.” They heard
low thunder in the distance. He went inside and stood up close to the entrance.
Then the women took off their long hair and hung it up on a rock, and both
their heads were as smooth as pumpkins. The man thought, ‘‘It is not hair at
all,” and he was more frightened than ever". The younger woman, the one he
was about to marry, then sat down and told him to take a seat beside her. He
looked, and it was a large turtle on which she sat, and it raised itself up and
stretched out its claws, as if angry at being disturbed. The youth refused to
sit down, insisting that it was a turtle, but the woman again assured him that
it was a seat. Then there was a louder roll of thunder, and the woman said,
“Now our brother is nearly home.” While he still refused to come nearer or sit
down, suddenly there was a great thunder clap just behind him, and
turning quickly he saw a man standing in the doorway of the Cave. “This
is my brother,” said the woman, and he came in and sat down upon the turtle,
which again rose up and stretched out its claws. The young warrior still
refused to come in. The brother then said that he was just about to start to a
council, and invited the young man to go with him. The hunter said he was
willing to go, if only he had a horse; so the young woman was told to bring
one. She went out and soon came back, leading a great uktena snake,
that curled and twisted along the whole length of the cave. Some
people say that it was a white uktena and that the brother himself
rode a red one. The hunter was terribly frightened and said, “That is a snake;
I cannot ride that.” The others insisted that it was not a snake, but their
riding horse. The brother grew impatient and said to the woman, “He may like it
better if you bring him a saddle and some bracelets for his wrists and arms.”
So they went out again and brought in a saddle and some arm bands, and the
saddle was another turtle, which they fastened on the uktena’s back, and
the bracelets were living slimy snakes, which they made ready to twist around
the hunter's wrists.
And the saddle was another turtle...
He was almost dead with fear, and said, “What kind of
horrible place is this? I can never stay here to live with snakes and creeping
things.” The brother became very angry and called him a coward, and then it was
as if lightning flashed from his eyes and struck the young man, and a terrific
crash of thunder stretched him senseless. When at last he came to himself
again, he was standing with his feet in the water and both hands grasping a
laurel bush that grew out from the bank, and there was no trace of the cave or
the Thunder People, but he was alone in the forest. He made his way out and
finally reached his own settlement, but found that he had been gone so long
that all the people thought him dead, although to him it seemed only the day
after the dance. His friends questioned him closely, and, forgetting the
warning, he told the story; but in seven days he died, for no one can come back
from the underworld and tell it and live.”
* Reproduced with minor variations, from the “History of
Georgia,” by Charles C. Jones, Jr. in:
A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians, Volume 2 By Lucian Lamar Knight
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