THE WATER CANNIBALS

THE WATER CANNIBALS

Besides the friendly Nûñnĕ′hĭ of the streams and mountains there is a race of
cannibal spirits, who stay at the bottom of the deep rivers and live upon human
flesh, especially that of little children. They come out just after daybreak and go
about unseen from house to house until they find some one still asleep, when
they shoot him with their invisible arrows and carry the dead body down under
the water to feast upon it. That no one may know what has happened they leave
in place of the body a shade or image of the dead man or little child, that wakes
up and talks and goes about just as he did, but there is no life in it, and in seven
days it withers and dies, and the people bury it and think they are burying their
dead friend. It was a long time before the people found out about this, but now
they always try to be awake at daylight and wake up the children, telling them
“The hunters are among you.”
This is the way they first knew about the water cannibals: There was a man in
Tĭkwăli′tsĭ town who became sick and grew worse until the doctors said he
could not live, and then his friends went away from the house and left him aloneto die. They were not so kind to each other in the old times as they are now,
because they were afraid of the witches that came to torment dying people.
He was alone several days, not able to rise from his bed, when one morning an
old woman came in at the door. She looked just like the other women of the
settlement, but he did not know her. She came over to the bed and said, “You are
very sick and your friends seem to have left you. Come with me and I will make
you well.” The man was so near death that he could not move, but now her
words made him feel stronger at once, and he asked her where she wanted him to
go. “We live close ; come with me and I will show you,” said the woman, so
he got up from his bed and she led the way down to the water. When she came to
the water she stepped in and he followed, and there was a road under the water,
and another country there just like that above.
They went on until they came to a settlement with a great many houses, and
women going about their work and children playing. They met a party of hunters
coming in from a hunt, but instead of deer or bear quarters hanging from their
shoulders they carried the bodies of dead men and children, and several of the
bodies the man knew for those of his own friends in Tĭkwăli′tsĭ. They came to a
house and the woman said “This is where I live,” and took him in and fixed a
bed for him and made him comfortable.
By this time he was very hungry, but the woman knew his thoughts and said,
“We must get him something to eat.” She took one of the bodies that the hunters
had just brought in and cut off a slice to roast. The man was terribly frightened,
but she read his thoughts again and said, “I see you can not eat our food.” Then
she turned away from him and held her hands before her stomach—so—and
when she turned around again she had them full of bread and beans such as he
used to have at home.
So it was every day, until soon he was well and strong again. Then she told him
he might go home now, but he must be sure not to speak to anyone for seven
days, and if any of his friends should question him he must make signs as if his
throat were sore and keep silent. She went with him along the same trail to the
water’s edge, and the water closed over her and he went back alone to
Tĭkwăli′tsĭ. When he came there his friends were surprised, because they thought
he had wandered off and died in the woods. They asked him where he had been,
but he only pointed to his throat and said nothing, so they thought he was not yet
well and let him alone until the seven days were past, when he began to talk well and let him alone until the seven days were past, when he began to talk
again and told the whole story.

 

Source:
Myths of the Cherokee, James Mooney