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Long ago a powerful unknown tribe invaded the country from the
southeast, killing people and destroying settlements wherever they
went. No leader could stand against them, and in a little while they
had wasted all the lower settlements and advanced into the
mountains.
No leader could stand against them, and in a little while they had
wasted all the lower settlements and advanced into the mountains.
The warriors of the old town of Nikwasi', on the head of Little
Tennessee, gathered their wives and children into the townhouse and
kept scouts constantly on the lookout for the presence of danger.
One morning just before daybreak the spies saw the enemy approaching
and at once gave the alarm.
The Nikwasi' men seized their arms and rushed out to meet the
attack, but after a long, hard fight they found themselves
overpowered and began to retreat, when suddenly a stranger stood
among them and shouted to the chief to call off his men and he
himself would drive back the enemy. From the dress and language of
the stranger the Nikwasi' people thought him a chief who had come
with reinforcements from the Overhill settlements in Tennessee.
They fell back along the trail, and as they came near the townhouse
they saw a great company of warriors coming out from the side of the
mound as through an open doorway. Then they knew that their friends
were the Nunne'hﬠ the Immortals, although no one had ever heard
before that they lived under Nikwasi' mound.
The Nunne'hﬠ poured out by hundreds, armed and painted for the
fight, and the most curious thing about it all was that they became
invisible as soon as they were fairly outside of the settlement, so
that although the enemy saw the glancing arrow or the rushing
tomahawk, and felt the stroke, he could not see who sent it.
Before such invisible foes the invaders soon had to retreat, going
first south along the ridge to where joins the main ridge which
separates the French Broad from the Tuckasegee, and then turning
with it to the northeast. As they retreated they tried to shield
themselves behind rocks and trees, but the Nunne'hﬠ arrows went
around the rocks and killed them from the other side, and they could
find no hiding place.
All along the ridge they fell, until when they reached the head of
Tuckasegee not more than half a dozen were left alive, and in
despair they sat down and cried out for mercy. Ever since then the
Cherokee have called the place Day?'yﬠ "Where they cried."
Then the Nunne'hﬠ chief told them they had deserved their punishment
for attacking a peaceful tribe, and he spared their lives and told
them to go home and take the news to their people. This was the
Indian custom, always to spare a few to carry back the news of
defeat. They went home toward the north and the Nunne'hﬠ went back
to the mound.
And they are still there, because, in the last war, when a strong
party of Federal troops came to surprise a handful of Confederates
posted there they saw so many soldiers guarding the town that they
were afraid and went away without making an attack.
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