The Legend of Way ah Bald
It lias to do with a very old Cherokee by the
name of Conelieelah who talked with the
stars and was ahle with their help to impart
proper instrsietions to H ayali. his grandson.
Ki
/
J LOGIC FELIX E. ALLEY
Author of "Rambling Thought* and the Muiloss of a Mountaineer."
HON. GIJ.MKK
Л.
.ION ES, at¬
torney of Franklin and one¬
time solicitor of fin* Twentieth
Judicial, several years ago gave me a
typewritten copy of “The Legend of
Wavah Kohl,” the particular* of
which lie had collected from lime to
time and woven into a beautiful story.
Briefly, the substance of the legend is
ns f<d lows:
In the long ago, la-fore the white
man came to those mountains, there
lived with the Clierokees a very old
man by the name of Concheetah, who
was everywhere acclaimed the wisest
man in the Cherokee Nation. As lie
grew older he spent most of his l inn-
on the summit of the mountain which
wo know now as Wavah Bald, in Ma¬
con County. The old man had a grand¬
son, then about twelve years of age,
who, on nccouut of his acute sight,
hearing, alertness, strength and ac¬
tivity, had been given the name of
“Wavah," which, being interpreted,
means “the wolf." Oftentimes Wavah
went with his grandfather to the top
of this mountain.
Messages from the Stars
One night after the stars came out
Concheetah seemed to be talking to
him, and he told Wavah that his rea¬
son for spending so many nights on
top of this mountain was that he
might the bettor hear and understand
wlmt the stars said to him. lie said
the stars had told him that in the
years to come an enemy would de¬
scend from the North to conquer and
destroy tin- Chorokecs, and that Wav-
ah was destined to become the greatest
among the chiefs of his people, and
that he alone could lead them to vic¬
tory against this enemy.
He then told Wavah to go back to
the village of his people and train
himself to lie the best archer, the
swiftest runner and the most skillful
wielde-r of the tomahawk in all the
Cherokee Nation, and to make him¬
self worthy to become the greatest
chief of hi- tribe, lie enjoined Wavah
to tench the people of his trilie to em¬
ulate him and to do all the things
that would make them clean and
strong and brave.
The old man said that he would
not again be seen in the village hut
would remain on top of the mountain
where lie could talk to the stars and
hear what they had to say to him ;
and that as the years rolled on, if
Wavah should ever need him, if he
would come at night to the mountain’s
top, Concheetah would tell him what
the stars had said.
Wavah remembered and minutely
obeyed all of Coneheotah's instruc¬
tions; vet, as the moons continued to
come and go, no enemy came down
from tin- North.
At length. Wayuh himself grew old
and realized that if trouble eaine he
would not he ahle to lead his people.
But finally the blow strurk.
A runner came to the village of
Way ah and brought the news of the
attack of the Iroquois upon the Cher¬
okee villages farther north ; of the
killing of their squaws and papooses;
of the destruction of the buffalo and
the deer, and of the threat of the
Iroquois that they would kill the
Clierokees to the last man or wrest
from them every inch of their hunting
grounds.
Wavah sent messengers to call out
his braves to the warpath. But when
they started across the mountain to
meet the enemy, Wavah found that
he could not keep up with his war¬
riors; so he sadly turned aside and
went to the top of the mountain
where he last had seen Concheetah.
Calls to Coneheetah
That night, when the stars hung
their friendly torches on the sky, he
threw himself down upon the very
rock where he had last seen Conehee¬
tah sitting, and cried out in his grief:
"You taught me to he strong and
courageous. You told me that I would
he needed to drive hack the tribes of
t lie North, to lead my people and save
them. But now they die like rabbits
from the tomahawks of the Iroquois.
My young men need me to lend them,
hut my body is bent like the storm-
1 eaten oaks about me. My braves go
along to meet the invader, and I,
whom you so carefully taught, am
powerless to help them. The bow will
no longer bend for me; 1 can no
longer wield the tomahawk, for the
strength of my arm is gone."
And when Wavah had thus spoken,
from the rock itself he heard the
voice of Concheetah saying to him:
“My son, do you wish to have hack
your strength of arm ami fleetness of
foot? Do you wish to have returned
to you your steadiness of eye and stire-
ness of aim? Think well. You have
(Continued on page eighteen )
