The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1857-04-16
BY DAVIS g. CREWS.
From, the Neto York Dispatch.
CHEROKEE STORIES.
THE BEAUTIFUL DAHLIA.

year 1928, young Indian girl stood on
the left bank of tho Himassee, gazing in
tently towards the other shore. The scene
around her was picturesque in high de-
gree. Magnificent pine forests, every tree
of which sung like an Eolian harp to the
touch of the evening wind, overshadowed
thickly the borders of the crystal river, that
chaunted too necessarily low delicious
music of its own. Tho minstrel birds filed
the woods with airs of love, and fishes, rs
If they would fly on silver fins, leaped above
tho surface of the stream, to enjoy the GRIM
Son light; the wild flowers sweetcncd the
atmosphere with odors of paradise; while
-afar in the east the scrratcd pinacles of
towering mountain were all glowing
and flaming in the red fins of the setting
Sun. @
Nor did tho solitary spectatress of the
landscape appear at all unworthy Of its rich
romance. She was in the carly bloom of
bright fifteen-that mystic point of inter-
section betwixt the double dreams of child
hood and passion-where the innocence of
/: the one trembles without retiring before tho
first burning heart quakcs of the other
And notwithstanding the immaturity of her
years, one could scarcely have wished to
behold a taller, a more luxuriant womanly
form than hers, combination at once Of
queenly grandeur and ethereal grace
Straight as an arrow, flexible as a spring Of
steel, airy .as bird on the wing; round,
waving, symmetrical, and full of radiant
life and health with delicious bosom,
whose twin cone-like pillows, sharply indcnt-
ing the snowy linen above them, indicated
that no rude hand had ever yet soiled the
virgin purity beneath; with those black
eyes Of vivid yet dreamy fire, shaded by
lashes SO long as almost to sweep the checks
below; with that world of raven Lair brai.
ded with an art rivalling the simplicity of
nature, but adorned only with forest flowers
tho native wreaths that bring their own
perfume; and with that voluptuous COM
plexion of the golden olive, which suffers
the tints of tho brilliant blood to be seen
through it, like sunbeam blushing through
an evening cloud. She nigh. have been
imagined an Indian Venus, had not the
pure spiritual cast of countenance, sculp-
tured as in marble on every feature, made
her rather resemble the chaste huntress of
the Olympian woods. Her dress was the
most costly fabric, though entirely without
ornaments, savo one splendid pin tE.at spar
keld in a point of f'amo over her bosom !;
for, she was the only daughter of the veal
thiest chief of the Cherokees, and the sister
of the greatest
:: For, at that period mentioned, that part
of Tennessee still remained the property of
the aboriginal possessors, to whom it had
descended as a free inheritance from God
and nature, through h the unbroken succession
of ages too distant for record, or even the
dim tWinklings of poetic tradition. But
the once wide domain of the martial
Cherokees had been compressed into mere
span by tho invasions of an empire of pow
erful States that yet continued to assault it
on every side. There seemed no hope for
tho last remnant of the fading tribe, only a
forced exodus into the milder forests of the
West there to: find transient home, and
then again Ito fly at the bidding of their
pitiless prosecutors. Thus has it been, and
will be, with a savage yet noble race. AS
the dew before the sun, as the mountain
snow before the singing rains of summer,
they melt apd exhale away at the torturing
touch sof civilization, they fit like fairies
from the moonlight groen,. to return no
B. more. - 81 .~,.
Was that the thought whicEssaddencd
the.brow of the beautiful Indian girl as het
dark eyes rested mournfuly on the spark
ling riverf Perhaps it might be a feeling
more personal than patriotic; suddenly her
face kindled with the glow like the sunset
ps slight, arrow-swift canoe, ,steered by ono
youthful tower, shot out from the other
sh6re3 II; took But a minute to cross the
st5esm. sams Of impotuous haste urged
'theassbi6g paddle. lie was handsome
man of.medium size; somo twonty-tbree
!. yaars OF age, with rather skllow complex
iod, an elevated intellectual forehead, and
the blacklist light, vivid and, pier
eng but tinged with a.pameless expression
not hltogether pleasing, though no one
could EEL Why. He wore the richest cloth.
Ing Nth as;pany jewels as good taste migl,
bly allow. and his entire air betokened
soioapd shastised and unobtrusiv<
H isaapd upsa The bask and graspms
the tremnleus hand of the young 1ndiar
~. carried it respectfully to his lips, OK
ginshalf feminine tones: ;.
B. ( oHh sweet Dahlia, forgive me TO
Rsi11 lss 4 waasd dying to ses you, but Dc