The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1894-03-02
HOT SPRINGS LEGEND.
THE BIG CHIEFS GRATITUDE SHOWN
IN A STRANGE INSCRIPTION.

''Thunder of the Blue Mountains" Lived
Too High and Contracted the Gout-A
Squaw of One Hundred Summers Gave
Him IA Friendly Tip, and He Followed 1t.
| cannot undertake to say how many
ages ago it all happened, writes CORE
spondent of the Boston Herald from Hot
Springs, n. c., but it fell out once upon
time that the great Cherokee chief, Say
ou\ Katche-hi, which may he translated
Thunder of the Blue Mountains, hav-
ing lain out o. nights with friendly moon
sinners beyond the point of prudence, was
seized by painful and irritating attack
of rheumatic govt. The medicine men
gave him corn whisky on the theory that
the hair of the dog cures the bite, and
when this treatment proved OF no avail
they dosed the stanch warrior with PURGE
of rattlesnakes' tails, bears claws, stick
bait, eyes of eft and toes of frog, all gath
cred at midnight in the full of the moon
while the catamount screeched among the
dusky shadows of the balsam woods.
Yet the chief grew worse, and when
hope was abandoned withered squaw
who had seen more than 100 summers
brought hope to his worshipful ears with
the tale that when she was in her teens she
had heard an ancient crOne say that there
existed, many miles sou west by SOU
springs of water which bubbled rot from
the bowels of the steaming earth anil that
to bathe therein was health ant. strength
and youth renewed.
Say-ou- Katche.hi tried to jump at the
chance, but the effort stung his painful
feet However, having ordered the local
doctors slain, he made preparations for
the Journey to the hot springs, and ere
nightfall he was on his way southwark,
borne in a litter on the shoulders of his
young men. Over mountain and through
valley they kept their course, and at last
they came to broad river flowing south
ward. They promptly stole boat which
was fastened to bush on the river bank,
and thence, after the fashion ct gentlemen
described in Xenophon's "Anabasis," OF
which have some faint recollection, they
iourneyed various stathmous until they
| reached a place where, even at midday,
| clouds of steam were rising from the earth
and low pools of strangest aspect patched
the drear plateau
The chief was lifted from the boat, his
trousers, tomahawk and other garmentl
soon stripped from his royal person, aud
he quickly immersed in warm spring
"Mighty man." said the chief, "thi :
feels good" And his sigh of content stir
red the needles of the pine trees on Round
Top and the leaves of the oaks on Lovers
Leap
The chief passed the greater part of sew
en- days in the pool drank deeply of the wa
tiers and did not recover so rapidly as he
would have done if he had lived hygien-
ically, but at any rate he regained the use
of his crippled limbs, the govt left him,
and he was soon able to walk around and
notice things.
After one or two moons he said to his
retainers, 81 prefer to live here than to die
elsewhere, and return to the land of my
fathers to gather up my goods and chattels
and remove hither in due course" So he
started home, and when he reached the
forks of the road, about seven miles from
the springs, he spied the beetling cliff now
known as Paint rock, which must resemble
the chimneys in Mr.. Jules Verne's story
of "The Mysterious Island" There he
halted, and ON the face of the cliff wrote
the strange inscription which is still visi
BILE.
/
it in vain, and it is only recently that my
learned friend, DR.. Tusann, has decipheret
it, He scraped away the lichens which
had made the carving dim upon the page
of stone and read as follows: "Witch water
mile-heep good-big chief" This il
not only a valuable guideboard, but is Of
great historic interest. Say-ou-Katche-h
and his tribe returned, and for many
! hold fhsa fny-tV hara Ia.
steaming springs abide, and there wal
never a case of sickness in the Indian vii
lage.
So much by way of introduction to Hot
Springs, n. c., which must not be con
founded with Hot Springs, Ark. This place
whereof write used to appear as Warn
Springs on the map, and it is pity tina
the name was changed.
There are 16 springs in the hotel park o
200 acres, and the temperature of thes
thermal waters varies from 90 degrees t.
1O4 degrees The original baths were rud
and plain, but the rheumatic, equity, nerv
GUS or dyspeptic victim who now come
here for rest and health is not obliged t.
lie in the mud as did Say-ou-Katche-h
of ancient memory, but steps into deli
cious pool, floored and lined with Georgia
marble, and when he has had his bath i
safely laid away upon cot in his own re
firing room, where he sinks usually int
deep and dreamless slumber and awake
refreshed and rested. A popularity of tn
waters is that the baths are not enervat
ing, and in spite of the low Temperature
for drinking purposes are not in the leas
nauseating. 1t is said that the hotel i
kept in frewood by the use Of crutche
left behind by happy visitors, but in thi
! truthful narrative do not care to voucl
for it.