The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-02-21
HOT SPRINGS LEGEND.
The Big Chiefs Gratitude Shown In a
Strange Inscription.

StfauSC IHSCIipbtUus
THUNDER of the Blue Mountains Lived
Too High and Contracted the Gout--A
Sauaw of One Hundred Summers Gave
Him a Friendly Tip, and BE Followed It.
| cannot undertake to say how many
ages ago it all happened, writes a CORE
spondent of the Boston Herald from Hot
Springs, N. c., but it fell out once upon
time that tbs great Cherokee chief, Say
ou-k atche-hi, which may be translated
THUNDER of the Blue Mountains" hay
ing lain out o. nights with friendly moon
sinners beyond the point of prudence, was
seized by a painful and irritating attack
of rheumatic govt. The medicine men
gave him corn whisky cn 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 rattleslsakes' 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 a 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 dubbed hot from
the bowels of the stesming earth, and that
to battle therein was health and strength
and youth renewed.
Say-ou-Katche-h 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
niahtfall he was on his way southwark,
borne in 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 OF gentlemen
described in Xenophon' s lana basis" of
which have some faint recollection, they
journeyed 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, tonaahawk and other garments
soon stripped from his royal person, and
he was quickly immersed in warm spring.
"Mighty man," said the chief, "thls
feels goodl' 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 CT 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 chatteis
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 beetllng cliff now
known rs Paint rock, which must resemble
the chimneys in MI. Jules Verne's story
of 1.-THE Mysterious Island" There he
halted and on the face of the cliff wrote
the strange inscription which is still visi-
BILE.
Scientists and psychologists have studied
it in vain, and it is only recently that my
learned friend, DIR. Tusann, has deciphered
it, He scraped away the lichens which
had made the carving dim upon the page
of stone and read as follows: switch water,
mile-heep good-big chief" This is
not only valuable guideboard, but is OF
great historic interest. Say ou-Katche-hl
and his tribe returned, and for many,
many years they held the fort where the
steaming springs abide, and there was
never 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 Warm
Springs on the map, and it is a pity that
the name was changed.
There are 16 springs in the hotel park of
200 acres, and the temperature of these
thermal waters varies from 80 degrees tc
104 degrees The orr na. baths were rude
and plain, but The rheumatic, equity, nerv-
Gus or dysp .7tic victim who now comes
here for rest and health is not obliged to
lie in the mud as did Say-ou-K atche-h
of ancient memory, but steps into deli
ciou. pool, foored and lined with Georgia
marble, and when he has had his bath is
safely laid away upon cot in his own re-
firing room, where he sinks usually into
deep and dreamless slumber and awakes
refreshed and rested. A popularity of the
waters is that the baths are not enervat-
ing, and in spite of the low temperature
for drinking purposes are not in the least
nauseating. 1t is said that the hotel is
kept in frewood by the use of crutches
left behind by happy visitors, but in this
truthful narrative / do not care to vouch
for it.
Tur.ii..; - TAG Left In England.
IN the Rochester Democrat judge OF