Cherokee Myths and Legends by Terry L. Norton

Author:Terry L. Norton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2014-11-10T05:00:00+00:00

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Judaculla, the Slant-Eyed Giant of Tanasee Bald

Before the Cherokee made contact with whites, the old town of Kanuga lay on the western fork of the Pigeon River, a few miles to the east of present-day Waynesville, North Carolina. The name means “a scratcher,” and comes from the bone-toothed combs used to draw blood in purification rituals. The Cherokee abandoned Kanuga long ago. Yet a widow once lived there with her only daughter.

When this girl came of age to marry, her mother advised her to find a husband who was a good hunter. That way, the old woman and her daughter would always have someone to provide plenty to eat. The girl said to her mother that finding such a husband might be difficult. The mother, however, insisted to her daughter that she should not marry the first man who wanted her for a wife but that she should wait until the right one came along

Now where the pair lived, they had a house and an asi, the latter being a little round hot house or sweat lodge. The mother would sleep in the house and the daughter in the asi. Unknown to the mother, one dark and moonless night, a stranger arrived, went to the little house, awoke the daughter, and told her that he would like to make her his wife. Remembering her mother’s earlier advice, she said that she could marry no one except a great hunter. The stranger replied, “You have found him.”

So the girl let him enter, and he remained all night. Just before the sun rose the next day, he said, “I must return to my home, but I have some deer meat outside for you and your mother.”

The hunter then left, and when the girl went outside, she found the meat. She immediately took it into the house to show to her mother and told her that it was a present from an admirer who had come to court her. The gift pleased the old woman, for they had had no meat for a long time.

The following night, the hunter returned and departed before dawn as he had on the previous visit, but this time, instead of deer steaks, he left two whole deer outside. Although these pleased the mother even more, she said to her daughter, “I had hoped that he would bring us wood as well.”

The stranger, although he was far away by that time, could hear the widow and even read her thoughts. In reality, he was the giant Tsulkalu or Judaculla, whose name means “he has them slanting,” a reference to his misshapen eyes, which made him horrible to look upon. Despite his appearance, he was a mighty lord of game animals and could control wind, thunder, rain, and lightning.

Judaculla visited again on the third night, and having heeded the old woman’s last wish, he told the daughter before he left, “I have brought wood for you and your mother.”

When the girl went outside at first light, not

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