Читать книгу Picture-Writing of the American Indians - Garrick Mallery - Страница 71

Mr. John Haywood (a) gives the following account:

About 2 miles below the road which crosses the Harpeth river from Nashville to Charlotte is a large mound 30 or 40 feet high. About 6 miles from it is a large rock, on the side of the river, with a perpendicular face of 70 or 80 feet altitude. On it, below the top some distance and on the side, are painted the sun and moon in yellow colors, which have not faded since the white people first knew it. The figure of the sun is 6 feet in diameter; that of the moon is of the old moon. The sun and moon are also painted on a high rock on the side of the Cumberland river, in a spot which several ladders placed upon each other could not reach, and which is also inaccessible except by ropes let down the summit of the rock to the place where the painting was performed. * * * The sun is also painted on a high rock on the side of the Cumberland river, 6 or 7 miles below Clarksville; and it is said to be painted also at the junction of the Holston and French Broad rivers, above Knoxville, in East Tennessee; also on Duck river, below the bend called the Devil’s Elbow, on the west side of the river, on a bluff; and on a perpendicular flat rock facing the river, 20 feet below the top of the bluff and 60 above the water, out of which the rock rises, is the painted representation of the sun in red and yellow colors, 6 feet in circumference, yellow on the upper side and a yellowish red on the lower. The colors are very fresh and unfaded. The rays, both yellow and red, are represented as darting from the center. It has been spoken of ever since the river was navigated and has been there from time immemorial. * * *

The painting on Big Harpeth, before spoken of, is more than 80 feet from the water and 30 or 40 below the summit. All these paintings are in unfading colors, and on parts of the rock inaccessible to animals of every description except the fowls of the air. The painting is neatly executed, and was performed at an immense hazard of the operator.

Mr. W. M. Clarke, in Smithsonian Report for 1877, page 275, says:

On the bluffs of the Big Harpeth many pictures of Indians, deer, buffalo, and bows and arrows are to be seen. These pictures are rudely drawn, but the coloring is as perfect now as when first put on.

Haywood (b) says:

At a gap of the mountains and near the head of Brasstown creek, which is toward the head of the Hiawassee, and among the highlands, is a large horizontal rock on which are engraved the tracks of deer, bears, horses, wolves, turkeys, and barefooted human beings of all sizes. Some of the horses’ tracks appear to have slipped forward. The direction of them is westward. Near them are signs of graves.

He also (c) gives the following account:

On the south bank of the Holston, 5 miles above the mouth of French Broad, is a bluff of limestone opposite the mounds and a cave in it. The bluff is 100 feet in height. On it are painted in red colors, like those on the Paint rock, the sun and moon, a man, birds, fishes, etc. The paintings have in part faded within a few years. Tradition says these paintings were made by the Cherokees, who were accustomed in their journeys to rest at this place. Wherever on the rivers of Tennessee are perpendicular bluffs, on the sides, and especially if caves be near, are often found mounds near them, inclosed in intrenchments, with the sun and moon painted on the rocks, and charcoal and ashes in the smaller mounds. These tokens seem to be evincive of a connection between the mounds, the charcoal and ashes, the paintings and the caves.