One time three hunters, one of whom was a young man, were camping in a certain place. The older men began talking about a very deep place in a little creek where lived an ukteni. The young man heard them and went to that place, saying to himself, "I wonder what it is." One place in the stream was so deep that the water looked blue and dark. He crept up to the high bank, and, looking over, saw the ukteni sleeping near the edge of the water with its head out. The youth shot at the snake, which immediately coiled up into an immense bulk. The young man wanted to get away, but he could scarcely
245:2 From the same man as the preceding. Ukteni is a Cherokee name.
