Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertlz/3982000390/
Dahlonega, Georgia - Indian Princess Trahlyta's Grave
"This pile of stones marks the grave of a Cherokee princess, Trahlyta. According to legend her tribe, living on Cedar Mountain north of here, knew the secret of the magic springs of eternal youth from the Witch of Cedar Mountain. Trahlyta, kidnapped by a rejected suitor, Wahsega, was taken far away and lost her beauty. As she was dying, Wahsega promised to bury her near her home and the magic springs. Custom arose among the Indians and later the Whites to drop stones, one for each passerby, on her grave for good fortune. The magic springs, now known as Porter Springs, lie 3/4 mile northeast of here...Twice the Department of Highways has attempted to move the grave during road construction. Both times at least one person died in an accident while moving the pile. The stone grave remains today in the same place it has always been. Porter Springs, in the latter 1800's and early 1900's was site of a popular health spa to which people came from all across the planet to soak in and drink the water. The hotel burned to the ground in the early 1900's, but the series of springs are the foot of the mountain, and they still run sweet and clear (from cherokeegold.net)."
"The tradition was for each passerby to drop one stone on her grave for luck. Here’s the strange thing, if you take one of these stones away, bad luck will befall you. Each time someone has attempted to relocate the pile, someone dies..."
I'm reminded of the memorial cairn on the slopes of Monument Mountain in Great Barrington, MA, which is apparently not in its original location, according to Lion Miles, a historian (bad luck for those who moved it), and to the cairn at H.D. Thoreau's cabin site by Walden Pond.
ReplyDeleteI want to repeat what I said here:
ReplyDeletehttp://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2006/01/donation-pile-myth.html