Return of Ice Man

Once during the autumn in the
Great Smoky Mountains some dry leaves in
the woods caught fire, and before the
people could beat out the flames the fire
spread to a big poplar tree. The tree blazed
fiercely until it turned to ashes, and then
the fire went down into the roots and burned
a great hole in the ground. It burned and burned,
and the hole grew constantly larger, until the
people became frightened and were afraid it
would burn the whole world. Time after time
they tried to extinguish the fire, but it had
gone too deep, and they did not know what to do.

At last a chief said that Ice Man was the
only one who could put out the fire, and he
lived in a house of ice far away to the north.
The chief called the people together for a
council to choose two messengers to journey
northward in search of Ice Man.

After travelling a long distance the messengers
found Ice Man. He was a very old person with
long hair hanging down to the ground in two plaits.
The messengers told him why they had come to
ask his help.

“Oh, yes,” replied Ice Man,
“I can help you put out that fire.”
He began to unplait his long hair.
When it was all unbraided, he took a
thatch of it in one hand and struck it
across his other hand, and the messengers
felt a chill wind blow against their faces.
A second time he struck his hair across his hand,
and a light rain began to fall.
The third time he struck his hair across
his open hand, sleet rattled upon the ground,
and when he struck the fourth time a heavy snow
began to fall, as if it had come from the ends
of his hair.

“Go back to your village,” Ice Man said,
“and I shall be there in a few days.”
The messengers speedily returned to their
people, who were still gathered helplessly
around the great burning pit.

A few days later, while they were all fearfully
watching the fire, a strong wind blew from
the north, and they knew it came from Ice Man.
But the wind only made the fire blaze brighter.
Then a light rain began to fall, but the drops
seemed only to make the fire hotter with scalding
steam. Then the shower turned into a heavy sleet
storm that smothered the blaze but made clouds of
smoke rise from the red coals.

While the people fled to their houses for shelter,
the storm rose to a whirlwind that drove countless
flakes of snow into every burning crevice and
covered the embers with a white blanket until
the fire was dead. Not even a wisp of smoke
could be seen in the deep hole.

When at last the storm ended, the people
returned and found a lake where the pit had been.
Today some people in the Great Smokies say that
below the waters of that lake they can hear the
sound of coals still crackling.