A beautiful maiden who always dressed in white buckskin
dress went to the spring
in the Arkansas Mountains to fetch water. Her people
waited and waited for
her return, but she did not come back to their camp.
They went to the spring and
found her water skin.Then they found her tracks going
higher up into the mountains.
They followed her as far as they could, but then her
tracks went straight up the
stone face of the summit and disappeared.
Her people called for the shaman to search out her
lost spirit. He sang and smoked
for four full days and nights, and then said, "She
is alive up there in the mountains."
As he knew the mountains well.
The tribe then went to the stone face and sang. The
cliff opened onto a hall full of wolves
and bears . The shaman sang some more, and the people
and animals
joined in. Another door opened, and there stood the
maiden with a bear,
who changed into a wolf.
"Come with us," the shaman said. But the maiden refused,
saying, "Stay close to
this spiritual place; keep your camp near . I will
always be among you,
and no enemy will trouble you. Keep sight of this
place."
But her people returned to their camp, as they decided
to leave .
Four days later they were all massacred.
But off in the distant at night a wolf howls, calling
for her to return.
to the water falls. There it is said one can see her
bathing in the Moonlight
amongst her now family the wolves . Some say the true
lore of the
mist of the waterfalls is just the young wolf
maidens tears blowing in the wind
GoldenBear