Vinita, I.T., April 18 - It was a long time ago, when the Cherokees were among the smallest tribe on the American continent, that Old Rock came among them. He was a great giant. He was a rock man known by the Cherokees as Old Rock. In fact, he was a rock man, and lived on the Cherokee and other Indians. He was a cannibal, the only one the Cherokees ever knew. He had killed and ate many and many Cherokees, and at different times the Cherokees had tried to kill him, but the arrow of the Cherokee had no effect on him. He was wont to come into the tepee of the Cherokee, and while all were asleep take up and crush the life out of one or two of the children or a full grown one, going off to his hiding place and there devour the bodies. This had gone on for many years, but the Cherokees had no way to kill or get rid of him. Once upon a time a little girl went to the great medicine man of the Cherokees and implored him to do something with Old Rock Shirt, that Old Rock Shirt had killed and eaten her only little brother. This put the old medicine man to studying up some plan to stop Old Rock and he told the little girl to go home and leave all to him. The next day the old medicine man went out on a hunt for Old Rock. He rambled around in the woods where Old Rock was wont to stay. The medicine man had caught on to an idea. Late in the evening he saw Old Rock coming on his way to get an evening meal by catching a Cherokee. The old medicine man aimed to give Old Rock a fight for the sake of the little Cherokee girl's appeal. When Old Rock came close enough the Cherokee made a move as if to run under Rock and give Rock the Indian pitch, but just passed close enough to carry Old Rock’s walking cane which proved to be the very thing to do. Old Rock was disabled at once. He became all at once very tame, and was not cross, and began to beg for his cane, but the great medicine man saw his chance, and took advantage of it. Old Rock followed him around very slowly, begging for his cane. The medicine man walked off till he found a little brook with very steep banks. Near the brook stood a tree. The medicine man climbed up this tree like a cat, and went out on a limb and sat down and watched his chance. Old Rock was solid he could not bend. He had slept standing all his life. He could not sit down, After Rock came to the tree he again asked the medicine man to give him his cane. His neck, of course, was like his body, solid. He could not see straight ahead. But the medicine man told him he would throw the cane to him from the tree, and told Old Rock to be sure to catch it, as that would be the last chance for him to recover the cane. Rock tried to get in position so that he would not miss the cane when thrown by the medicine man. He backed off a few feet, but the old man climbed up the tree a little higher till Old Rock was just at the brink of the little brook before mentioned. A climb of a few inches more and the old Cherokee promised to cast the cane. In trying to see the cane when cast, Old Rock made one step back, when the bank gave way under Old Rock's weight and down flat on his back went Old Rock for the first time in 500 years. The old Cherokee came down to see what had become of Old Rock. He found him safe on his back and no show for him to get up. He looked all over Old Rock’s body and found only one place where the arrow would enter, and that was Old Rock's Adam's apple. He watched his chance, and at the twang of his fox-squirrel skin bow string Old Rock was no more. He went home, assembled all of the old hunters and related his adventure of the day before. They all went in a body to the scenes of the tragedy and found things as related and they went to work and pounded Old Rock into little fragments and carried him off.

A little while after this a hunting party came out on a big hunt and two of the hunters of the gang had little bits of Old Rock in their shot pouch. These were the only ones that killed deer and on this hunt it was found out that old Rock had had a charmed life, and his body had great medical properties.

Then there was a great demand for parts of Old Rock's body and today among the old Cherokees the old hunters are in possession of some of Old Rock's body and those that own this great medicine value it like the white man values diamonds. They would not exchange a piece of Old Rock's body for a good farm today.