RL.9-10.3
The Stone Man
A Cherokee Legend Collected by James Mooney
This is what the old men told me when I was a boy.
Once when all the people of the settlement were out in the mountains on a great hunt, one man
who had gone on ahead climbed to the top of a high ridge and found a large river on the other
side. While he was looking across, he saw an old man walking about on the opposite ridge, with
a cane that seemed to be made of some bright, shining rock. The hunter watched and saw that
every little while the old man would point his cane in a certain direction, then draw it back and
smell the end of it. At last he pointed it in the direction of the hunting camp on the other side of
the mountain, and this time when he drew back the staff, he sniffed it several times as if it
smelled very good, and then started along the ridge straight for the camp. He moved very slowly,
with the help of the cane, until he reached the end of the ridge, when he threw the cane out into
the air, and it became a bridge of shining rock stretching across the river. After he had crossed
over upon the bridge, it became a cane again, and the old man picked it up and started over the
mountain toward the camp.
The hunter was frightened and felt sure that it meant mischief, so he hurried on down the
mountain and took the shortest trail back to the camp to get there before the old man. When he
got there and told his story, the medicine-man said the old man was a wicked monster
called “Dressed in Stone,” who lived in that part of the country and was always going about the
mountains looking for some hunter to make disappear. Since he was an extremely talented
magician, it was very hard to escape from him. His magic stick guided him like a dog, and it was
nearly as hard to hurt him, because his whole body was covered with a skin of solid rock. If he
came, he would make them all disappear. There was only one way to save themselves. He could
not bear to look upon a woman carrying a child. If they could find seven young women who
were carrying children and have them stand in the path as he came along, the sight would make
him vanish into the mist.
So they asked among all the women and found seven who were carrying a child; one of them
had a very tiny newborn baby. By the order of the medicine-man, they stood along the path
where the old man would come. Soon they heard “Dressed in Stone” coming through the woods,
feeling his way with his stone cane. He came along the trail to where the first woman was
standing, and as soon as he saw her he stopped and cried out: “Yu! my grandchild; you are
carrying a child!” He hurried past her, but in a moment he met the next woman, and cried out
again: “Yu! my child; you are carrying a child,” and hurried past her. But now he was getting
very weak. He hurried on and met the third and the fourth and the fifth woman, but with each
one that he saw, his step grew weaker. When he came to the last woman, who was carrying the
newborn baby, he became so weak he could no longer stand up, and he fell down on the trail.
Then the medicine-man carefully laid seven sourwood stakes on his body. When night came,
they piled great logs all around him, being careful not to let the logs touch his body and set fire
to them. All the people gathered around to see. “Dressed in Stone” was a great magician and
knew many secrets. Now as the fire came close to him, he began to talk, and he told them the
medicine for all kinds of sickness. At midnight, he began to sing and sang the hunting songs for
calling up the bear and the deer and all the animals of the woods and mountains. As the blaze
grew hotter, his voice sank low and lower, until at last when daylight came, the logs were a heap
of white ashes and the voice was still. In his place were seven young sourwood saplings growing
out of the earth.
Then the medicine-man told them to rake away the ashes. Where the body had lain they found
only a large lump of red paint and a magic stone. He kept the stone for himself, and, calling the
people around him, he painted them on the face and chest with the red paint. Whatever each
person prayed for while the painting was being done—whether for hunting success, for working
skill, or for a long life—that gift was his.
1. How did the medicine-man advance the plot of the selection?
A. He defeated the old man before he could approach the camp.
B. He revealed that the old man was a dangerous man of magic.
C. He first spotted the old man as he searched the mountains.
D. He smeared the people with paint from the old man’s ashes.
2. What does the sentence below from paragraph 5 suggest about “Dressed in Stone”?
“Now as the fire came close to him, he began to talk, and he told them the medicine for
all kinds of sickness.”
A .The fire causes him to become delirious.
B .He tries to convince the villagers to let him live.
C .The fire cannot harm him because of his magical qualities.
D .He is a more complex person than the medicine-man claimed.
3. How does the old man, “Dressed in Stone,” develop throughout the selection?
A .He ignores his conscience and embraces destruction.
B .He comes to understand the sacredness of childhood.
C .He begins using his magic stick for good rather than evil.
D .He shows that he may not be exactly what the medicine man described.
4. How does “Dressed in Stone” support the idea that people are not always what they
appear to be on the outside?
A. Even though his skin is like stone, he is able to burn in a fire.
B .Even though he has a magic stick, babies have power over him.
C .Even though he is a great magician, he has to walk very slowly.
D .Even though he has a great sense of smell, he cannot see very well.
5.How does the death of “Dressed in Stone” represent the idea that all life is connected?
A . Young saplings grew from the place in which he died.
B . Seeing mothers with babies contributed to his death.
C . He told many secrets before he died.
D . He sang as he was being burned.
Key:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B
D
D
C
A