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Handbook/ 1932/ Smoky Mountains Hiking Club

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  • HEARTS BU'STIisT WITH LOVE This is what the Hiking Club's password "WA-HOO!" means. It is an unofficial salutation and no one knows how it started. But it has an official stamp of whether your heart's bu'stin' with love or not, nevertheless. The salutation is "WA HE?" The answer is "WAHOO!" The sign of the deer's antlers is made with either one hand or two. There are also other signs to bona fide members. A very pretty legend surrounds this magic word now becoming identified with the Great Smoky National Park in Mr. Cammerer's suggestion of adopting the translation "HEARTS BU'STIN' WITH LOVE". The Legend The last rays from an autumn sun setting in Usunhi'yi or Twilight Land caught the beautiful fiery berries of a bush and set them aflame. They burned thru the heavy snow and ice on the Smokies. When the tender little doe came out in the Spring and little Tuti the Snowbird was fluttering his wings to start for the North again the berries burst with their joy of new life and love for everything. Thru the summer the Wahoo grew to maturity and the cycle was repeated every year and became perennial with its faithfulness and its symbol of the new birth. So the Wahoo never dies but carries the flame—Atsi'la—thru the winter to light Spring's glories anew. What better symbol can the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club possess than the beautiful Wahoo that means just that for every one it touches? HEARTS BU'STIN' WITH LOVE. WAHOO! Your Historian. Note: The Wahoo is the Euony mus Amcricanus or Strawberry Bush. It is called "Hearts a bu'stin' with Love" by our mountaineers.
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