The Cheroki, or more correctly, Tsálagi nation is essentially a hill people; their numerous settlements were divided into two great sections by the watershed ridge of the Alleghany mountains, in their language Unéga katúsi ("_white, whitish mountains_"), of which even now a portion is called "Smoky Mountains." Northwest of that ridge lay the Cheroki villages of the _Overhill settlement_, Ótari, Ótali ("_up, above_"), along the Great and Little Tennessee rivers and their tributaries, while southeast of it, in the mountains of North Carolina and on the head waters of the Georgia rivers, extended the towns of the _Lower Cheroki_, or Erati (in Cheroki élati, _below, nether_). There were also a number of Cheroki villages in the northern parts of Alabama State, and du Pratz distinctly states, that the "Chéraquies" lived east of the Abé-ikas.[13] While calling a person of their own people by the name of Atsálagi, in the plural Anitsálagi, they comprise all the Creeks under the name of Kúsa, from Coosa river, or more probably from the ancient, far-famed town of the same name: Agúsa, Kúsa, Gúsa, _a Creek person_; Anigúsa, _the Creek people_; Gúsa uniwoní'hsti, _the Creek language_.