In the old days quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and insects could all talk,
and they and the human race lived together in peace and friendship.
But as time went on the people increased so rapidly that their
settlements spread over the whole earth and the poor animals found
themselves beginning to be cramped for room. This was bad enough,
but to add to their misfortunes man invented bows, knives, blowguns,
spears, and hooks, and began to slaughter the larger animals, birds
and fishes for the sake of their flesh or their skins, while the
smaller creatures, such as the frogs and worms, were crushed and
trodden upon without mercy, out of pure carelessness or contempt. In
this state of affairs the animals resolved to consult upon measures
for their common safety.
The bears were the first to meet in council in their townhouse in
Kuwa´hĭ, the “Mulberry Place,”[4] and the old White Bear chief
presided. After each in turn had made complaint against the way in
which man killed their friends, devoured their flesh and used their
skins for his own adornment, it was unanimously decided to begin war
at once against the human race. Some one asked what weapons man used
to accomplish their destruction. “Bows and arrows, of course,” cried
all the bears in chorus. “And what are they made of?” was the next
question. “The bow of wood and the string of our own entrails,”
replied one of the bears. It was then proposed that they make a bow
and some arrows and see if they could not turn man’s weapons against
himself. So one bear got a nice piece of locust wood and another
sacrificed himself for the good of the rest in order to furnish a
piece of his entrails for the string. But when everything was ready
and the first bear stepped up to make the trial it was found that
in letting the arrow fly after drawing back the bow, his long claws
caught the string and spoiled the shot. This was annoying, but another
suggested that he could overcome the difficulty by cutting his claws,
which was accordingly done, and on a second trial it was found that
the arrow went straight to the mark. But here the chief, the old White
Bear, interposed and said that it was necessary that they should have
long claws in order to be able to climb trees. “One of us has already
died to furnish the bowstring, and if we now cut off our claws we
shall all have to starve together. It is better to trust to the teeth
and claws which nature has given us, for it is evident that man’s
weapons were not intended for us.”
[Footnote 4: One of the High peaks of the Smoky Mountains, on the
Tennessee line, near Clingman’s Dome.]
No one could suggest any better plan, so the old chief dismissed the
council and the bears dispersed to their forest haunts without having
concerted any means for preventing the increase of the human race. Had
the result of the council been otherwise, we should now be at war with
the bears, but as it is the hunter does not even ask the bear’s pardon
when he kills one.
The deer next held a council under their chief, the Little Deer, and
after some deliberation resolved to inflict rheumatism upon every
hunter who should kill one of their number, unless he took care to ask
their pardon for the offense. They sent notice of their decision to
the nearest settlement of Indians and told them at the same time how
to make propitiation when necessity forced them to kill one of the
deer tribe. Now, whenever the hunter brings down a deer, the Little
Deer, who is swift as the wind and can not be wounded, runs quickly up
to the spot and bending over the blood stains asks the spirit of the
deer if it has heard the prayer of the hunter for pardon. If the reply
be “Yes” all is well and the Little Deer goes on his way, but if the
reply be in the negative he follows on the trail of the hunter, guided
by the drops of blood on the ground, until he arrives at the cabin in
the settlement, when the Little Deer enters invisibly and strikes
the neglectful hunter with rheumatism, so that he is rendered on the
instant a helpless cripple. No hunter who has regard for his health
ever fails to ask pardon of the deer for killing it, although some
who have not learned the proper formula may attempt to turn aside the
Little Deer from his pursuit by building a fire behind them in the
trail.
Next came the fishes and reptiles, who had their own grievances
against humanity. They held a joint council and determined to make
their victims dream of snakes twining about them in slimy folds and
blowing their fetid breath in their faces, or to make them dream of
eating raw or decaying fish, so that they would lose appetite, sicken,
and die. Thus it is that snake and fish dreams are accounted for.
Finally the birds, insects, and smaller animals came together for a
like purpose, and the Grubworm presided over the deliberations. It was
decided that each in turn should express an opinion and then vote on
the question as to whether or not man should be deemed guilty.
Seven votes were to be sufficient to condemn him. One after another
denounced man’s cruelty and injustice toward the other animals and
voted in favor of his death. The Frog (walâ´sĭ) spoke first and
said: “We must do something to check the increase of the race or
people will become so numerous that we shall be crowded from off the
earth. See how man has kicked me about because I’m ugly, as he says,
until my back is covered with sores;” and here he showed the spots
on his skin. Next came the Bird (tsi´skwa; no particular species is
indicated), who condemned man because “he burns my feet off,” alluding
to the way in which the hunter barbecues birds by impaling them on a
stick set over the fire, so that their feathers and tender feet are
singed and burned. Others followed in the same strain. The Ground
Squirrel alone ventured to say a word in behalf of man, who seldom
hurt him because he was so small; but this so enraged the others that
they fell upon the Ground Squirrel and tore him with their teeth and
claws, and the stripes remain on his back to this day.
The assembly then began to devise and name various diseases, one after
another, and had not their invention finally failed them not one of
the human race would have been able to survive. The Grubworm in his
place of honor hailed each new malady with delight, until at last they
had reached the end of the list, when some one suggested that it be
arranged so that menstruation should sometimes prove fatal to woman.
On this he rose up in his place and cried: “Wata´ⁿ Thanks! I’m glad
some of them will die, for they are getting so thick that they tread
on me.” He fairly shook with joy at the thought, so that he fell over
backward and could not get on his feet again, but had to wriggle off
on his back, as the Grubworm has done ever since.
When the plants, who were friendly to man, heard what had been done by
the animals, they determined to defeat their evil designs. Each tree,
shrub, and herb, down, even to the grasses and mosses, agreed to
furnish a remedy for some one of the diseases named, and each said: “I
shall appear to help man when he calls upon me in his need.” Thus did
medicine originate, and the plants, every one of which has its use if
we only knew it, furnish the antidote to counteract the evil wrought
by the revengeful animals. When the doctor is in doubt what treatment
to apply for the relief of a patient, the spirit of the plant suggests
to him the proper remedy.