In the preparation of the following notes and parallels the purpose has
been to incorporate every Cherokee variant or pseudomyth obtainable
from any source, and to give some explanation of tribal customs and
beliefs touched upon in the myths, particularly among the Southern
tribes. A certain number of parallels have been incorporated, but
it must be obvious that this field is too vast for treatment within
the limits of a single volume. Moreover, in view of the small number
of tribes that have yet been studied, in comparison with the great
number still unstudied, it is very doubtful whether the time has
arrived for any extended treatment of Indian mythology. The most
complete index of parallels that has yet appeared is that accompanying
the splendid collection by Dr Franz Boas, Indianische Sagen von der
nordpacifischen Küste Amerikas. [505] In drawing the line it has been
found necessary to restrict comparisons, excepting in a few special
cases, to the territory of the United States or the immediate border
country, although this compels the omission of several of the best
collections, particularly from the northwest coast and the interior
of British America. Enough has been given to show that our native
tribes had myths of their own without borrowing from other races,
and that these were so widely and constantly disseminated by trade
and travel and interchange of ceremonial over wide areas as to make
the Indian myth system as much a unit in this country as was the Aryan
myth structure in Europe and Asia. Every additional tribal study may
be expected to corroborate this result.
A more special study of Cherokee myths in their connection with
the medical and religious ritual of the tribe is reserved for a
future paper, of which preliminary presentation has been given in
the author's Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, in the Seventh Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.
Stories and story tellers (p. 229): Migration legend--In Buttrick's
Antiquities [506] we find some notice of this migration legend, which,
as given by the missionary, is unfortunately so badly mixed up with
the Bible story that it is almost impossible to isolate the genuine. He
starts them under the leadership of their "greatest prophet," Wâsi--who
is simply Moses--in search of a far distant country where they may be
safe from their enemies. Who these enemies are, or in what quarter
they live, is not stated. Soon after setting out they come to a
great water, which Wâsi strikes with his staff; the water divides
so that they pass through safely, and then rolls back and prevents
pursuit by their enemies. They then enter a wilderness and come to
a mountain, and we are treated to the Bible story of Sinai and the
tables of stone. Here also they receive sacred fire from heaven,
which thereafter they carry with them until the house in which it
is kept is at last destroyed by a hostile invasion. This portion
of the myth seems to be genuine Indian (see notes to number 111,
"The Mounds and the Constant Fire").
In this journey "the tribes marched separately and also the clans. The
clans were distinguished by having feathers of different colors
fastened to their ears. They had two great standards, one white and
one red. The white standard was under the control of the priests, and
used for civil purposes; but the red standard was under the direction
of the war priests, for purposes of war and alarm. These were carried
when they journeyed, and the white standard erected in front of the
building above mentioned [the ark or palladium], when they rested."
They cross four rivers in all--which accords with the Indian idea of
the sacred four--and sit down at last beyond the fourth, after having
been for many years on the march. "Their whole journey through this
wilderness was attended with great distress and danger. At one time
they were beset by the most deadly kind of serpents, which destroyed a
great many of the people, but at length their leader shot one with an
arrow and drove them away. Again, they were walking along in single
file, when the ground cracked open and a number of people sank down
and were destroyed by the earth closing upon them. At another time
they came nigh perishing for water. Their head men dug with their
staves in all the low places, but could find no water. At length
their leader found a most beautiful spring coming out of a rock." [507]
At one point in this migration, according to a tradition given to
Schoolcraft by Stand Watie, they encountered a large river or other
great body of water, which they crossed upon a bridge made by tying
grapevines together. [508] This idea of a vine bridge or ladder occurs
also in the traditions of the Iroquois, Mandan, and other tribes.
Farther on the missionary already quoted says: "Shield-eater once
inquired if I ever heard of houses with flat roofs, saying that his
father's great grandfather used to say that once their people had
a great town, with a high wall about it; that on a certain occasion
their enemies broke down a part of this wall; that the houses in this
town had flat roofs--though, he used to say, this was so long ago it
is not worth talking about now." [509]
Fire of cane splints--Bartram thus describes the method as witnessed by
him at Attasse (Autossee) among the Creeks about 1775. The fire which
blazed up so mysteriously may have been kept constantly smoldering
below, as described in number 111:
"As their virgils [sic] and manner of conducting their vespers and
mystical fire in this rotunda, are extremely singular, and altogether
different from the customs and usages of any other people, I shall
proceed to describe them. In the first place, the governor or officer
who has the management of this business, with his servants attending,
orders the black drink to be brewed, which is a decoction or infusion
of the leaves and tender shoots of the cassine. This is done under an
open shed or pavilion, at twenty or thirty yards distance, directly
opposite the door of the council-house. Next he orders bundles of
dry canes to be brought in: these are previously split and broken
in pieces to about the length of two feet, and then placed obliquely
crossways upon one another on the floor, forming a spiral circle round
about the great centre pillar, rising to a foot or eighteen inches
in height from the ground; and this circle spreading as it proceeds
round and round, often repeated from right to left, every revolution
increases its diameter, and at length extends to the distance of
ten or twelve feet from the centre, more or less, according to the
length of time the assembly or meeting is to continue. By the time
these preparations are accomplished, it is night, and the assembly
have taken their seats in order. The exterior or outer end of the
spiral circle takes fire and immediately rises into a bright flame
(but how this is effected I did not plainly apprehend; I saw no person
set fire to it; there might have been fire left on the earth; however I
neither saw nor smelt fire or smoke until the blaze instantly ascended
upwards), which gradually and slowly creeps round the centre pillar,
with the course of the sun, feeding on the dry canes, and affords a
cheerful, gentle and sufficient light until the circle is consumed,
when the council breaks up." [510]
1. How the world was made (p. 239): From decay of the old tradition
and admixture of Bible ideas the Cherokee genesis myth is too far
broken down to be recovered excepting in disjointed fragments. The
completeness of the destruction may be judged by studying the similar
myth of the Iroquois or the Ojibwa. What is here preserved was obtained
chiefly from Swimmer and John Ax, the two most competent authorities of
the eastern band. The evergreen story is from Ta'gwadihi'. The incident
of the brother striking his sister with a fish to make her pregnant
was given by Ayâsta, and may have a phallic meaning. John Ax says the
pregnancy was brought about by the "Little People," Yuñwi Tsunsdi',
who commanded the woman to rub spittle (of the brother?) upon her
back, and to lie upon her breast, with her body completely covered,
for seven days and nights, at the end of which period the child was
born, and another thereafter every seven days until the period was
made longer. According to Wafford the first man was created blind
and remained so for some time. The incident of the buzzard shaping
the mountains occurs also in the genesis myth of the Creeks [511]
and Yuchi, [512] southern neighbors of the Cherokee, but by them the
first earth is said to have been brought up from under the water by
the crawfish. Among the northern tribes it is commonly the turtle which
continues to support the earth upon its back. The water beetle referred
to is the Gyrinus, locally known as mellow bug or apple beetle. One
variant makes the dilsta'ya`ti, water-spider ("scissors," Dolomedes),
help in the work. Nothing is said as to whence the sun is obtained. By
some tribes it is believed to be a gaming wheel stolen from a race
of superior beings. See also number 7, "The Journey to the Sunrise."
The missionaries Buttrick and Washburn give versions of the Cherokee
genesis, both of which are so badly warped by Bible interpretation as
to be worthless. No native cosmogonic myth yet recorded goes back to
the first act of creation, but all start out with a world and living
creatures already in existence, though not in their final form and
condition.
Hand-breadth--The Cherokee word is utawâ'hilû, from uwâyi, hand. This
is not to be taken literally, but is a figurative expression much used
in the sacred formulas to denote a serial interval of space. The idea
of successive removals of the sun, in order to modify the excessive
heat, is found with other tribes. Buttrick, already quoted, says
in his statement of the Cherokee cosmogony: "When God created the
world he made a heaven or firmament about as high as the tops of the
mountains, but this was too warm. He then created a second, which was
also too warm. He thus proceeded till he had created seven heavens
and in the seventh fixed His abode. During some of their prayers
they raise their hands to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth,
sixth and seventh heaven," etc. [513]
In Hindu cosmogony also we find seven heavens or stages, increasing
in sanctity as they ascend; the Aztecs had nine, as had also the
ancient Scandinavians. [514] Some Polynesian tribes have ten, each
built of azure stone, with apertures for intercommunication. The
lowest originally almost touched the earth and was elevated to its
present position by successive pushes from the gods Ru and Matti,
resting first prostrate upon the ground, then upon their knees, then
lifting with their shoulders, their hands, and their finger tips,
until a last supreme effort sent it to its present place. [515]
Seven: The sacred numbers--In every tribe and cult throughout the
world we find sacred numbers. Christianity and the Christian world
have three and seven. The Indian has always four as the principal
sacred number, with usually another only slightly subordinated. The
two sacred numbers of the Cherokee are four and seven, the latter
being the actual number of the tribal clans, the formulistic number of
upper worlds or heavens, and the ceremonial number of paragraphs or
repetitions in the principal formulas. Thus in the prayers for long
life the priest raises his client by successive stages to the first,
second, third, fourth, and finally to the seventh heaven before the
end is accomplished. The sacred four has direct relation to the four
cardinal points, while seven, besides these, includes also "above,"
"below," and "here in the center." In many tribal rituals color and
sometimes sex are assigned to each point of direction. In the sacred
Cherokee formulas the spirits of the East, South, West, and North are,
respectively, Red, White, Black, and Blue, and each color has also
its own symbolic meaning of Power (War), Peace, Death, and Defeat.
2. The first fire (p. 240): This myth was obtained from Swimmer
and John Ax. It is noted also in Foster's "Sequoyah" [516] and in
the Wahnenauhi manuscript. [517] The uksu'hi and the gûle'gi are,
respectively, the Coluber obsoletus and Bascanion constrictor. The
water-spider is the large hairy species Argyroneta.
In the version given in the Wahnenauhi manuscript the Possum and the
Buzzard first make the trial, but come back unsuccessful, one losing
the hair from his tail, while the other has the feathers scorched
from his head and neck. In another version the Dragon-fly assists the
Water-spider by pushing the tusti from behind. In the corresponding
Creek myth, as given in the Tuggle manuscript, the Rabbit obtains fire
by the stratagem of touching to the blaze a cap trimmed with sticks
of rosin, while pretending to bend low in the dance. In the Jicarilla
myth the Fox steals fire by wrapping cedar bark around his tail and
thrusting it into the blaze while dancing around the circle. [518]
3. Kana'ti and Selu: Origin of corn and game (p. 242): This story
was obtained in nearly the same form from Swimmer and John Ax (east)
and from Wafford (west), and a version is also given in the Wahnenauhi
manuscript. Hagar notes it briefly in his manuscript Stellar Legends
of the Cherokee. So much of belief and custom depend upon the myth
of Kana'ti that references to the principal incidents are constant
in the songs and formulas. It is one of those myths held so sacred
that in the old days one who wished to hear it from the priest of
the tradition must first purify himself by "going to water," i. e.,
bathing in the running stream before daylight when still fasting,
while the priest performed his mystic ceremonies upon the bank.
In his Letters from the Alleghany Mountains, written more than fifty
years ago, Lanman gives (pp. 136, 137) a very fair synopsis of this
myth, locating the game preserve of Kana'ti, whom he makes an old
Cherokee chief, in a (traditional) cave on the north side of the
Black mountain, now Mount Mitchell, in Yancey county, North Carolina,
the highest peak east of the Rocky mountains. After his father had
disappeared, and could not be found by long search, "The boy fired
an arrow towards the north, but it returned and fell at his feet,
and he knew that his father had not travelled in that direction. He
also fired one towards the east and the south and the west, but they
all came back in the same manner. He then thought that he would fire
one directly above his head, and it so happened that this arrow never
returned, and so the boy knew that his father had gone to the spirit
land. The Great Spirit was angry with the Cherokee nation, and to
punish it for the offense of the foolish boy he tore away the cave
from the side of the Black mountain and left only a large cliff in
its place, which is now a conspicuous feature, and he then declared
that the time would come when another race of men should possess the
mountains where the Cherokees had flourished for many generations."
The story has numerous parallels in Indian myth, so many in fact that
almost every important concept occurring in it is duplicated in the
North, in the South, and on the plains, and will probably be found
also west of the mountains when sufficient material of that region
shall have been collected. The Ojibwa story of "The Weendigoes,"
[519] in particular, has many striking points of resemblance; so,
also, the Omaha myth, "Two-faces and the Twin Brothers," as given by
Dorsey. [520]
His wife was Selu, "Corn"--In Cherokee belief, as in the mythologies
of nearly every eastern tribe, the corn spirit is a woman, and the
plant itself has sprung originally from the blood drops or the dead
body of the Corn Woman. In the Cherokee sacred formulas the corn is
sometimes invoked as Agawe'la, "The Old Woman," and one myth (number
72, "The Hunter and Selu") tells how a hunter once witnessed the
transformation of the growing stalk into a beautiful woman.
In the Creek myth "Origin of Indian Corn," as given in the Tuggle
manuscript, the corn plant appears to be the transformed body of an
old woman whose only son, endowed with magic powers, has developed
from a single drop of her (menstrual?) blood.
In Iroquois legend, according to Morgan, the corn plant sprang
from the bosom of the mother of the Great Spirit (sic) after her
burial. The spirits of corn, bean, and squash are represented as three
sisters. "They are supposed to have the forms of beautiful females,
to be very fond of each other, and to delight to dwell together. This
last belief is illustrated by a natural adaptation of the plants
themselves to grow up together in the same field and perhaps from
the same hill." [521]
Sprang from blood--This concept of a child born of blood drops
reappears in the Cherokee story of Tsul`kalû' (see number 81). Its
occurrence among the Creeks has just been noted. It is found also
among the Dakota (Dorsey, "The Blood-clots Boy," in Contributions
to North American Ethnology, IX, 1893), Omaha (Dorsey, "The Rabbit
and the Grizzly Bear," Cont. to N. A. Eth., VI, 1890), Blackfeet
("Kutoyis," in Grinnell, "Blackfoot Lodge Tales"; New York, 1892),
and other tribes. Usually the child thus born is of wilder and more
mischievous nature than is common.
Deer shut up in hole--The Indian belief that the game animals were
originally shut up in a cave, from which they were afterward released
by accident or trickery, is very widespread. In the Tuggle version
of the Creek account of the creation of the earth we find the deer
thus shut up and afterward set free. The Iroquois "believed that the
game animals were not always free, but were enclosed in a cavern where
they had been concealed by Tawiskara'; but that they might increase and
fill the forest Yoskeha' gave them freedom." [522] The same idea occurs
in the Omaha story of "Ictinike, the Brothers and Sister" (Dorsey, in
Contributions to North American Ethnology, VI, 1890). The Kiowa tell
how the buffalo were kept thus imprisoned by the Crow until released
by Sinti when the people were all starving for want of meat. When the
buffalo so suddenly and completely disappeared from the plains about
twenty-five years ago, the prairie tribes were unable to realize that
it had been exterminated, but for a long time cherished the belief
that it had been again shut up by the superior power of the whites in
some underground prison, from which the spells of their own medicine
men would yet bring it back (see references in the author's Calendar
History of the Kiowa Indians, in Seventeenth Annual Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology, part 1, 1901). The Kiowa tradition is
almost exactly paralleled among the Jicarilla (Russell, Myths of the
Jicarilla Apaches, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, Oct., 1898).
Storehouse--The unwadâ'li, or storehouse for corn, beans, dried
pumpkins, and other provisions, was a feature of every Cherokee
homestead and was probably common to all the southern tribes. Lawson
thus describes it among the Santee in South Carolina about the
year 1700:
"They make themselves cribs after a very curious manner, wherein
they secure their corn from vermin, which are more frequent in these
warm climates than in countries more distant from the sun. These
pretty fabrics are commonly supported with eight feet or posts about
seven feet high from the ground, well daubed within and without upon
laths, with loam or clay, which makes them tight and fit to keep
out the smallest insect, there being a small door at the gable end,
which is made of the same composition and to be removed at pleasure,
being no bigger than that a slender man may creep in at, cementing
the door up with the same earth when they take the corn out of the
crib and are going from home, always finding their granaries in the
same posture they left them--theft to each other being altogether
unpracticed." [523]
Rubbed her stomach--This miraculous procuring of provisions by rubbing
the body occurs also in number 76, "The Bear Man."
Knew their thoughts--Mind reading is a frequent concept in Indian
myth and occurs in more than one Cherokee story.
Seven times--The idea of sacred numbers has already been noted, and
the constant recurrence of seven in the present myth exemplifies well
the importance of that number in Cherokee ritual.
A tuft of down--In the Omaha story, "The Corn Woman and the Buffalo
Woman" (Dorsey, Contributions to North American Ethnology, VI, 1890),
the magician changes himself into a feather and allows himself to be
blown about by the wind in order to accomplish his purpose. The wolf
does the same in a Thompson River myth. [524] The self-transformation
of the hero into a tuft of bird's down, a feather, a leaf, or some
other light object, which is then carried by the wind wherever he
wishes to go, is very common in Indian myth.
Play ball against them--This is a Cherokee figurative expression for
a contest of any kind, more particularly a battle.
Left an open space--When the Cherokee conjurer, by his magic spells,
coils the great (invisible) serpent around the house of a sick man
to keep off the witches, he is always careful to leave a small space
between the head and tail of the snake, so that the members of the
family can go down to the spring to get water.
Wolves--The wolf is regarded as the servant and watchdog of
Kana'ti. See number 15, "The Fourfooted Tribes."
From these have come all--In nearly every Indian mythology we find the
idea of certain animal tribes being descended from a single survivor
of some great slaughter by an early hero god or trickster. Thus the
Kiowa say that all the prairie dogs on the plains are descended from
a single little fellow who was too wary to close his eyes, as his
companions did, when the hungry vagrant Sinti was planning to capture
them all for his dinner under pretense of teaching them a new dance.
A gaming wheel--This was the stone wheel or circular disk used in the
wheel-and-stick game, called by the Cherokee gatayûsti, and which in
one form or another was practically universal among the tribes. It
was the game played by the great mythic gambler Ûñtsaiyi' (see number
63). It has sometimes been known in the north as the "snow-snake,"
while to the early southern traders it was known as chunki or chungkey,
a corruption of the Creek name. Timberlake (page 77) mentions it
under the name of nettecawaw--for which there seems to be no other
authority--as he saw it among the Cherokee in 1762. [525] It was
also noted among the Carolina tribes by Lederer in 1670 and Lawson
in 1701. John Ax, the oldest man now living among the East Cherokee,
is the only one remaining in the tribe who has ever played the game,
having been instructed in it when a small boy by an old man who desired
to keep up the memory of the ancient things. The sticks used have long
since disappeared, but the stones remain, being frequently picked up
in the plowed fields, especially in the neighborhood of mounds. The
best description of the southern game is given by Adair:
"They have near their state house a square piece of ground well
cleaned, and fine sand is carefully strewed over it, when requisite,
to promote a swifter motion to what they throw along the surface. Only
one, or two on a side, play at this ancient game. They have a stone
about two fingers broad at the edge and two spans round. Each party
has a pole of about eight feet long, smooth, and tapering at each end,
the points flat. They set off abreast of each other at 6 yards from the
end of the playground; then one of them hurls the stone on its edge, in
as direct a line as he can, a considerable distance toward the middle
of the other end of the square. When they have ran [sic] a few yards
each darts his pole, anointed with bear's oil, with a proper force,
as near as he can guess in proportion to the motion of the stone, that
the end may lie close to the stone. When this is the case, the person
counts two of the game, and in proportion to the nearness of the poles
to the mark, one is counted, unless by measuring both are found to be
at an equal distance from the stone. In this manner the players will
keep running most part of the day at half speed, under the violent
heat of the sun, staking their silver ornaments, their nose, finger
and ear rings; their breast, arm and wrist plates, and even all their
wearing apparel except that which barely covers their middle. All the
American Indians are much addicted to this game, which to us appears
to be a task of stupid drudgery. It seems, however, to be of early
origin, when their forefathers used diversions as simple as their
manners. The hurling stones they use at present were time immemorial
rubbed smooth on the rocks, and with prodigious labour. They are kept
with the strictest religious care from one generation to another,
and are exempted from being buried with the dead. They belong to the
town where they are used, and are carefully preserved." [526]
In one version of the Kana'ti myth the wheel is an arrow, which the
wild boy shoots toward the four cardinal points and finally straight
upward, when it comes back no more. When they get above the sky they
find Kana'ti and Selu sitting together, with the arrow sticking in the
ground in front of them. In the Creek story, "The Lion [Panther?] and
the Little Girl," of the Tuggle collection, the lion has a wheel
"which could find anything that was lost."
The twilight land--Usûñhi'yi, "Where it is always growing dark,"
the spirit land in the west. This is the word constantly used in
the sacred formulas to denote the west, instead of the ordinary
word Wude'ligûñ'yi, "Where it sets." In the same way Nûñdâ'yi, or
Nûñdâgûñ'yi, the "Sun place, or region," is the formulistic name for
the east instead of Digalûñgûñ'yi, "Where it [i. e., the sun] comes
up," the ordinary term. These archaic expressions give to myths and
formulas a peculiar beauty which is lost in the translation. As the
interpreter once said, "I love to hear these old words."
Struck by lightning--With the American tribes, as in Europe, a
mysterious potency attaches to the wood of a tree which has been
struck by lightning. The Cherokee conjurers claim to do wonderful
things by means of such wood. Splinters of it are frequently buried
in the field to make the corn grow. It must not be forgotten that
the boys in this myth are Thunder Boys.
The end of the world--See notes to number 7, "The Journey to the
Sunrise."
Anisga'ya Tsunsdi'--Abbreviated from Anisga'ya Tsunsdi'ga, "Little
Men." These two sons of Kana'ti, who are sometimes called Thunder Boys
and who live in Usûñhi'yi above the sky vault, must not be confounded
with the Yûñwi Tsunsdi', or "Little People," who are also Thunderers,
but who live in caves of the rocks and cause the short, sharp claps
of thunder. There is also the Great Thunderer, the thunder of the
whirlwind and the hurricane, who seems to be identical with Kana'ti
himself.
Deer songs--The Indian hunters of the olden time had many songs
intended to call up the deer and the bear. Most of these have perished,
but a few are still remembered. They were sung by the hunter, with
some accompanying ceremony, to a sweetly plaintive tune, either before
starting out or on reaching the hunting ground.
One Cherokee deer song; sung with repetition, may be freely rendered:
O Deer, you stand close by the tree,
You sweeten your saliva with acorns,
Now you are standing near,
You have come where your food rests on the ground.
Gatschet, in his Creek Migration Legend (I, p. 79), gives the following
translation of a Hichitee deer hunting song:
Somewhere (the deer) lies on the ground, I think; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It is raising up its head, I believe; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It attempts to rise, I believe; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
Slowly it raises its body, I think; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It has now risen on its feet, I presume; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
4. Origin of disease and medicine (p. 250): This myth was obtained
first from Swimmer, as explaining the theory upon which is based
the medical practice of the Cherokee doctor. It was afterward heard,
with less detail, from John Ax (east) and James Wafford (west). It was
originally published in the author's Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees,
in the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.
In the mythology of most Indian tribes, as well as of primitive
peoples generally, disease is caused by animal spirits, ghosts, or
witchcraft, and the doctor's efforts are directed chiefly to driving
out the malevolent spirit. In Creek belief, according to the Tuggle
manuscript, "all disease is caused by the winds, which are born in
the air and then descend to the earth." It is doubtful, however,
if this statement is intended to apply to more than a few classes
of disease, and another myth in the same collection recites that
"once upon a time the beasts, birds, and reptiles held a council to
devise means to destroy the enemy, man." For an extended discussion
of the Indian medical theory, see the author's paper mentioned above.
Animal chiefs and tribes--For an exposition of the Cherokee theory of
the tribal organization of the animals, with townhouses and councils,
under such chiefs as the White Bear, the Little Deer, etc., see number
15, "The Fourfooted Tribes."
Kuwâ'hi mountain--"The Mulberry place," one of the high peaks in the
Great Smoky mountains, on the dividing line between Swain county,
North Carolina, and Sevier county, Tennessee. The bears have a
townhouse under it.
Ask the bear's pardon--See number 15, "The Fourfooted Tribes,"
and notes.
The ground squirrel's stripes--According to a Creek myth in the Tuggle
collection the stripes on the back of the ground squirrel were made
by the bear, who scratched the little fellow in anger at a council
held by the animals to decide upon the proper division of day and
night. Precisely the same explanation is given by the Iroquois of
New York state [527] and by the Thompson River Indians of British
Columbia. [528]
5. The Daughter of the Sun: Origin of death (p. 252): This is one
of the principal myths of the Cherokee, and like most of its class,
has several variants. The sequel has an obvious resemblance to the
myth of Pandora. It was obtained in whole or in part from Swimmer,
John Ax, James Blythe, and others of the eastern band. The version
mainly followed is that of Swimmer, which differs in important details
from that of John Ax.
As told by John Ax, it is the Sun herself, instead of her daughter,
who is killed, the daughter having been assigned the duty of lighting
the earth after the death of her mother, the original Sun. The only
snakes mentioned are the Spreading Adder and the Rattlesnake, the
first being a transformed man, while the other is a stick, upon which
the Little Men cut seven rings before throwing it in the pathway of
the Sun, where it becomes a rattlesnake. The seven rods or staves of
the Swimmer version are with John Ax seven corncobs, which are thrown
at the girl as she passes in the dance (cf. Hagar variant of number
8 in notes). The Little Men (see number 3, "Kana'ti and Selu," and
other stories) belong to the John Ax version. The others have only
a conjurer or chief to direct proceedings.
This myth is noted in the Payne manuscript, of date about 1835, quoted
in Squier, Serpent Symbol, page 67: "The Cherokees state that a number
of beings were engaged in the creation. The Sun was made first. The
intention of the creators was that men should live always. But the Sun,
when he passed over, told them that there was not land enough and that
people had better die. At length the daughter of the Sun, who was
with them, was bitten by a snake and died. The Sun, on his return,
inquired for her and was told that she was dead. He then consented
that human beings might live always, and told them to take a box and
go where the spirit of his daughter was and bring it back to her body,
charging them that when they got her spirit they should not open the
box until they had arrived where her body was. However, impelled by
curiosity, they opened it, contrary to the injunction of the Sun, and
the spirit escaped; and then the fate of all men was decided, that they
must die." This is copied without credit by Foster, Sequoyah, page 241.
Another version is thus given by the missionary Buttrick, who died in
1847, in his Antiquities of the Cherokee Indians, page 3: "Soon after
the creation one of the family was bitten by a serpent and died. All
possible means were resorted to to bring back life, but in vain. Being
overcome in this first instance, the whole race was doomed to follow,
not only to death, but to misery afterwards, as it was supposed that
that person went to misery. Another tradition says that soon after
the creation a young woman was bitten by a serpent and died, and her
spirit went to a certain place, and the people were told that if they
would get her spirit back to her body that the body would live again,
and they would prevent the general mortality of the body. Some young
men therefore started with a box to catch the spirit. They went to a
place and saw it dancing about, and at length caught it in the box and
shut the lid, so as to confine it, and started back. But the spirit
kept constantly pleading with them to open the box, so as to afford a
little light, but they hurried on until they arrived near the place
where the body was, and then, on account of her peculiar urgency,
they removed the lid a very little, and out flew the spirit and was
gone, and with it all their hopes of immortality."
In a variant noted by Hagar the messengers carry four staves and
are seven days traveling to the ghost country. "They found her
dancing in the land of spirits. They struck her with the first
'stick,' it produced no effect--with the second, and she ceased
to dance--with the third, and she looked around--with the fourth,
and she came to them. They made a box and placed her in it." He was
told by one informant: "Only one man ever returned from the land of
souls. He went there in a dream after a snake had struck him in the
forehead. He, Turkey-head, came back seven days after and described
it all. The dead go eastward at first, then westward to the Land of
Twilight. It is in the west in the sky, but not amongst the stars"
(Stellar Legends of the Cherokee, MS, 1898).
In a Shawano myth a girl dies, and, after grieving long for her,
her brother sets out to bring her back from the land of shadows. He
travels west until he reaches the place where the earth and sky meet;
then he goes through and climbs up on the other side until he comes to
the house of a great beneficent spirit, who is designated, according
to the Indian system of respect, as grandfather. On learning his errand
this helper gives him "medicine" by which he will be able to enter the
spirit world, and instructs him how and in what direction to proceed
to find his sister. "He said she would be at a dance, and when she
rose to join in the movement he must seize and ensconce her in the
hollow of a reed with which he was furnished, and cover the orifice
with the end of his finger." He does as directed, secures his sister,
and returns to the house of his instructor, who transforms both into
material beings again, and, after giving them sacred rituals to take
back to their tribe, dismisses them by a shorter route through a
trapdoor in the sky. [529]
In an Algonquian myth of New Brunswick a bereaved father seeks his
son's soul in the spirit domain of Papkootpawut, the Indian Pluto,
who gives it to him in the shape of a nut, which he is told to
insert in his son's body, when the boy will come to life. He puts
it into a pouch, and returns with the friends who had accompanied
him. Preparations are made for a dance of rejoicing. "The father,
wishing to take part in it, gave his son's soul to the keeping of
a squaw who stood by. Being curious to see it, she opened the bag,
on which it escaped at once and took its flight for the realms of
Papkootpawut." [530] In a myth from British Columbia two brothers go
upon a similar errand to bring back their mother's soul. After crossing
over a great lake they approach the shore of the spirit world and hear
the sound of singing and dancing in the distance, but are stopped at
the landing by a sentinel, who tells them: "Your mother is here, but
you cannot enter alive to see her, neither can you take her away." One
of them said, "I must see her!" Then the man took his body or mortal
part away from him and he entered. The other brother came back. [531]
In the ancient Egyptian legend of Râ and Isis, preserved in a Turin
papyrus dating from the twentieth dynasty, the goddess Isis, wishing
to force from the great god Râ, the sun, the secret of his power,
sends a serpent to bite him, with the intention of demanding the
secret for herself as the price of assistance. Taking some of her
spittle, "Isis with her hand kneaded it together with the earth
that was there. She made thereof a sacred serpent unto which she
gave the form of a spear. She ... cast it on the way which the great
god traversed in his double kingdom whenever he would. The venerable
god advanced, the gods who served him as their Pharaoh followed him,
he went forth as on every day. Then the sacred serpent bit him. The
divine god opened his mouth and his cry reached unto heaven.... The
poison seized on his flesh," etc. [532]
The sky vault--See other references in number 1, "How the World was
Made;" number 3, "Kana'ti and Selu," and number 7, "The Journey to
the Sunrise."
My grandchildren--The Sun calls the people tsûñgili'si, "my
grandchildren," this being the term used by maternal grandparents, the
corresponding term used by paternal grandparents being tsûñgini'si. The
Moon calls the people tsûñkina'tli, "my younger brothers," the
term used by a male speaking, the Moon being personified as a man
in Cherokee mythology. The corresponding term used by a female is
tsûñkita'.
The Little Men--The Thunder Boys, sons of Kana'ti (see number 3,
"Kana'ti and Selu"). They are always represented as beneficent wonder
workers, of great power.
Changed to snakes--The Cherokee names of the rattlesnake (Crotalus),
copperhead (Trigonocephalus), and spreading adder (Heterodon) are,
respectively, utsa'nati, "he has a bell" (?); wâ'dige'i askâ'li,
"red-brown head"; and da'liksta', "vomiter," from its habit of vomiting
yellow slime, as is told in the story. For more concerning the Uktena
see number 50, "The Uktena and the Ulûñsû'ti."