Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual...

6.How they brought back the tobacco (p. 254): The first version of this myth as here given was obtained from Swimmer, and agrees with that of John Ax, except that for the humming bird the latter substitutes the wasulû, or large red-brown moth, which flies about the tobacco flower in the evening, and states that it was selected because it could fly so quietly that it would not be noticed. The second version was obtained from Wafford, in the Cherokee Nation west, who heard it from his great-uncle nearly ninety years ago, and differs so much from the other that it has seemed best to give it separately. The incident of the tree which grows taller as the man climbs it has close parallels in the mythology of the Kiowa and other Western tribes, but has no obvious connection with the story, and is probably either one of a series of adventures originally belonging to the trip or else a fragment from some otherwise forgotten myth. It may be mentioned that Wafford was a man of rather practical character, with but little interest or memory for stories, being able to fill in details of but few of the large number which he remembered having heard when a boy.

In his Letters from the Alleghany Mountains, pages 119–121, Lanman gives the story as he obtained it in 1848 from Chief Kâlahû (see p. 173), still well remembered by those who knew him as an authority upon tribal traditions and ritual. In the Kâlahû version the story is connected with Hickorynut gap, a remarkable pass in the Blue ridge southeast from Asheville, North Carolina, and a comparison with the later versions shows clearly how much has been lost in fifty years. The whole body of Cherokee tradition has probably suffered a proportionate loss.

“Before visiting this remarkable passage through the mountains [Hickorynut gap], I endeavored to ascertain, from the Cherokees of Qualla town, its original Indian name, but without succeeding. It was my good fortune, however, to obtain a romantic legend connected therewith. I heard it from the lips of a chief who glories in the two names of All-bones and Flying-squirrel, and, though he occupied no less than two hours in telling the story, I will endeavor to give it to my readers in about five minutes.

“There was a time when the Cherokees were without the famous tso-lungh, or tobacco weed, with which they had previously been made acquainted by a wandering stranger from the far east. Having smoked it in their large stone pipes, they became impatient to obtain it in abundance. They ascertained that the country where it grew in the greatest quantities was situated on the big waters, and that the gateway to that country (a mighty gorge among the mountains) was perpetually guarded by an immense number of little people or spirits. A council of the bravest men in the nation was called, and, while they were discussing the dangers of visiting the unknown country, and bringing therefrom a large knapsack of the fragrant tobacco, a young man stepped boldly forward and said that he would undertake the task. The young warrior departed on his mission and never returned. The Cherokee nation was now in great tribulation, and another council was held to decide upon a new measure. At this council a celebrated magician rose and expressed his willingness to relieve his people of their difficulties, and informed them that he would visit the tobacco country and see what he could accomplish. He turned himself into a mole, and as such made his appearance eastward of the mountains; but having been pursued by the guardian spirits, he was compelled to return without any spoil. He next turned himself into a humming-bird, and thus succeeded, to a very limited extent, in obtaining what he needed.

On returning to his country he found a number of his friends at the point of death, on account of their intense desire for the fragrant weed; whereupon he placed some of it in a pipe, and, having blown the smoke into the nostrils of those who were sick, they all revived and were quite happy. The magician now took into his head that he would revenge the loss of the young warrior, and at the same time become the sole possessor of all the tobacco in the unknown land. He therefore turned himself into a whirlwind, and in passing through the Hickorynut gorge he stripped the mountains of their vegetation, and scattered huge rocks in every part of the narrow valley; whereupon the little people were all frightened away, and he was the only being in the country eastward of the mountains. In the bed of a stream he found the bones of the young warrior, and having brought them to life, and turned himself into a man again, the twain returned to their own country heavily laden with tobacco; and ever since that time it has been very abundant throughout the entire land.”

In the Iroquois story of “The Lad and the Chestnuts,” the Cherokee myth is paralleled with the substitution of a chestnut tree guarded by a white heron for the tobacco plant watched by the dagûlʻkû geese (see Smith, Myths of the Iroquois, in Second Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, 1883).

Tobacco—Tobacco, as is well known, is of American origin and is sacred among nearly all our tribes, having an important place in almost every deliberative or religious ceremony. The tobacco of commerce (Nicotiana tabacum) was introduced from the West Indies. The original tobacco of the Cherokee and other eastern tribes was the “wild tobacco” (Nicotiana rustica), which they distinguish now as tsâl-agayûñ′li, “old tobacco.” By the Iroquois the same species is called the “real tobacco.”

Dagûlʻkû geese—The dagûlʻkû is the American white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons gambeli). It is said to have been of bluish-white color, and to have been common in the low country toward the coast, but very rare in the mountains. About the end of September it goes south, and can be heard at night flying far overhead and crying dugalŭ! dugalŭ! dugalŭ! Swimmer had heard them passing over, but had never seen one.

7.The journey to the sunrise (p. 255): This story, obtained from John Ax, with additional details by Swimmer and Wafford, has parallels in many tribes. Swimmer did not know the burial incident, but said—evidently a more recent interpolation—that when they came near the sunrise they found there a race of black men at work. It is somewhat remarkable that the story has nothing to say of the travelers reaching the ocean, as the Cherokee were well aware of its proximity.

What the Sun is like—According to the Payne manuscript, already quoted, the Cherokee anciently believed that the world, the first man and woman, and the sun and moon were all created by a number of beneficent beings who came down for the purpose from an upper world, to which they afterward returned, leaving the sun and moon as their deputies to finish and rule the world thus created. “Hence whenever the believers in this system offer a prayer to their creator, they mean by the creator rather the Sun and Moon. As to which of these two was supreme, there seems to have been a wide difference of opinion. In some of their ancient prayers, they speak of the Sun as male, and consider, of course, the Moon as female. In others, however, they invoke the Moon as male and the Sun as female; because, as they say, the Moon is vigilant and travels by night. But both Sun and Moon, as we have before said, are adored as the creator.... The expression, ‘Sun, my creator,’ occurs frequently in their ancient prayers. Indeed, the Sun was generally considered the superior in their devotions” (quoted in Squier, Serpent Symbol, p. 68). Haywood, in 1823, says: “The sun they call the day moon or female, and the night moon the male” (Nat. and Aborig. Hist. Tenn., p. 266). According to Swimmer, there is also a tradition that the Sun was of cannibal habit, and in human form was once seen killing and devouring human beings. Sun and Moon are sister and brother. See number 8, “The Moon and the Thunders.”

The Indians of Thompson river, British Columbia, say of the sun that formerly “He was a man and a cannibal, killing people on his travels every day.... He hung up the people whom he had killed during his day’s travel when he reached home, taking down the bodies of those whom he had hung up the night before and eating them.” He was finally induced to abandon his cannibal habit (Teit, Thompson River Traditions, p. 53).

In the same grave—This reminds us of the adventure in the voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, as narrated in the Arabian Nights. The sacrifice of the wife at her husband’s funeral was an ancient custom in the Orient and in portions of Africa, and still survives in the Hindu suttee. It may once have had a counterpart in America, but so far as known to the author the nearest approach to it was found in the region of the lower Columbia and adjacent northwest coast, where a slave was frequently buried alive with the corpse.

Vault of solid rock—The sky vault which is constantly rising and falling at the horizon and crushes those who try to go beyond occurs in the mythologies of the Iroquois of New York, the Omaha and the Sioux of the plains, the Tillamook of Oregon, and other widely separated tribes. The Iroquois concept is given by Hewitt, “Rising and Falling of the Sky,” in Iroquois Legends, in the American Anthropologist for October, 1892. In the Omaha story of “The Chief’s Son and the Thunders” (Dorsey, Contributions to North American Ethnology, VI, 1890), a party of travelers in search of adventures “came to the end of the sky, and the end of the sky was going down into the ground.” They tried to jump across, and all succeeded excepting one, who failed to clear the distance, and “the end of the sky carried him away under the ground.” The others go on behind the other world and return the same way. In the Tillamook myth six men go traveling and reach “the lightning door, which opened and closed with great rapidity and force.” They get through safely, but one is caught on the return and has his back cut in half by the descending sky (Boas, Traditions of the Tillamook Indians, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, Jan., 1898). See also number 1, “How the World was Made” and number 3, “Kana′tĭ and Selu.”

8.The Moon and the Thunders (p. 256): The story of the sun and the moon, as here given, was obtained first from Swimmer and afterward from other informants. It is noted by Hagar, in his manuscript Stellar Legends of the Cherokee, one narrator making the girl blacken her brother’s face with seven (charred?) corn cobs (cf. John Ax’s version of number 5 in notes). Exactly the same myth is found with the native tribes of Greenland, Panama, Brazil, and Northern India. Among the Khasias of the Himalaya mountains “the changes of the moon are accounted for by the theory that this orb, who is a man, monthly falls in love with his wife’s mother, who throws ashes in his face. The sun is female.” On some northern branches of the Amazon “the moon is represented as a maiden who fell in love with her brother and visited him at night, but who was finally betrayed by his passing his blackened hand over her face.” With the Greenland Eskimo the Sun and Moon are sister and brother, and were playing in the dark, “when Malina, being teased in a shameful manner by her brother Anninga, smeared her hands with the soot of the lamp and rubbed them over the face and hands of her persecutor, that she might recognize him by daylight. Hence arise the spots in the moon (see Timothy Harley, Moon Lore, London, 1885, and the story “The Sun and the Moon,” in Henry Rink’s Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, London, 1875). In British Columbia the same incident occurs in the story of a girl and her lover, who was a dog transformed to the likeness of a man (Teit, Thompson River Traditions, p. 62).

A very similar myth occurs among the Cheyenne, in which the chief personages are human, but the offspring of the connection become the Pleiades (A. L. Kroeber, Cheyenne Tales, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, July, 1900). In nearly all mythologies the Sun and Moon are sister and brother, the Moon being generally masculine, while the Sun is feminine (cf. German, Der Mond, Die Sonne).

Eclipse—Of the myth of the eclipse monster, which may be frightened away by all sorts of horrible noises, it is enough to say that it is universal (see Harley, Moon Lore). The Cherokee name for the phenomenon is nûñdă′ walâ′sĭ u′giskă′, “the frog is swallowing the sun or moon.” Says Adair (History of the American Indians p. 65): “The first lunar eclipse I saw after I lived with the Indians was among the Cherokee, An. 1736, and during the continuance of it their conduct appeared very surprizing to one who had not seen the like before. They all ran wild, this way and that way, like lunatics, firing their guns, whooping and hallooing, beating of kettles, ringing horse bells, and making the most horrid noises that human beings possibly could. This was the effect of their natural philosophy and done to assist the suffering moon.”

The Thunders—The Cherokee name for Thunder, Ani′-Hyûñ′tĭkwălâ′skĭ, is an animate plural form and signifies literally, “The Thunderers” or “They who make the Thunder.” The great Thunderers are Kana′tĭ and his sons (see the story), but inferior thunder spirits people all the cliffs and mountains, and more particularly the great waterfalls, such as Tallulah, whose never-ceasing roar is believed to be the voice of the Thunderers speaking to such as can understand. A similar conception prevailed among the Iroquois and the eastern tribes generally. Adair says (History of the American Indians, p. 65), speaking of the southern tribes: “I have heard them say, when it rained, thundered, and blew sharp for a considerable time, that the beloved or holy people were at war above the clouds, and they believe that the war at such times is moderate or hot in proportion to the noise and violence of the storm.” In Portuguese West Africa also the Thunderers are twin brothers who quarreled and went, one to the east, the other to the west, whence each answers the other whenever a great storm arises.29 Among the plains tribes both thunder and lightning are caused by a great bird.

Rainbow—The conception of the rainbow as the beautiful dress of the Thunder god occurs also among the South Sea islanders. In Mangaia it is the girdle of the god Tangaroa, which he loosens and allows to hang down until the end reaches to the earth whenever he wishes to descend (Gill, Myths and Songs of the South Pacific, p. 44). For some unexplained reason the dread of pointing at the rainbow, on penalty of having the finger wither or become misshapen, is found among most of the tribes even to the Pacific coast. The author first heard of it from a Puyallup boy of Puget sound, Washington.

9.What the stars are like (p. 257): This story, told by Swimmer, embodies the old tribal belief. By a different informant Hagar was told: “Stars are birds. We know this because one once shot from the sky to the ground, and some Cherokee who looked for it found a little bird, about the size of a chicken just hatched, where it fell” (MS Stellar Legends of the Cherokee, 1898).

The story closely resembles something heard by Lawson among the Tuscarora in eastern North Carolina about the year 1700. An Indian having been killed by lightning, the people were assembled for the funeral, and the priest made them a long discourse upon the power of lightning over all men, animals, and plants, save only mice and the black-gum tree. “At last he began to tell the most ridiculous absurd parcel of lies about lightning that could be; as that an Indian of that nation had once got lightning in the likeness of a partridge; that no other lightning could harm him whilst he had that about him; and that after he had kept it for several years it got away from him, so that he then became as liable to be struck with lightning as any other person. There was present at the same time an Indian that had lived from his youth chiefly in an English house, so I called to him and told him what a parcel of lies the conjurer told, not doubting but he thought so as well as I; but I found to the contrary, for he replied that I was much mistaken, for the old man—who, I believe, was upwards of an hundred years old—did never tell lies; and as for what he said, it was very true, for he knew it himself to be so. Thereupon seeing the fellow’s ignorance, I talked no more about it (History of Carolina, page 346).

According to Hagar a certain constellation of seven stars, which he identifies as the Hyades, is called by the Cherokee “The Arm,” on account of its resemblance to a human arm bent at the elbow, and they say that it is the broken arm of a man who went up to the sky because, having been thus crippled, he was of no further use upon earth.

10.Origin of the Pleiades and the pine (p. 258): This myth is well known in the tribe, and was told in nearly the same form by Swimmer, Ta′gwadihĭ′ and Suyeta. The Feather dance, also called the Eagle dance, is one of the old favorites, and is the same as the ancient Calumet dance of the northern tribes. For a description of the gatayû′stĭ game, see note to number 3, “Kana′ti and Selu.” In a variant recorded by Stansbury Hagar (MS Stellar Legends of the Cherokee) the boys spend their time shooting at cornstalks.

According to Squier (Serpent Symbol, p. 69), probably on the authority of the Payne manuscript, “The Cherokees paid a kind of veneration to the morning star, and also to the seven stars, with which they have connected a variety of legends, all of which, no doubt, are allegorical, although their significance is now unknown.”

The corresponding Iroquois myth below, as given by Mrs Erminnie Smith in her Myths of the Iroquois (Second Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology, p. 80), is practically the same so far as it goes, and the myth was probably once common over a wide area in the East:

“Seven little Indian boys were once accustomed to bring at eve their corn and beans to a little mound, upon the top of which, after their feast, the sweetest of their singers would sit and sing for his mates who danced around the mound. On one occasion they resolved on a more sumptuous feast, and each was to contribute towards a savory soup. But the parents refused them the needed supplies, and they met for a feastless dance. Their heads and hearts grew lighter as they flew around the mound, until suddenly the whole company whirled off into the air. The inconsolable parents called in vain for them to return, but it was too late. Higher and higher they arose, whirling around their singer, until, transformed into bright stars, they took their places in the firmament, where, as the Pleiades, they are dancing still, the brightness of the singer having been dimmed, however, on account of his desire to return to earth.”

In an Eskimo tale a hunter was pursued by enemies, and as he ran he gradually rose from the ground and finally reached the sky, where he was turned into a star (Kroeber, Tales of the Smith Sound Eskimo, in Journal of American Folk-Lore). This transformation of human beings into stars and constellations is one of the most common incidents of primitive myth.

11.The Milky Way (p. 259): This story, in slightly different forms, is well known among the Cherokee east and west. The generic word for mill is dista′stĭ, including also the self-acting pound-mill or ûlskwûlte′gĭ. In the original version the mill was probably a wooden mortar, such as was commonly used by the Cherokee and other eastern and southern tribes.

In a variant recorded in the Hagar Cherokee manuscript there are two hunters, one living in the north and hunting big game, while the other lives in the south and hunts small game. The former, discovering the latter’s wife grinding corn, seizes her and carries her far away across the sky to his home in the north. Her dog, after eating what meal is left, follows the pair across the sky, the meal falling from his mouth as he runs, making the Milky Way.

12.Origin of strawberries (p. 259): This myth, as here given, was obtained from Ta′gwadihĭ′, who said that all the fruits mentioned were then for the first time created, and added, “So some good came from the quarrel, anyhow.” The Swimmer version has more detail, but seems overdressed.

13.The Great Yellow-jacket: Origin of fish and frogs (p. 260): This story, obtained from Swimmer, is well known in the tribe, and has numerous parallels in other Indian mythologies. In nearly every tribal genesis we find the primitive world infested by ferocious monster animals, which are finally destroyed or rendered harmless, leaving only their descendants, the present diminutive types. Conspicuous examples are afforded in Matthew’s Navaho Legends30 and in the author’s story of the Jicarilla genesis in the American Anthropologist for July, 1898.

“The Cherokees relate that there once existed among those mountains [about Nantahala and Franklin] a very large bird, which resembled in appearance the green-winged hornet, and this creature was in the habit of carrying off the younger children of the nation who happened to wander into the woods. Very many children had mysteriously disappeared in this manner, and the entire people declared a warfare against the monster. A variety of means were employed for his destruction, but without success. In process of time it was determined that the wise men (or medicine-men) of the nation should try their skill in the business. They met in council and agreed that each one should station himself on the summit of a mountain, and that, when the creature was discovered, the man who made the discovery should utter a loud halloo, which shout should be taken up by his neighbor on the next mountain, and so continued to the end of the line, that all the men might have a shot at the strange bird. This experiment was tried, and resulted in finding out the hiding place of the monster, which was a deep cavern on the eastern side of the Blue ridge and at the fountain-head of the river Too-ge-lah [Tugaloo river, South Carolina]. On arriving at this place, they found the entrance to the cavern entirely inaccessible by mortal feet, and they therefore prayed to the Great Spirit that he would bring out the bird from his den, and place him within reach of their arms.

Their petition was granted, for a terrible thunder-storm immediately arose, and a stroke of lightning tore away one half of a large mountain, and the Indians were successful in slaying their enemy. The Great Spirit was pleased with the courage manifested by the Cherokees during this dangerous fight, and, with a view of rewarding the same, he willed it that all the highest mountains in their land should thereafter be destitute of trees, so that they might always have an opportunity of watching the movements of their enemies.

As a sequel to this legend, it may be appropriately mentioned, that at the head of the Too-ge-lah is to be found one of the most remarkable curiosities of this mountain-land. It is a granite cliff with a smooth surface or front, half a mile long, and twelve hundred feet high, and generally spoken of in this part of the country as the White-side mountain, or the Devil’s court-house. To think of it is almost enough to make one dizzy, but to see it fills one with awe. Near the top of one part of this cliff is a small cave, which can be reached only by passing over a strip of rock about two feet wide. One man only has ever been known to enter it, and when he performed the deed he met at the entrance of the cave a large bear, which animal, in making its escape, slipped off the rock, fell a distance of near a thousand feet, and was of course killed. When the man saw this, he became so excited that it was some hours before he could quiet his nerves sufficiently to retrace his dangerous pathway.”

“About this time a great musqueto invaded the fort Onondaga; the musqueto was mischievous to the people, it flew about the fort with a long stinger, and sucked the blood of a number of lives; the warriors made several oppositions to expel the monster, but failed; the country was invaded until the Holder of the Heavens was pleased to visit the people; while he was visiting the king at the fort Onondaga, the musqueto made appearance as usual and flew about the fort, the Holder of the Heavens attacked the monster, it flew so rapidly that he could hardly keep in sight of it, but after a few days chase the monster began to fail, he chased on the borders of the great lakes towards the sun-setting, and round the great country, at last he overtook the monster and killed it near the salt lake Onondaga, and the blood became small musquetos.”