Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney

the Indian Territory from James Wafford, who said he had repeatedly heard it in boyhood about Valley river, in the old Nation, from Cherokee who spoke no English. The second version, from the Cherokee Advocate, December 18, 1845, is given, together with the story of "How the Wildcat caught the Gobbler," with this introduction: "Indian Fables. Mr William P. Ross: I have recently stumbled on the following Cherokee fables, and perhaps you may think them worth inserting in the Advocate for the sake of the curious. I am told that the Cherokees have a great many fables. If I understand the following, the intention seems to be to teach cunning and artifice in war. Æsop." The newspaper paragraph bears the pencil initials of S[amuel] W[orcester] B[utler]. Other Indian versions are found with the Jicarilla ("Fox and Rabbit," Myths of the Jicarilla, by Frank Russell, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, October, 1898) and Sioux (S. D. Hinman, cited in Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, I, p. 103, Washington, 1882). The southern negro variant, "The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story," is the introductory tale in Harris's Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings. A close parallel occurs in the West African story of "Leopard, Monkey, and Hare" (Chatelain, Folktales of Angola).