Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney

Swimmer and John Ax (east), and confirmed also by James Wafford (west), who remembered, however, only the main points of the pursuit and final capture at Kâgûñ'yi. The two versions corresponded very closely, excepting that Ax sends the boy to the Sunset land to play against his brothers, while Swimmer brings them to meet him at their father's house. In the Ax version, also, the gambler flees directly to the west, and as often as the brothers shoot at him with their arrows the thunder rolls and the lightning flashes, but he escapes by sinking into the earth, which opens for him, to reappear in another form somewhere else. Swimmer makes the Little People help in the chase. In Cherokee figure an invitation to a ball contest is a challenge to battle. Thunder is always personified in the plural, Ani'-Hyûñ'tikwalâ'ski, "The Thunderers." The father and the two older sons seem to be Kana'ti and the Thunder Boys (see number 3, "Kana'ti and Selu"), although neither informant would positively assert this, while the boy hero, who has no other name, is said to be the lightning. Nothing is told of his after career. Ûñtsaiyi'--In this name (sometimes E'tsaiyi' or Tsaiyi') the first syllable is almost silent and the vowels are prolonged to imitate the ringing sound produced by striking a thin sheet of metal. The word is now translated "brass," and is applied to any object made of that metal. The mythic gambler, who has his counterpart in the mythologies of many tribes, is the traditional inventor of the wheel-and-stick game, so popular among the southern and eastern Indians, and variously known as gatayûsti, chenco, or chûnki (see note under number 3, "Kana'ti and Selu"). He lived on the south side of Tennessee river, at Ûñ'tiguhi'. Ûñ'tiguhi' or The Suck--The noted and dangerous rapid known to the whites as "The Suck" and to the Cherokee as Ûñ'tiguhi', "Pot in the water," is in Tennessee river, near the entrance of Suck creek, about 8 miles below Chattanooga, at a point where the river gathers its whole force into a contracted channel to break through the Cumberland mountain. The popular name, Whirl, or Suck, dates back at least to 1780, the upper portion being known at the same time as "The boiling pot" (Donelson diary, in Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 71), [545] a close paraphrase of the Indian name. In the days of pioneer settlement it was a most dangerous menace to navigation, but some of the most serious obstacles in the channel have now been removed by blasting and other means. The Cherokee name and legend were probably suggested by the appearance of the rapids at the spot. Close to where Ûñtsaiyi' lived, according to the Indian account, may still be seen the large flat rock upon which he was accustomed to play the gatayûsti game with all who accepted his challenge, the lines and grooves worn by the rolling of the wheels being still plainly marked, and the stone wheels themselves now firmly attached to the surface of the rock. A similarly grooved or striped rock, where also, it is said, Ûñtsaiyi' used to roll his wheel, is reported to be on the north side of Hiwassee, just below Calhoun, Tennessee. The Suck is thus described by a traveler in 1818, while the whole was still Indian country and Chattanooga was yet undreamed of: "And here, I cannot forbear pausing a moment to call your attention to the grand and picturesque scenery which opens to the view of the admiring spectator. The country is still possessed by the aborigines, and the hand of civilization has done but little to soften the wild aspect of nature. The Tennessee river, having concentrated into one mass the numerous streams it has received in its course of three or four hundred miles, glides through an extended valley with a rapid and overwhelming current, half a mile in width. At this place, a group of mountains stand ready to dispute its progress. First, the 'Lookout,' an independent range, commencing thirty miles below, presents, opposite the river's course, its bold and rocky termination of two thousand feet. Around its brow is a pallisade [sic] of naked rocks, from seventy to one hundred feet. The river flows upon its base, and instantly twines to the right. Passing on for six miles farther it turns again, and is met by the side of the Rackoon mountain. Collecting its strength into a channel of seventy yards, it severs the mountain, and rushes tumultuously through the rocky defile, wafting the trembling navigator at the rate of a mile in two or three minutes. The passage is called 'The Suck.' The summit of the Lookout mountain overlooks the whole country. And to those who can be delighted with the view of an interminable forest, penetrated by the windings of a bold river, interspersed with hundreds of verdant prairies, and broken by many ridges and mountains, furnishes in the month of May, a landscape, which yields to few others, in extent, variety or beauty."--Rev. Elias Cornelius, in (Silliman's) American Journal of Science, I, p. 223, 1818. Bet even his life--The Indian was a passionate gambler and there was absolutely no limit to the risks which he was willing to take, even to the loss of liberty, if not of life. Says Lawson (History of Carolina, p. 287): "They game very much and often strip one another of all they have in the world; and what is more, I have known several of them play themselves away, so that they have remained the winners' servants till their relations or themselves could pay the money to redeem them." His skin was clean--The idea of purification or cleansing through the efficacy of the sweat-bath is very common in Indian myth and ceremonial. In an Omaha story given by Dorsey the hero has been transformed, by witchcraft, into a mangy dog. He builds a sweat lodge, goes into it as a dog and sweats himself until, on his command, the people take off the blankets, when "Behold, he was not a dog; he was a very handsome man" ("Adventures of Hingpe-agce," in Contributions to North American Ethnology, VI, p. 175). From the bottom--The choice of the most remote or the most insignificant appearing of several objects, as being really the most valuable, is another common incident in the myths. Honey-locust tree--The favorite honey-locust tree and the seat with thorns of the same species in the home of the Thunder Man may indicate that in Indian as in Aryan thought there was an occult connection between the pinnated leaves and the lightning, as we know to be the case with regard to the European rowan or mountain ash. All kinds of snakes--It will be remembered that the boy's father was a thunder god. The connection between the snake and the rain or thunder spirit has already been noted. It appears also in number 84, "The Man who Married the Thunder's Sister." Elder brother--My elder brother (male speaking), ûñgini'li; my elder brother (female speaking), ûñgida'; thy two elder brothers (male speaking), tsetsani'li. Sunset land--The Cherokee word here used is Wusûhihûñ'yi, "there where they stay over night." The usual expression in the sacred formula is usûñhi'yi, "the darkening, or twilight place"; the common word is wude'ligûñ'yi, "there where it (the sun) goes down." Lightning at every stroke--In the Omaha myth of "The Chief's Son and the Thunders," given by Dorsey, some young men traveling to the end of the world meet a Thunder Man, who bids the leader to select one of four medicine bags. Having been warned in advance, he selects the oldest, but most powerful, and is then given also a club which causes thunder whenever flourished in the air (Contributions to North American Ethnology, VI, p. 185). Strike the rock--This method of procuring water is as old at least as the book of Exodus. The brass rubbed off--The beautiful metallic luster on the head of Phanæus carnifex is thus accounted for. The common roller beetle is called "dung roller," but this species is distinguished as the "horned, brass" beetle. It is also sometimes spoken of as the dog of the Thunder Boys. Beavers gnaw at the grapevine--Something like this is found among the Cheyenne: "The earth rests on a large beam or post. Far in the north there is a beaver as white as snow who is a great father of all mankind. Some day he will gnaw through the support at the bottom. We shall be helpless and the earth will fall. This will happen when he becomes angry. The post is already partly eaten through. For this reason one band of the Cheyenne never eat beaver or even touch the skin. If they do touch it, they become sick" (Kroeber, Cheyenne Tales, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, July, 1900).