Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney

John Ax, and has numerous parallels in other tribes, as well as in European and oriental folklore. The classic legend of Romulus and Remus and the stories of "wolf boys" in India will at once suggest themselves. Swimmer makes the trial of the hunter's weapons by the bears a part of his story of the origin of disease and medicine (number 4), but says that it may have happened on this occasion (see also number 15, "The Four-footed Tribes," and notes to number 75, "Origin of the Bear"). In a strikingly similar Creek myth of the Tuggle collection, "Origin of the Bear Clan," a little girl lost in the woods is adopted by a she-bear, with whom she lives for four years, when the bear is killed by the hunter and the girl returns to her people to become the mother of the Bear clan. The Iroquois have several stories of children adopted by bears. In one, "The Man and His Stepson," a boy thus cared for is afterward found by a hunter, who tames him and teaches him to speak, until in time he almost forgets that he had lived like a bear. He marries a daughter of the hunter and becomes a hunter himself, but always refrains from molesting the bears, until at last, angered by the taunts of his mother-in-law, he shoots one, but is himself killed by an accident while on his return home (Smith, Myths of the Iroquois, in Second Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology). In line with this is the story of a hunter who had pursued a bear into its den. "When some distance in he could no longer see the bear, but he saw a fire and around it sat several men. The oldest of the three men looked up and asked, 'Why did you try to shoot one of my men. We sent him out to entice you to us'" (Curtin, Seneca MS in Bureau of American Ethnology archives). In a Pawnee myth, "The Bear Man," a boy whose father had put him under the protection of the bears grows up with certain bear traits and frequently prays and sacrifices to these animals. On a war party against the Sioux he is killed and cut to pieces, when two bears find and recognize the body, gather up and arrange the pieces and restore him to life, after which they take him to their den, where they care for him and teach him their secret knowledge until he is strong enough to go home (Grinnell, Pawnee Hero Stories, pp. 121-128). In a Jicarilla myth, "Origin and Destruction of the Bear," a boy playing about in animal fashion runs into a cave in the hillside. "When he came out his feet and hands had been transformed into bear's paws." Four times this is repeated, the change each time mounting higher, until he finally emerges as a terrible bear monster that devours human beings (Russell, Myths of the Jicarilla, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, October, 1898). Read the thoughts--Thought reading is a very common feature of Indian myths. Certain medicine ceremonies are believed to confer the power upon those who fulfil the ordeal conditions. Food was getting scarce--Several references in the myths indicate that, through failure of the accustomed wild crops, famine seasons were as common among the animal tribes as among the Indians (see number 33, "The Migration of the Animals"). Kalâs'-Gûnahi'ta--See number 15, "The Four-footed Tribes." Rubbed his stomach--This very original method of procuring food occurs also in number 3, "Kana'ti and Selu." Topknots and Splitnoses--Tsuni'stsahi', "Having topknots"--i. e., Indians, in allusion to the crests of upright hair formerly worn by warriors of the Cherokee and other eastern tribes. Timberlake thus describes the Cherokee warrior's headdress in 1762: "The hair of their head is shaved, tho' many of the old people have it plucked out by the roots, except a patch on the hinder part of the head about twice the bigness of a crown piece, which is ornamented with beads, feathers, wampum, stained deer's hair, and such like baubles" (Memoirs, p. 49). Tsunû'`liyû' sûnestlâ'ta, "they have split noses"--i. e., dogs. Cover the blood--The reincarnation of the slain animal from the drops of blood spilt upon the ground or from the bones is a regular part of Cherokee hunting belief, and the same idea occurs in the folklore of many tribes. In the Omaha myth, "Ictinike and the Four Creators," the hero visits the Beaver, who kills and cooks one of his own children to furnish the dinner. When the meal was over "the Beaver gathered the bones and put them into a skin, which he plunged beneath the water. In a moment the youngest beaver came up alive out of the water" (Dorsey, in Contributions to North American Ethnology, VI, p. 557). Like a man again--It is a regular article of Indian belief, which has its parallels in European fairy lore, that one who has eaten the food of the spirit people or supernaturals can not afterward return to his own people and live, unless at once, and sometimes for a long time, put under a rigid course of treatment intended to efface the longing for the spirit food and thus to restore his complete human nature. See also number 73, "The Underground Panthers." In "A Yankton Legend," recorded by Dorsey, a child falls into the water and is taken by the water people. The father hears the child crying under the water and employs two medicine men to bring it back. After preparing themselves properly they go down into the deep water, where they find the child sitting beside the water spirit, who, when they declare their message, tells them that if they had come before the child had eaten anything he might have lived, but now if taken away "he will desire the food which I eat; that being the cause of the trouble, he shall die." They return and report: "We have seen your child, the wife of the water deity has him. Though we saw him alive, he had eaten part of the food which the water deity eats, therefore the water deity says that if we bring the child back with us out of the water he shall die," and so it happened. Some time after the parents lose another child in like manner, but this time "she did not eat any of the food of the water deity and therefore they took her home alive." In each case a white dog is thrown in to satisfy the water spirits for the loss of the child (Contributions to North American Ethnology, VI, p. 357).