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Myths of the Cherokee

The Sun lived on the other side of the sky vault, but her daughter lived in the middle of the sky, directly above the earth, and every day as the Sun was climbing along the sky arch to the west she used to stop at her daughter's house for dinner.

Now, the Sun hated the people on the earth, because they could never look straight at her without screwing up their faces.

She said to her brother, the Moon, "My grandchildren are ugly; they grin all over their faces when they look at me."

But the Moon said, "I like my younger brothers; I think they are very handsome " – because they always smiled pleasantly when they saw him in the sky at night, for his rays were milder.

The Sun was jealous and planned to kill all the people, so every day when she got near her daughter's house she sent down such sultry rays that there was a great fever and the people died by hundreds, until everyone had lost some friend and there was fear that no one would be left. They went for help to the Little Men, who said the only way to save themselves was to kill the Sun.

The Little Men made medicine and changed two men to snakes, the Spreading-adder and the Copperhead, and sent them to watch near the door of the daughter of the Sun to bite the old Sun when she came next day. They went together and bid near the house until the Sun came, but when the Spreading-adder was about to spring, the bright light blinded him and he could only spit out yellow slime, as he does to this day when he tries to bite. She called him a nasty thing and went by into the house, and the Copperhead crawled off without trying to do anything.

So the people still died from the heat, and they went to the Little Men a second time for help. The Little Men made medicine again and changed one man into the great Uktena and another into the Rattlesnake and sent them to watch near the house and kill the old Sun when she came for dinner. They made the Uktena very large, with horns on his head, and everyone thought he would be sure to do the work, but the Rattlesnake was so quick and eager that he got ahead and coiled up just outside the house, and when the Sun's daughter opened the door to look out for her mother, he sprang up and bit her and she fell dead in the doorway. He forgot to wait for the old Sun, but went back to the people, and the Uktena was so very angry that he went back, too. Since then we pray to the rattlesnake and do not kill him, because he is kind and never tries to bite if we do not disturb him. The Uktena grew angrier all the time and very dangerous, so that if he even looked at a man, that man's family would die. After a long time the people held a council and decided that he was too dangerous to be with them, so they sent him up to Gälûñ'lätï, and he is there now. The Spreading-adder, the Copperhead, the Rattlesnake, and the Uktena were all men.

When the Sun found her daughter dead, she went into the house and grieved, and the people did not die any more, but now the world was dark all the time, because the Sun would not come out. They went again to the Little Men, and these told them that if they wanted the Sun to come out again they must bring back her daughter from Tsûsginâ'ï, the Ghost country, in Us'ûñhi'yï, the Darkening land in the west. They chose seven men to go, and gave each a sourwood rod a hand-breadth long. The Little Men told them they must take a box with them, and when they got to Tsûsginâ'ï they would find all the ghosts at a dance. They must stand outside the circle, and when the young woman passed in the dance they must strike her with the rods and she would fall to the ground. Then they must put her into the box and bring her back to her mother, but they must be very sure not to open the box, even a little way, until they were home again.

They took the rods and a box and traveled seven days to the west until they came to the Darkening land. There were a great many people there, and they were having a dance just as if they were at home in the settlements. The young woman was in the outside circle, and as she swung around to where the seven men were standing, one struck her with his rod and she turned her head and saw him. As she came around the second time another touched her with his rod, and then another and another, until at the seventh round she fell out of the ring, and they put her into the box and closed the lid fast. The other ghosts seemed never to notice what had happened.

They took up the box and started home toward the east. In a little while the girl came to life again and begged to be let out of the box, but they made no answer and went on. Soon she called again and said she was hungry, but still they made no answer and went on. After another while she spoke again and called for a drink and pleaded so that it was very hard to listen to her, but the men who carried the box said nothing and still went on. When at last they were very near home, she called again and begged them to raise the lid just a little, because she was smothering. They were afraid she was really dying now, so they lifted the lid a little to give her air, but as they did so there was a fluttering sound inside and something flew past them into the thicket and they heard a redbird cry, "kwish! kwish! kwish!" in the bushes. They shut down the lid and went on again to the settlements, but when they got there and opened the box it was empty.

So we know the Redbird is the daughter of the Sun, and if the men had kept the box closed, as the Little Men told them to do, they would have brought her home safely, and we could bring back our other friends also from the Ghost country, but now when they die we can never bring them back.

The Sun had been glad when they started to the Ghost country, but when they came back without her daughter she grieved and cried, "My daughter, my daughter," and wept until her tears made a flood upon the earth, and the people were afraid the world would be drowned. They held another council, and sent their handsomest young men and women to amuse her so that she would stop crying. They danced before the Sun and sang their best songs, but for a long time she kept her face covered and paid no attention, until at last the drummer suddenly changed the song, when she lifted up her face, and was so pleased at the sight that she forgot her grief and smiled.

Comments:

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′tĭ 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. [1]

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.” [2] 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. [3]

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. [4]

The sky vault – See other references in number 1, “How the World was Made;” number 3, “Kana′tĭ and Selu,” and number 7, “The Journey to the Sunrise.”

My grandchildren – The Sun calls the people tsûñgili′sĭ, “my grandchildren,” this being the term used by maternal grandparents, the corresponding term used by paternal grandparents being tsûñgini′sĭ. The Moon calls the people tsûñkina′tlĭ, “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 tsûñkită′.

The Little Men – The Thunder Boys, sons of Kana′tĭ (see number 3, “Kana′tĭ 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′natĭ, “he has a bell” (?); wâ′dige′ĭ askâ′lĭ, “red-brown head”; and da′lĭkstă′, “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′tĭ.”

Hand-breadth – See note to number 1, “How the World was Made.”

[1] Josiah Gregg, The Commerce of the Prairies, or The Journal of a Santa Fe Trader During Eight Expeditions across the Great Western Prairies and a Residence of Nearly Nine Years in Northern Mexico; vol. II, pp. 239–240; New York and London, 1844.

[2] Francis Parkman, The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, second edition, p. lxxxiii (quoting Le Clerc); Boston, 1867.

[3] Teit, Thompson River Traditions, p. 85.

[4] Alfred Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians; New York, 1897, p. 55.

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