Myths of the Cherokee

Two hunters, both for some reason under a tabu against the meat of a squirrel or turkey, had gone into the woods together. When evening came they found a good camping place and lighted a fire to prepare their supper. One of them had killed several squirrels during the day, and now got ready to broil them over the fire. His companion warned him that if he broke the tabu and ate squirrel meat he would become a snake, but the other laughed and said that was only a conjurer's story. He went on with his preparation, and when the squirrels were roasted made his supper of them and then lay down beside the fire to sleep.

Late that night his companion was aroused b y groaning, and on looking around he found the other lying on the ground rolling and twisting in agony, and with the lower part of his body already changed to the body and tail of a large water snake. The man was still able to speak and called loudly for help, but his companion could do nothing, but only sit by and try to comfort him while he watched the arms sink into the body and the skin take on a scaly change that mounted gradually toward the neck, until at last even the head was a serpent's head and the great snake crawled away from the fire and down the bank into the river.

This myth, obtained from Chief Smith, seems designed to impress upon the laity the importance of a strict observance of the innumerable gaktûñ′ta, or tabus, which beset the daily life of the Cherokee, whether in health or sickness, hunting, war, or arts of peace (see the author’s “Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees,” in the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology).

Similar transformation myths are found all over the world. One of the most ancient is the story of Cadmus, in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” with the despair of the wife as she sees the snaky change come over her husband. “Cadmus, what means this? Where are thy feet? Where are both thy shoulders and thy hands? Where is thy color? and, while I speak, where all else besides?”

In a Pawnee story given by Grinnell two brothers, traveling, camp for the night. The elder eats some tabued food, and wakes from his sleep to find that he is changing into a great rattlesnake, the change beginning at his feet. He rouses his brother and gives him his last instructions:

“When I have changed into a snake, take me in your arms and carry me over to that hole. That will be my home, for that is the house of the snakes.” Having still a man’s mind, he continues to talk as the metamorphosis extends upward, until at last his head changes to that of a snake, when his brother takes him up and carries him to the hole. The relatives make frequent visits to the place to visit the snake, who always comes out when they call, and the brother brings it a share of his war trophies, including a horse and a woman, and receives in return the protection of the snake man (Pawnee Hero Stories, pp. 171–181). A close Omaha variant is given by Dorsey (“The warriors who were changed to snakes,” in Contributions to North American Ethnology, VI).