540 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



related with good fishing because the fish are biting and feeding at 

 those times. Thus activities of the fisherman would in turn be in- 

 fluenced by the recurrence of good fishing in accordance with the 

 phases of the moon. Some marine animals appear in great abundance 

 once or twice a year in accordance with special phases of the moon. 

 One such animal is the palolo worm which appears in great numbers 

 in the waters off Samoa during the last quarter of the November 

 moon. Here breeding and feeding go hand in hand in the rhythms of 

 nature as large numbers of fish find sudden accessions to the food 

 supply. 



So it was possible, in the human world, to correlate activities of 

 animals with periods of hunting and fishing which would be sym- 

 bolized in feasts. The regular sequence of new-moon feasts among 

 the Cherokees was, so far as we are able to judge, connected with the 

 rhythms of human breeding and feeding. The monthly friendship 

 dances of today still commemorate the cleansing of menstrual taboos, 

 which are imposed by clan sanctions and relate to the monthly feasts 

 of an earlier period. The shedding of blood, from whatsoever cause, 

 invokes sanctions of uncleanliness which must be given recognition. 

 The avenger of blood could not slay the fugitive who reached a city 

 of refuge, or a "white town" because it would produce an uncleanness. 

 The special clan that killed a particular animal in the hunt had to be 

 absolved from blood revenge by the animal's clan relatives by special 

 rituals. 



Among the early Cherokees the year was divided into two sequences. 

 The first, for winter, began with the Great New Moon feast of October 

 and the second with the New Moon feast of April, and included the 

 summer months. The two important New Moon festivals were each 

 seventh in a continuous series reckoning from the other and each began 

 a new season and a new year. 



Each of the two main festivals of April and October were celebrated 

 with hunts, dances, lustrations, divinations, and a feast. Each was 

 succeeded a short time afterward by a festival in which new fire was 

 made to renew the life of the tribe for the new season. The principal 

 purpose of all new-moon feasts seemed to have been to purify from 

 uncleanness and to protect against harmful forces. They celebrated 

 renewal of life and life's friendships after segregation for impurities 

 and uncleannesses. 



There were six major new-moon feasts pointed out as of special 

 significance, and which were as follows : 



1. The First New Moon of Spring, celebrated when the grass began to grow in 



April and possibly represented by the Corn Dance of today. 



2. The New Moon of August when the corn first became fit to eat, the roasting- 



ears time of today. 





