386 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



Those myths which could not be found in the published literature 

 of the Southeast are marked with an asterisk. 



It would appear that Olbrechts intended to publish his collection, 

 for he made rough typescripts of 16 stories. Two of these typescripts 

 were prepared on August 1, 1931; the others were probably made 

 during that same year. 



As one might expect, the items in the collection are not of uniform 

 importance. Some of them are better represented in other collections, 

 and some are of slight intrinsic worth. But certain of the stories — the 

 Fleakiller Cycle and the legends of the Ani:gh{i)sgi War, for example — 

 are of primary importance, not only because they appear nowhere in 

 the published literature, but also because they are choice specimens 

 of the Cherokee storyteller's art. 



Apparently most of the stories were obtained from Morgan Calhoun, 

 who died at the age of 64, a few months after his association with 

 Olbrechts. The affection of the 28-year-old Belgian anthropologist 

 for the old Cherokee shaman and traditionalist is amply evidenced in 

 "The Swimmer Manuscript" (Mooney and Olbrechts, 1932, pp. 

 112-113), wherein Calhoun is referred to as Og. — a code designation 

 for Ogan(a)sdo:da ('groundhog, ground up, it'), the informant's 

 Cherokee name. One gets some concept of the extent of backward 

 reach of many of these stories when one considers that Calhoun 

 learned them from a certain Tsi:sghwana:i^ ('birds, going, they') 

 who was born about 1836, and who in turn doubtlessly learned them 

 from individuals born about the time of the founding of the United 

 States. 



The editors gratefully acknowledge that certain aspects of the 

 investigation necessary to the preparation of this paper were made 

 possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation. 



COSMOGONIC MYTHS 

 1.— THE OBTAINING OF FIRE 



Fire was first set in a hollow in the ground on an island. Every 

 fowl, animal, and human being tried to get it. 



First the Eagle flew over the island to try to get it, but he failed, 

 and was burned to a dark color. The Raven next made a try, but 

 he was burned so badly that he, too, turned black. The same thing 

 happened to the Crow; the same thing happened to the Buzzard; 

 and the same thing happened to the Turkey. 



Then some of the animals thought that they might get the fire. 



> Olbrechts writes this proper name Tti:sghwa Na: i. There is a possibility that his White surname was 

 Nye, and that his first name was Bird. 



