No.^SOr* ^^^' EASTERN CHEROKEE FOLKTALES — ^KILPATRICK 387 



In trying, the Bear was burned until he was black. The Skunk 

 was partially burned, and became spotted. The Ino'.li ^ also be- 

 came black. 



The last creature that attempted to get the fire was the Spider. 

 It was doubted that he could get it because he was so small and 

 light, and because he had no way of getting across the water to the 

 island. 



But the Spider got a dusdi:a, the small clay bowl that we stiQ 

 call the "Indian pot," and tied it behind him with spiderweb; then 

 he walked upon the surface of the water, just as he does today. And 

 when he arrived where the fire was, he prepared a bunch of spinrags.' 

 He threw these into the fire, and then pulled the fire toward him in 

 the bowl. 



He brought the fire back. That is how fire was obtained.* 



2.— THE FIRE WOMAN* 



In olden times men had to go hunting. Near the trail down which 

 they passed was a woman — a very, very old woman with white hair — 

 who sat in the bottom of a hollow tree. Every time a hunter came 

 back from the hunt she would ask him, "Would you allow me to 

 lick your meat?" Every hunter allowed her to do this. He would 

 just cut off a piece of meat and hold it over her head. AU the hunters 

 wondered who this woman was. 



One day the last hunter to return from a hunt passed by. 



"Hold it above my head," the old woman said. 



As she licked the piece of meat that he had cut for her, it became 

 as if cooked by fire, and the fat of it trickled down upon her head. 

 The man wondered if this old woman were Fire. 



When he returned home, he told all the people what had happened, 

 and they decided that the old woman was Fire. 



"How can we get fire from that hoUow tree?" they asked themselves. 



They sent birds to get it, but it was too hot for them to do it. 



The Turkey tried to get it; his head and neck were burned. 



The Mole said, "I can crawl underneath the ground and get it"; 

 but when he attempted to do so, he was burned black all over. 



A man said, "I can get it. I can urinate on it and extinguish it. 

 I can biu-st the tree." He was Thunder. 



2 Black fox. 



2 Spun rags? 



< There is little variation here from statements of the myth in Mooney (1900, pp. 240-242), the Wahnenauhl 

 Manuscript (Kilpatrick, ed., 1965), and the Barber Collection— the latter being in Sequoyah syllabary. 



Olbrechts made a note of an alternate ending known to one of his informants: "Different story. Spider 

 did not get it, but Thunders sent bolts of lightning and burst the fire and brought it back In hard pumpkin 

 shells." 



