No!^80r* ^^^' EASTERN CHEROKEE FOLKTALES — KILPATRICK 393 



Thunder said that he would do that. He said, "Go and saddle 

 that horse in the stable." 



But it was not a horse; it was another large snake that was brought 

 out into the yard and put near the other snake. 



Thunder said, "Take a necklace out of that box in the corner." 

 When the boy raised the lid of the box, he saw that the necklace was 

 a large rattlesnake. 



The boy was afraid. As he stood on the porch, leaning, with his 

 hand against a post, musing over whether or not to dare to pick up 

 the rattlesnake, the people about him knew that he was afraid. 



All of a sudden everything disappeared, and he stood in a very 

 wild place, leaning, with his hand against a tree. 



He managed to find his way home. 



If ho had not been afraid, he would be up galvila^di,^^ and a very 

 great magician.^" 



\Q.—VTSA:Yn^ 



Vtsa:yi lived down this river ^^ alongside the road. I ^ don't know 

 exactly where. 



There are two versions told of what he used to play: (1) marbles; 

 (2) in{a)da:sada {'jon and I just put them [longl on top of each 

 other ').^* Vtsa:yi wanted to play everybody who came past his 

 house. He always won; he was a magician. He had gotten rich by 

 his gains. 



On the other side ^^ lived a man that was Thunder. He often 

 associated with a woman other than his wife, just as a human being 

 does, and he had had a son by another woman without his wife 

 knowing about it. 



When he became grown, this boy had spots and sores all over his 

 body. His mother told him: "Go to where your father lives and tell 

 him you are his son, and he will cure you. Vtsaiyi will ask you to 

 play with him, but don't listen to him. Tell him, 'When I come back.* " 



" Above, i.e., In heaven. 



*> There Is an excellent telling of this myth In Mooney (1900, pp. 345-346), and Gilbert (1943, p. 302) states 

 that he collected a version of "Thunder's Brother-ln-Law." 



" Mooney (1900, p. 544) Is no doubt correct in stathig that this word is "based upon the resemblance of 

 the sound to that produced by striking a sheet of metal." It is usually translated as 'brass'; but it is also 

 the word for "copper" which, surely, was its aboriginal value. 



22 Probably the Oconaluftee. 



23 Morgan Calhoun. 



2« In Oklahoma, where the game is seemhigly extinct, it is usually referred to as inija.) da.-dhlada. Olbrechts' 

 note reads: "They put a heap of brushwood (small tree branches with leaves still on) about 1.50 diameter 

 and same height. Each player has a number of (usual) arrows. The one who plays first holds arrow 

 with point toward him [flg. 9], and tipphig it over [fig. 10] makes it land on top of brushwood; the other 

 party has to try to make his arrow land in such a way that it touches arrows of opponent [fig. 11]. If so, 

 he wins, and takes arrow from opponent. If he manages to slip his arrow between reed and feathers of 

 opponent's arrow [fig. 12], he wins two arrows. The game was revived last spring [1926J." 



« Of the river? 



