398 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



Whoever picked up some of the fragments was to mention that at 

 which he wished to be successful.^^ 



12.— THE ORIGIN OF THE PLEIADES 



There were seven boys who played inside the ga:dhi ^^ all day long. 

 They had a drum, and they danced the Eagle Dance. 



One day while they were dancing, they noticed that they were 

 rising up into the air. 



Near the Seven Stars is an eighth one, a very small one. This, 

 they say, is the drum that the seven boys used.^* 



ANIMAL MYTHS 



1.— THE POSSUM AND THE TERRAPIN ARE TRIED FOR KILLING 



THE WOLF 



The possum is a poor animal. It is not very quick, and you can 

 kill it easily. If you hit it with a stick, it wiU die. And it is tricky, 

 too ; if you throw it down on the ground, it will keep still as dead, but 

 when you are not watching, it will jump up and run away. 



The possum was a great magician, and always carried a flint in his 

 pocket. (He has a pocket on his breast in which he carries his 

 young.) 



Terrapins are food for a wolf, and wolves are always trying to 

 catch them. 



Once the Wolf caught the Terrapin and was getting ready to kill 

 him and to eat him. The Terrapin said, "Are you hungry?" 



"Yes," the Wolf answered. 



"Well," said the Terrapin, "if you will spare me, I wiU be glad. 

 You see, I have a friend, and he has some persimmons for me to eat. 

 I was just going over there where he is. If you wish, you can come, 

 too, and you can have some persimmons. My friend can climb the 

 tree and throw the persimmons down, and we can eat them as he 

 throws them down." 



The Terrapin's friend was the Possum ; the Terrapin and the Possum 

 were great friends. They had had a talk, and had agreed to help 

 each other if one of them were caught by an enemy. 



32 The story of the petrous giant who was destroyed by the magical influence deriving from menstrual 

 women is one of the most widely reported of Cherokee myths. The account in Mooney (1900, pp. 319-320) 

 is seemingly the most reliable version of the myth; other narrations are in: Ten Kate (1889, pp. 54-55); 

 TerreU (1892, pp. 125-126); Howard (1959, pp. 134-138); and Kilpatrick and Kilpatrick (1964, pp. 59-61). 

 Gilbert (1943, p. 302) also collected the myth. Olbrechts adds little, if anything, to the foregoing accounts. 



•'■' One of the several commonly used forms of the designation for a townhouse, or dance house. 



•■•i This is but a synoptic version of the myth told in Mooney (1900, pp. 258-259). It resembles a Koasati 

 myth in S wanton (1929, p. 166). 



