Nol'sor' ^*^' EASTERN CHEROKEE FOLKTALES — ^KILPATRICK 443 



5.— THE WHITES, THE INDIANS, AND THE NEGROES 



When people first began to live, there were Whites and Indians. 



Somebody " came to the people bringing a printed book. He first 

 offered it to the Indians, but they didn't hke it. Then He turned to 

 the Whites and offered them the book. They took it. 



He also offered a bundle of barks and roots, which was medicine, 

 to the White people, but they did not want it. He then turned around 

 to where the Indians were, offered it to them, and they took it. 



There were people who did not want either the book or the bundle, 

 and laughed so much at both that their faces turned all black and their 

 eyes white with laughing. Those were the black people. ^^ 



6.— THE REVENGE OF THE OLD MEN 



In olden times there was once a gadu:gi ^^ working, hoeing corn 

 for a man (people always helped each other). For dinner there was 

 soup made of dried young yellow jackets. The old men m the 

 gadu:gi were very fond of this soup. 



The young men ran in front of the old men and joked with them. 

 "We are going to have stinging bugs [di:n(a)datsv:sgi] to eat!" they 

 said. 



The old men became jealous of the young men and decided that 

 they would punish them. When the young men sat down to dinner 

 and dipped out the yeUow jackets, the insects came to life and stung 

 the young men all over. Howling, the young men rushed outside. 



When the old men came in, they did not say anything, but just 

 laughed and sat down. All of the yellow jackets came back into the 

 soup, and the old men ate them. 



Then the old men asked the young men why they did not eat any 

 of the "stinging bugs," and one by one the young men shamefacedly 

 came back and sat down. The yellow jackets did not come to fife 

 again. 



7.— SEVEN IRISHMEN GO GOLD-DIGGING 



Seven Irishmen came to this country because they had heard that 

 there was gold in the rivers. 



One night as they walked along a river, they saw what they thought 

 was gold lying in it. It was the moon that shone upon the surface 

 of the water, but they did not know that. They got sticks and tried 



" Olbrechts' note: "Vne-.hlarw.hi." This is the term for the "Provider," the Supreme Being. 



" Oral variants of this story are frequently encountered among the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma. 

 There are two Creek versions of It in Swanton (1929, pp. 74-75). 



w The North Carolina permanent organization called the gadu:gi has no counterpart in the main body of 

 Cherokees in Oklahoma, among whom a gadu:gi is a temporarily constituted group created to perform a 

 specific task of a charitable or a public welfare nature. 



