2;?'2 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.1U 



Shawano. Catawba, and Creeks, there is little evidence of the fact in 

 their traditions. This condition may be due in pai't to the temper of 

 the Cherokee mind, which, as has been already stated, is accustomed 

 to look forward to new tilings rather than to dwell upon the past. 

 The tirst Cherokee war, with its stories of Agansta'ta and Ata-giirkalu', 

 is absolutely forgotten. Of the long Revolutionary struggle they 

 have hardly a recollection, although thej' were constantly fighting 

 throughout the whole period and for several years after, and at one 

 time were brought to the verge of ruin by four concerted expeditions, 

 which ravaged their country simultaneously from different directions 

 and destroyed almost every one of their towns. Even the Creek war, 

 in which many of their warriors took a prominent part, was already 

 nearly forgotten some years ago. Beyond a few stories of encounters 

 with the Shawano and Iroquois there is hardty anything that can be 

 called history until well within the present century. 



With some tribes the winter season and the night are the time for 

 telling stories, but to the Cherokee all times are alike. As our grand- 

 mothers begin, "Once upon a time," so the Cherokee story-teller 

 introduces his narrative by saying: "This is what the old men told 

 me when I was a boy." 



Not all tell the same stories, for in tribal lore, as in all other sorts 

 of knowledge, we tind specialists. Some common minds take note 

 only of common things — little stories of the rabbit, the terrapin, and 

 the others, told to point a joke or amuse a child. Others dwell upon 

 the wonderful and supernatural — Tsulkrilu', Tsuwe'nahi, and the 

 Thunderers — and tho.se sacred things to be told only with prayer 

 and purification. Then, again, there are still a few old warriors who 

 live in the memory of heroic days when thei'e were wars with the 

 Seneca and the Shawano, and these men are the historians of the 

 tribe and the conservators of its antiquities. 



The question of the origin of myths is one which affords abundant 

 opportunity for ingenious theories in the absence of any possibility 

 of proof. Those of the Cherokee are too far broken down ever to be 

 woven together again into any long-connected origin legend, such as 

 we tind with some tribes, although a few still exhibit a certain sequence 

 which indicates that they once formed component parts of a cycle. 

 From the prominence of the ralibit in the animal stories, as well as in 

 those found among the southern negroes, an effort has been made to 

 establish for them a negro origin, regardless of the fact that the rab- 

 bit — the Great White Rabbit — is the hero-god, trickster, and wonder- 

 worker of all the tribes east of the Mississippi from Hudson bay to 

 the Gulf. In European folklore also the rabbit is regarded as some- 

 thing uncanny and half-supernatural, and even in far-off Korea he is 

 the central figure in the animal myths. Just why this should be so 

 is a (juestion that may be left to the theorist to decide. Among the 



