234 MYTHS OF THK CHEROKEE [eth.an.n.IS 



Mexico, Washington, and soutliern Alaska — whereviT, in fact, the 

 pinon or the pine supplies enough gum to be molded into a bail for 

 Indian uses — while the incident of the Rabbit dining the Bear is found 

 with nearl}^ every tribe from Nova Scotia to the Pacitic. The idea that 

 such stories are necessarily of negro origin is due largely to the com- 

 mon but mistaken notion that the Indian has no sense of humor. 



In many cases it is not necessary to assuuie borrowing from either 

 side, the myths being such as would naturally spring up in any part of 

 the world among primitive people accustomed to observe the charac- 

 teristics of animals, which their religious sj'stem regarded as differing 

 in no essential from human kind, save only in outward form. Thus 

 in Europe and America the terrapin has been accepted as the type of 

 plodding slowness, while the rabbit, with his sudden dash, or the deer 

 with his bounding stride, is the type of speed. What more natural 

 than that the story-teller should set one to race against the other, with 

 the victory in favor of the patient striver against the self-contident 

 boaster? The idea of a hungry wolf or other beast of prey luring 

 his victims by the promise of a new song or dance, during which they 

 must close their eyes, is also one that would easilj- occur among any 

 primitive people whose chief pastime is dancing.' 



On the other hand, such a conception as that of Flint and the Rabbit 

 could only be the outgrowth of a special cosmogonic theology, though 

 now indeed broken and degraded, and it is probable that many myths 

 told now only for amusement are really worn down fragments of 

 ancient sacred traditions. Thus the story just noted appears in a dif- 

 ferent dress among the Iroquois as a part of their great creation myth. 

 The Cherokee being a detached tribe of the Iroquois, we may expect to 

 tind among the latter, if it be not alreadj- too late, the explanation and 

 more perfect statement of some things which are obscure in the Cher- 

 okee myths. It must not be forgotten, however, that the Indian, like 

 other men, does some things for simple amusement, and it is useless 

 to look for occult meanings where none exist. 



Except as to the local traditions and a few others which are obviously 

 the direct outgrowth of Cherokee conditions, it is impossible to tix a 

 definite starting point for the myths. It would be unwise to assert 

 that even the majority of them originated within the tribe. The 

 Cherokee have strains of Creek, Catawba, Uchee, Natchez, Iroquois, 

 Osage, and Shawano blood, and such admixture implies contact more 

 or less intimate and continued. Indians are g'reat wanderers, and a 



1 For a presentation of the African and European argument see Harris, Nights with Uncle Remus, 

 introduction, 18,s3: and Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, introduction, IXHB; Gerber, 

 Uncle Renins Traced to the Old World, in .Journal of .American Folklore, vi, p. 23, October, Isa3. In 

 regard to tribal dissemination of mytlis see Boas, Dissemination of Tales among the Natives of North 

 America, in .Tournal of American Folklore, iv, p. 12, January, 1891; The Growth of Indian Mythologies, 

 in the same journal, ix, p. 32, January 1896; Northern Elements in the Mythology of the Navaho, in 

 American Anthropologist, x, p. 11, November, 1897; introduction to Teit's Traditions of the Thompson 

 River Indians, 1898. Dr Boas has probably devoted more study to the subject than any other anthro- 

 pologist, and his personal observations include tribes from the Arctic regions to the Columbia. 



