242 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [f.th.ann.19 



.still burning. She put one little coal of lire into her howl, and came 

 hack with it, and ever .since wehavehad tire, and the Water Spider .still 

 keeps her tusti bowl. 



3. KA^fA'Tl AND SELU: THE ORIGIN OF GAME AND CORN 



When I M'as a boj' thi.s is what the old men told me the}' had heard 

 when they were l)oys. 



Long years ago, soon after the world was made, a hunter and his 

 wife lived at Pilot knob with their only child, a little boy. The 

 father's name was Kana'ti (The Lucky Hunter), and his wife was 

 called Selu (Corn). No matter when Kana'ti went into the wood, he 

 never failed to bring back a load of game, which his wife would cut 

 up and prepare, washing oti' the blood from the meat in the river near 

 the house. The little boy used to play down by the river every day, 

 and one morning the old people thought they heard laughing and talk- 

 ino- in the liushes as thout!h there were two children there. When the 

 boy came home at night his parents asked him who had been playing 

 with him all day. '"He comes out of the water," said the boy, "'and 

 he calls himself my elder l)rother. He .says his mother was cruel to 

 him and threw him into the river." Then they knew that the strange 

 boy had sprung from the blood of the game which Selu had washed 

 oS at the river's edge. 



Every day when the little boy went out to plaj^ the other would join 

 him, but as he always went back again into the water the old pt^ople 

 never had a chance to see him. At last one evening Kana'ti said to his 

 son, "Tomori'ow, when the other hoy comes to play, get him to wrestle 

 with you, and when you have your arms around him hold on to him 

 and call for us." The boy promised to do as he was told, so the next 

 day as soon as his plajanate appeared he challenged him to a wrestling 

 match. The other agreed at once, Init as soon as they had their arms 

 around each other. Kana'ti's boy began to scream for his father. The 

 old folks at once came lunning down, and as soon as the Wild Boy saw 

 them he struggled to free himself and cried out, "Let me go; you 

 threw me away!" but his brother held on until the parents reached the 

 spot, when they seized the Wild Boy and took him home with them. 

 They kept him in the house until they had tamed him, but he was 

 always wild and artful in his disposition, and was the leader of his 

 brother in every mischief. It was not long until the old people dis- 

 covered that he had magic powers, and thev called him Tnage-utasuii'hi 

 (He-who-grew-up-wild). 



Whenever Kana'ti went into the mountains he always brought back 

 a fat buck or doe, or maybe a couple of turkeys. One day the ^Vild 

 Boy .said to his brother, "1 wonder where our father gets all that 

 game; let's follow him next time and find out." A few days afterward 

 Kana'ti took a 1)ow and some feathers in his hand and started ofl 



