310 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19 



to ii WiiU'h or clock. A small yt'llowish moth which flics about the 

 fire at night is called tCin'fdiril^ a mime implyino- that it goes into and 

 out of the tire, and when at last it flits too near and falls into the blaze 

 the Cherokee say, "Tufi'tiXwu is going to bed." On account of its 

 atlinity for the fire it is in\oked by the doctor in all "fire diseases," 

 including sore eyes and frostbite. 



60. WHY THE BULLFROG'S HEAD IS STRIPED 



According to one version the Bullfrog was always ridiculing the 

 great gambler Uiitsai'yi, " Brass," (see the story) until the latter at last 

 got angr}' and dared the Bullfrog to play the <jatuyf('--^tl (wheel-and- 

 stick) game with him, whichever lost to be scratched on his forehead. 

 Brass won, as he always did, and the yellow stripes on the Bullfrog's 

 head show where the gambler's fingers scratched him. 



Another story is that the Bullfrog had a conjurer to paint his head 

 with yellow stripes (brass) to make him appear more handsome to a 

 pretty woman he was courting. 



61. THE BULLFROG LOVER 



A young man courted a girl, who liked him well enough, but her 

 mother was so uuich opposed to him that she would not let him come 

 near the house. At last he made a trumpet from the handle of a 

 gourd and hid himself after night near the spring until the old woman 

 came do^vn for water. While she was dipping up the water he 

 put the trumpet to his lips and grumbled out in a deep voice like a 

 bullfrog's: 



Yanclaska' gS, hdnyahu' alcii, 



YandasLxi'gd huni/ahu'ukd. 



The faultfinder will die, 



The faultfinder will die. 



. The woman thought it a witch bullfrog, and was so frightened that 

 she dropped her dipper and ran back to the house to tell the people 

 They all agreed that it was a warning to her to stop interfering with 

 her daughter's afl'airs, .so .she gave her consent, and thus the young 

 man won his wife. 



There is another storj' of a giri who, every day when she went down 

 to the spring for water, heard a voice singing, KCmu'nu tu'tsahyexi' , 

 Kunu'rm tu'tsahyesi', "A bullfrog will marry you. A bullfrog will 

 marry you." She wondered nnich until one day when she came down 

 she saw .sitting on a .stone l)y the spring a bullfrog, which suddenly 

 took the form of a young man and asked her to marry him. She 

 consented and took him back with her to the house. But although he 

 had the shape of a man there was a queer bullfrog look about his face, 

 so that the girl's family hated him and at last persuaded her to send 

 him away. She told him and he went awav, but when thev ne.vt went 



