314 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE Ieth.ans.19 



thirsty," and wanted to stop long enough to get a drhik. "No,'' said 

 the l)oy, and struck the rock with his club so that water came out, and 

 they had a drink. They played on until ftiitsaiyi' had lost all his buck- 

 skins and beaded work, his eagle feathers and ornaments, and at last 

 offered to bet his wife. Thej^ played and the boy won her. Then 

 Untsaiyi' was desperate and offered to stake his life. "If I win I kill 

 you, but if you win you may kill me." They played and the boy won. 



"Let me go and tell my wife," said Oiitsaiyi', '"so that she will 

 receive her new husband, and then you may kill me." He went into 

 the house, but it had two doors, and although the boy waited long 

 t^iitsaiyi' did not come back. When at last he went to look for him 

 he found that the gariibler had gone out the back waj' and was nearly 

 out of sight going east. 



The l)oy ran to his father's house and got his brothers to help him. 

 They lirought their dog — the Horned Green Beetle — and hurried after 

 the gambler. He ran fast and was soon out of sight, and they fol- 

 lowed as fast as they could. After a while they met an old woman 

 making pottery and asked her if she had seen Uiitsaiyi' and she said 

 she had not. "He came this way," said the brothers. "Then he 

 must have passed in the night," said the old woman, "for I have been 

 here all day." They were about to take another road when the Beetle, 

 which had been circling about in the air above the old woman, made 

 a dart at her and struck her on the forehead, and it rang like brass — 

 untmhji ! Then they knew it was Brass and sprang at him, but he 

 jumped up in his right shape and was off, running so fast that he was 

 soon out of sight again. The Beetle had struck so hard that some of 

 the brass rubbed off, and we can see it on the beetle's forehead yet. 



They followed and came to an old man sitting by the trad, carving 

 a stone jjipe. Thej' asked him if he had seen Brass pass that wa_y and 

 he said no, but again the Beetle — which could know Brass under any 

 shape — struck him on the forehead so that it rang like metal, and the 

 gambler jumped up in his right form and was off again before they 

 could hold him. He ran east until he came to the great water; then 

 he ran north imtil he came to the edge of the world, and had to turn 

 again to the west. He took every shape to throw them off the track, 

 but the Green Beetle always knew him, and the brothers pressed him 

 so hard that at last he could go no more and the_v caught him just as 

 he reached the edge of the great water where the sun goes down. 



They tied his hands and feet with a gTapevine and drove a long 

 stake through his breast, and planted it far out in the deep water. 

 They set two crows on the end of the pole to guard it and called 

 the place Kilgun'yl, "Crow place." But Brass never died, and can not 

 die until the end of the world, but lies there always with his face up. 

 Sometimes he struggles under the water to get free, and sometimes 

 the beavers, who are his friends, come and gnaw at the grapevine to 



