MooNEv) ORIGIN Ol'" THK BKAR 825 



74. THE TSUNDIGE'Wl 



Once some yoiiiii;' iiien of the Cherokee set out to see what was in 

 the world and traveled south until th(n- canie to a trilx^ of little jx'ojyle 

 called 7xini(//'f/i-'>r/, with very ([ueei' shaped bodies, hardly tall enout;h 

 to r(>aeh up to a niaiTs knee, wiio had no houses, but lived in nests 

 scooped in the sand and covered over with dried yrass. The little 

 fellows were so weak and puny that they could not tight at all, and 

 were in constant terror from the wild geese and other birds thai used 

 to come in great flocks from the south to make war upon them. 



Just at the time that the travelers got there they found the little 

 men in great fear, because there was a strong wind blowing from the 

 south and it blew white feathers and down along the sand, so that the 

 Tsundige'wi knew their enemies were coming not far behind. The 

 Cherokee asked them why they did not defend themselves, but they 

 said they could not, because they did not know how. There was no 

 time to make bows and arrows, but the travelers told them to take 

 sticks for clubs, and showed them where to strike the birds on the 

 necks to kill them. 



The wind blew for several days, and at last tlie birds came, so many 

 that they were like a great cloud in the air, and alighted on the sands. 

 The little men ran to their nests, and the birds followed and stuck in 

 their long bills to pull them out and eat them. This time, though, the 

 Tsundige'wi had their clubs, and they struck the birds on the neck, as 

 the Cherokee had shown them, and killed so many that at last the 

 others were glad to spi'cad their wings and fly away again to the south. 



The little men thanked the Cherokee for their help and gave them 

 the best they had until the travelers went on to see the other tribes. 

 Thev' heard afterwards that the birds came again several times, but that 

 the Tsundige'wi always drove them ofi' with their clubs, until a tlock of 

 sandhill cranes came. Thej' were so tall that the little men could not 

 reach up to strike them on the neck, and so at last the cranes killed 

 them all. 



75. ORIGIN OF THE BEAR: THE BEAR SONGS 



Long ago there was a Cherokee clan called the Ani'-Tsa'guhi, and in 

 one family of this clan was a boy who used to leave home and be gone 

 all day in the mountains. After a while he went oftenei' and stayed 

 longer, until at last he would not eat in the house at all. but started 

 ofl' at daybreak and did not come back until night. His parents 

 scolded, but that did no good, and the boy still wenl every day until 

 they noticed that long brown haii' was beginning to gi-ow out all over 

 his body. Then thcv wondered and asked him whv it was that he 



