MooNEY] MISCELLANKOrS MYTHS 397 



old religion. Upon oxcry iinportunt cxpt'clition two priests eiin'iod 

 it in turn and watched over it in ciimp so that nothintr could come 

 near to disturb it. The Dela\var(>s captured it nion' than a hundred 

 years ago, and after that the old religion was neglected and trouble 

 came to the Nation. They had also a great peace pipe, carved from 

 white stone, with seven stem-holes, so that seven men could sit around 

 and smoke from it at once at their peace councils. In the old town of 

 Keowee they had a drum of .stone, cut in tlie shape of a turtle, 

 which was hung up insid(> the townhouse and used at all the town 

 dances. The other towns of the Lower Cherokee used to borrow it, 

 too, for their own dances. 



All the old things are gone now and the Indians are different. 



Miscellaneous Myths and Legends 

 112. the ignorant housekeeper 



An old man whose wife had died lived alone with his son. One day 

 he said to the young man, "We need a cook here, so you would better 

 get married." So the young man got a wife and l)rouglit her home. 

 Then his father .said, "Now we must work together and do all we can 

 to help her. You go hunting and bring in the meat and I'll look after 

 the corn and beans, and then she can cook." The yovuig man went 

 into the woods to look for a deer and his father went out into the field 

 to attcTid to the corn. When they came home at night they were hun- 

 gry, and the young woman set out a bowl of walnut hominy (hitia'fii- 

 lu'hi) before them. It looked ([ueer, somehow, and when the old man 

 examined it he found that the walnuts had been put in whole. ""Why 

 didn't you shell the walnuts and then beat up the kernels," said he to 

 the young woman. "I didn't know they had to be shelled," she 

 replied. Then the old man said, "You think about marrying and you 

 don't know how to cook," and he sent her away. 



H3. THE MAN IN THE STUMP 



A man who had a field of growing corn went out one day to stn> how 

 it was ripening and climbed a tall stump to get a better view. The 

 stump was hollow and a bear had a nest of cubs in the Ixittoni. Tiie 

 man slipped and fell down upon the cubs, which set up such a sipieal- 

 ing that the old she-bear heard them and came climbing down into the 

 stump tail first, in bear fashion, to S(>e what was the mattei-. The man 

 caught hold of her by the hind legs and the old bear was so frightened 

 that she at once climbed out again, dragging the man, who thus got 

 out of the stump, when the bear ran away. 



114. TWO LAZY HUNTERS 



A party of warriors once started out for a long hunting trip in the 

 mountains. Thev went on until thev came to a good game region. 



