398 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE 1kth.ann.19 



when the}^ set up their hark hut in a conveiueiit place near tiie river 

 .side. Every moriiinu- after breakfast they scattered out, each man 

 for himself, to l)e gone all day, until they returned at night with 

 whatever game they had taken. There was one lazy fellow who went 

 out alone every morning like the others, but only until he found a 

 sunn}' slope, when he would stretch out by the side of a rock to sleep 

 until evening, returning then to camp empty-handed, but with his 

 moccasins torn and a long story of how he had tramped all day and 

 found nothing. This went on until one of the others liegan to suspect 

 that something was wrong, and made it his business to find it out. The 

 next morning he followed him secreth' through the woods until he 

 saw him come out into a sunny opening, where he sat down upon a 

 large rock, took off his moccasins, and began rubbing them against the 

 rocks until he had worn holes in them. Then the lazy fellow loosened 

 his belt, lay down beside the rock, and went to sleep. The spy set 

 fire to the dry leaves and watched until the flame crept close up to 

 the sleeping man. who never opened his eyes. 



The spv' went back to camp and told what he had seen. About 

 supper time the lazy fellow came in with the same old story of a long 

 day's hunt and no game started. When he had finished the others all 

 laughed and called him a sleepyhead. He insisted that he had been 

 climbing the ridges all day, and put out his moccasins to show how 

 worn they were, not knowing that they were scorched from the fire, 

 as he had slept on until sundown. When they saw the blackened 

 moccasins they laughed again, and he was too much astonished to say 

 a word in his defense; so the <-aptain said that such a liar was not fit to 

 stay with them, and he was driven from the camp. 



« * * * * * * 



There was another lazy felloM' who courted a pretty girl, but she 

 would have nothing to do with him, telling him that her husband must 

 be a good hunter or she would remain single all her life. One morn- 

 ing he went into the woods, and by a lucky accident managed to kill 

 a deer. Lifting it upon his back, he carried it into the settlement, 

 passing right by the door of the house where the girl and her mother 

 lived. As soon as he was out of sight of the house he went by a round- 

 about course into the woods again and waited until evening, when he 

 appeared with the deer on his shoulder and came down the trail past 

 the girl's house as he had in the morning. He did this the next day, 

 and the next, until the girl began to think he must be killing all the 

 deer in the woods. So her mother — the old women are usually the 

 matchmakers — got ready and went to the young man's mother to 

 talk it over. 



When she arrived and the greetings were done she said, "Your son 

 must be a good hunter." " No." replied the old woman, " he seldom kills 

 anything." "But he has been killing a great many deer lately." *'I 

 haven't seen any," .said his mother. "Why. he has been carrying deer 



