434 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [ktii. an.v 19 



Wolves — The wolf is regarded as the servant, and watchdog of Kana'tT. See 

 number 15, "The Fourfooted Tribes." 



Prom them hove come all — In nearly every Indian mythology we find the idea of 

 certain animal tribes l)eing descended from a single snr\'ivor of some great slaughter 

 by an early hero god or trickster. Thus the Kiowa say that all the prairie dogs on 

 the ])lains are descended from a single little fellow who was too wary to close his eyes, 

 as his Cdinpanions did, when the hungry vagi'ant Sinti was planning to capture them 

 all for his dinner under pretense of teaching them a new ilance. 



,1 gaminfi vlteel — This was the stone wheel or circular disk used in the wheel-and- 

 stick gamt called by the Cherokee gatayCisti, and whi('h in one form or another 

 was practically universal among the tribes. It was the game played by the great 

 mythic gambler tjiitsaiyl'' (see number 63). It has sometimes been known in the 

 north as the "snow-snake," while to the early southern traders it was known as 

 cliiuil-i or rhioif/kei/, a corruption of the Creek name. Timberlake (page 77) men- 

 tions it mider the tiame of neitecawme — for which there seems to be no other 

 authority — as he saw it among the Cherokee in 1762.' It was also noted among the 

 Carolina tribes by Lederer in 1670 and Lawson in 1701. John Ax, the oldest man 

 now living among the East Cherokee, is the only one remaining in the tribe who liaa 

 ever played the game, having been instructed in it when a small boy by an old man 

 who desired to keep up the memory of the ancient things. The sticks used have 

 long since disappeared, but the stones remain, being frequently picked up in the 

 plowed fields, especially in the neighborhood of mounds. The best description of 

 the southern game is given by .\dair: 



"They have near their state house a square piece of ground well cleaned, and fine 

 sand is carefully strewed over it, when requisite, to promote a swifter motion tij what 

 they throw along the surface. Only one, or two on a side, play at this ancient game. 

 Tliey have a stone about two fingers broad at the edge and two spans round. Each 

 party has a pole of about eight feet long, smooth, and tajiering at each end, the points 

 flat. They set off abreast of each other at 6 yards from the end of the playground; 

 then one of them hurls the stone on its edge, in as direct a line as he can, a considera- 

 ble distance toward the middle of the other end of the square. When they have ran 

 [sic] a few yards each darts his pole, anointed with bear's oil, with a proper force, as 

 near as he can guess in proportion to the motion of the stone, that the end may lie 

 close to the stone. When this is the case, the person counts two of the game, and in 

 proportion to the nearness of the poles to the mark, one is counted, unless by meas- 

 uring both are found to l)e at an e(.jual ilistance from the stone. In this manner the 

 players will keep running most part of the day at half speed, under the violent heat 

 of the sun, staking their silver ornaments, their nose, finger and ear rings; their 

 breast, arm and wrist plates, and even all their wearing apparel except that which 

 barely covers their middle. All the American Indians are much addicted to this 

 game, which to us appears to be a task of stupid drudgery. It seems, however, to be 

 of early origin, when their forefathers used diversions as simple as their manners. 

 The Iiurling stones they use at present were time immemorial rubbed smooth on the 

 rocks, and with prodigious labour. They are kept with the strictest religious care 

 from one generation to another, and are exempted from being buried with the dead. 

 They l)elong to the town where they are used, and are carefully preserved." - 



In one version of the Kana'tl myth the wheel is an arrow, which the wild boy 

 shoots toward the four cardinal points and finally straight upward, when it comes 

 back no more. When they get above the sky they find Kana'tt and Selu sitting 

 together, with the arrow sticking in the ground in front of them. In the Creek 

 story, "The Lion [Panther?] and the Little Girl," of the Tuggle collection, the lion 

 has a wheel "which could find anything that was lost." 



' Memoirs, p. 77. 



2 History of the American Indians, p. 401. 



