MOONEY) NOTES AND PARALLELS 441 



8. The Moon and the TnrxDERS (p. 2o6): Tin- story of the sun and the moon, 

 as liere given, was ohtaineii fii'st from Swimmer ami afterward from otlier inform- 

 ants. It is noted \>y Hajrar, in liis manuscriiit Stellar Legends of the Cherokee, one 

 narrator making the girl hlai-ken her brother's faie with seven (charred?) corn cobs 

 (cf. John Ax's version of number 5 in notes). Exactly the same myth is found 

 with the native tribes of Greenland, Panama, Brazil, and Xoithern India. Among 

 the Khasias of the Himalaya mountains "' the changes of the moon are accounted for 

 by the theory that this orb, w'ho is a man, monthly falls in love with his wife's 

 mother, who throws ashes in his face. The sun is female." On some northern 

 branches of the Amazon "the moon is represented as a maiden who fell in love with 

 her brother and visited him at night, but who was finally betrayed by his i)a.ssing 

 his blackened hand over her face." With the Greenland Eskimo the Sun and Moon 

 are sister ami brother, and were playing in the dark, "when Malina, lieing tea-sed 

 in a shameful manner by her brother Anninga, smeared her hands with the soot of 

 the lamp and rubbed them c )ver the face and hands of her persecutor, that she might 

 recognize him liy daylight. Hence arise the spots in the moon (see Timothy Har- 

 ley, Moon Lore, London, 1885, and the story "The Sun and the Moon." in Henry 

 Rink's Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, London, 1873). In British Columbia 

 the same incident occurs in the story of a girl and her lover, who was a dog trans- 

 formed t<i the likene.-^s of a man (Teit, Thompson River Traditions, p. 62). A Very 

 similar myth occurs among the Cheyenne, in which the chief personages are human, 

 but the offspring of the connection become the Pleiades (A. L. Kroeber, Cheyenne 

 Tales, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, July, 1900). In nearly all mythologies the 

 Sun and ^loon are sister and brother, the Moon being generally masculine, while the 

 Sun is feminine (cf. German, Der Mond, Die Sonne). 



The myth connecting the mof)n with the ballplay is from Haywood (Natural and 

 Ab(jriginal History of Tenne.ssee, p. 28-5), apparenllyon the authority of Charles 

 Hicks, a mixed-blood chief. 



Eclipse — Of the myth of the ei-lijise monster, which may be frightened away by 

 all sorts of horrible noises, it is enough to say that it is universal (see Harley, Moon 

 Lore). The Cherokee name for the phenomenon is n(md&' uuUVs'i ii'i/ishV, "the 

 frog is swallowing, the sun or moon." Says Adair (History of the American Indians 

 p. 65) : "The first lunar eclipse I saw after I lived with the Indians was among the 

 Cherokee, An. 1736, and during the continuance of it their conduct appeared very 

 surprizing to one who had not .seen the like before. They all ran wild, this way 

 and that way, like lunatics, firing their guns, whooping and hallooing, Ijeatingof 

 kettles, ringing horse hells, and making the most horrid noises that human beings 

 po.ssibly could. This was the effect of their natural philosophy and done tn as.si.st 

 the suffering moon." 



Sun and moon nameti — In probably every tribe both sun and moon are called by 

 the same name, accompanied by a distinguishing adjective. 



The Thwidm-x—The Cherokee name for Thunder, Ani'-Hyun'tlkwilla'skt, is an 

 animate plural form and signifies literally, "The Thunderers" or "They who make 

 the Thunder." The great Thunderers are Kana'tl and his sons (see the story), but 

 inferior thunder spirits people all the cliffs and mountains, and more j)articularly 

 the great wati'rlalls, such as Tallulah, whose never-ceasing roar is believed to be the 

 voice of the Thunderers s|)eaking to such as can understand. .\ similar coiueption 

 prevailed among the Iroquois and the "eastern tribes generally, .\dair says (History 

 of the American Indians, p. »)o), sjieakitig of the southern tribes: "I have heard 

 them say, when it rained, thundered, and blew sharp for a consideralile time, that 

 the beloved or holy people were at war above tlie clouds: and they lielieve that the 

 war at such times is moderate or hot in proportion to the noise and violence of the 

 storm." In Portugue.se West .\frica also the Thunderers are twin brothers who 

 quarreled and went, one to the east, the other to the west, wliem-i' each aM.--wers the 



