The Osage—The popular name is a corruption of Ouasage, the French spelling of Wasash, the name used by themselves. The Osage were the principal southern Siouan tribe, claiming at one time nearly the whole territory from the Missouri to the Arkansas and from the Mississippi far out into the plains. Their geographic position brought them equally into contact with the agricultural and sedentary tribes of the eastern country and the roving hunters of the prairie, and in tribal habit and custom they formed a connecting link between the two. Whether or not they deserved the reputation, they were considered by all their neighbors as particularly predatory and faithless in character, and had consequently few friends, but were generally at war with all tribes alike. They made their first treaty with the Government in 1808. In 1825 they ceded all their claims in Missouri and Arkansas, together with considerable territory in what is now Kansas. They have decreased terribly from war and dissipation, and are now, to the number of about 1,780, gathered upon a reservation in Oklahoma just west of the Cherokee and south of the Kansas line.106.The Giants from the west(p.391): This may be an exaggerated account of a visit from some warriors of a taller tribe from the plains, where it is customary to pluck out the eyebrows and to wear the hair in two long side pendants, wrapped round with otter skin and reaching to the knees, thus giving a peculiar expression to the eyes and an appearance of tallness which is sometimes deceptive. The Osage warriors have, however, long been noted for their height.With the exception of Tsulʻkalû′ there seem to be no giants in the mythology ofthe Cherokee, although all their woods and waters are peopled by invisible fairy tribes. This appears to be characteristic of Indian mythologies generally, the giants being comparatively few in number while the “little people” are legion. The Iroquois have a story of an invasion by a race of stony-skinned cannibal giants from the west (Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, p. 266). Giant races occur also in the mythologies of the Navaho (Matthews, Navaho Legends), Choctaw (Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend), and other tribes. According to the old Spanish chroniclers, Ayllon in 1520 met on the coast of South Carolina a tribe of Indians whose chiefs were of gigantic size, owing, as he was told, to a special course of dieting and massage to which they were subjected in infancy.107.The lost Cherokee(p.391): This tradition as here given is taken chiefly from the Wahnenauhi manuscript. There is a persistent belief among the Cherokee that a portion of their people once wandered far to the west or southwest, where they were sometimes heard of afterward, but were never again reunited with their tribe. It was the hope of verifying this tradition and restoring his lost kinsmen to their tribe that led Sequoya to undertake the journey on which he lost his life. These traditional lost Cherokee are entirely distinct from the historic emigrants who removed from the East shortly after the Revolution.Similar stories are common to nearly all the tribes. Thus the Kiowa tell of a chief who, many years ago, quarreled over a division of game and led his people far away across the Rocky mountains, where they are still living somewhere about the British border and still keeping their old Kiowa language. The Tonkawa tell of a band of their people who in some way were cut off from the tribe by a sudden inroad of the sea on the Texas coast, and, being unable to return, gradually worked their way far down into Mexico. The Tuscarora tell how, in their early wanderings, they came to the Mississippi and were crossing over to the west side by means of a grapevine, when the vine broke, leaving those on the farther side to wander off until in time they became enemies to those on the eastern bank. See Mooney, Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians, Seventeenth Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology, part 1, and The Last of Our Cannibals, in Harper’s Magazine, August, 1901; Cusick, quoted in Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 478.108.The massacre of the Ani′-Kuta′ni(p.392): Swimmer, Ta′gwădihĭ′, Ayâsta, and Wafford all knew this name, which Ayâsta pronouncedAni′-Kwăta′nĭ, but none of them could tell anything more definite than has been stated in the opening sentence. The hereditary transmission of priestly dignities in a certain clan or band is rather the rule than the exception Among the tribes, both east and west.109.The war medicine(p.393): The first two paragraphs are from Wafford, the rest from Swimmer. The stories are characteristic of Indian belief and might be paralleled in any tribe. The great Kiowa chief, Set-ängya, already mentioned, was—and still is—believed by his tribe to have possessed a magic knife, which he carried in his stomach and could produce from his mouth at will. The Kiowa assert that it was this knife, which of course the soldiers failed to find when disarming him, with which he attacked the guard in the encounter that resulted in his death.110.Incidents of personal heroism(p.394): The incident of the fight at Waya gap is on the authority of the late Maj. James Bryson, of Dillsboro, North Carolina, born in 1818, who had it from his great-uncle, Daniel Bryson, a member of Williamson’s expedition.Speaking of the Cherokee “War Women,” who were admitted to the tribal councils, Timberlake says (Memoirs, p. 70): “The reader will not be a little surprised to find the story of Amazons not so great a fable as we imagined, many of the Indian women being as famous in war as powerful in the Council.”111.The mounds and the constant fire: The old sacred things(p.395): What is here said concerning the mounds, based chiefly upon Swimmer’s recital, is given solelyas a matter of popular belief, shaped by tribal custom and ritual. The question of fact is for the archeologist to decide. The Indian statement is of value, however, in showing the supposed requirements for the solemn consecration of an important work.A note by John Howard Payne upon the sacred square of the Creeks, as observed by him in 1835, just before his visit to the Cherokee, may throw further light on the problem: “In the center of this outer square was a very high circular mound. This, it seems, was formed from the earth accumulated yearly by removing the surface of the sacred square thither. At every Green-corn festival the sacred square is strewn with soil yet untrodden; the soil of the year preceding being taken away, but preserved as above explained. No stranger’s foot is allowed to press the new earth of the sacred square until its consecration is complete” (Letter of 1835 in Continental Monthly, New York, 1862, p. 19). See note on the sacred fire.Conjured with disease—The practice of conjuring certain favorite spots in order to render them fatal to an invading enemy was common to many if not to all tribes. One of the most terrible battles of the Creek war was fought upon the “Holy ground,” so called because it was believed by the Indians that in consequence of the mystic rites which had been performed there for that purpose by their prophets, no white troops could set foot upon it and live.The sacred fire—The method described for producing fire and keeping it constantly smoldering in the townhouse appears to have been that actually in use in ancient times, as indicated by the name given to the plant (atsil′-sûñtĭ), and corroborated by the unanimous testimony of the old people. All the older East Cherokee believe that the ancient fire still burns within the mounds at Franklin and Bryson City, and those men who were stationed for a time near the latter place while in the Confederate service, during the Civil war, assert that they frequently saw the smoke rising from the adjacent mound.The missionary Buttrick, from old Cherokee authority, says: “They were obliged to make new fire for sacred purposes by rubbing two pieces of dry wood together, with a certain weed, called golden rod, dry, between them.... When their enemies destroyed the house in which this holy fire was kept, it was said the fire settled down into the earth, where it still lives, though unknown to the people. The place where they lost this holy fire is somewhere in one of the Carolinas” (Antiquities, p. 9).The general accuracy of Swimmer’s account is strikingly confirmed by the description of the New-fire ceremony given more than half a century before by John Howard Payne, the poet, who had gone among the Cherokee to study their ethnology and was engaged in that work when arrested, together with John Ross, by the Georgia guard in 1835. He makes the kindling of the new fire a part of the annual spring festival. At that time, says Payne, “the altar in the center of the national heptagon [i.e. townhouse] was repaired. It was constructed of a conical shape, of fresh earth. A circle was drawn around the top to receive the fire of sacrifice. Upon this was laid, ready for use, the inner bark of seven different kinds of trees. This bark was carefully chosen from the east side of the trees, and was clear and free from blemish.” After some days of preliminary purification, sacrifice, and other ceremonial performances, the day appointed for the kindling of the new fire arrived.“Early in the morning the seven persons who were commissioned to kindle the fire commenced their operations. One was the official fire-maker; the remaining six his assistants. A hearth was carefully cleared and prepared. A round hole being made in a block of wood, a small quantity of dry golden-rod weed was placed in it. A stick, the end of which just fitted the opening, was whirled rapidly until the weed took fire. The flame was then kindled on the hearth and thence taken to every house by the women, who collectively waited for that purpose. The old fires having been everywhere extinguished, and the hearths cleansed, new fires were lightedthroughout the country, and a sacrifice was made in each one of them of the first meat killed afterwards by those to whom they respectively belonged.”—Payne MS, quoted in Squier, Serpent Symbol, pp. 116–118.Similar ceremonies were common to many tribes, particularly the southern tribes and the Pueblos, in connection with the annual kindling of the sacred new fire. See Adair, History of the American Indians; Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country, quoted by Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend; Bartram, Travels; Fewkes, The New-fire Ceremony at Walpi, in American Anthropologist for January, 1900; Squier, Serpent Symbol. Going beyond our own boundaries it may be said briefly that fire worship was probably as ancient as ritual itself and well-nigh as universal.Wooden box—The sacred ark of the Cherokee is described by Adair (History of the American Indians, pp. 161–162), and its capture by the Delawares is mentioned by Washburn (Reminiscences, pp. 191, 221), who states that to its loss the old priests of the tribe ascribed the later degeneracy of their people. They refused to tell him the contents of the ark. On this subject Adair says:“A gentleman who was at the Ohio in the year 1756 assured me he saw a stranger there very importunate to view the inside of the Cheerake ark, which was covered with a drest deerskin and placed on a couple of short blocks. An Indian centinel watched it, armed with a hiccory bow and brass-pointed barbed arrows; and he was faithful to his trust, for finding the stranger obtruding to pollute the supposed sacred vehicle, he drew an arrow to the head, and would have shot him through the body had he not suddenly withdrawn. The interpreter, when asked by the gentleman what it contained, told him there was nothing in it but a bundle of conjuring traps. This shews what conjurers our common interpreters are, and how much the learned world have really profited by their informations.”Such tribal palladiums or “medicines,” upon which the existence and prosperity of the tribe are supposed to depend, are still preserved among the plains Indians, the sacred receptacle in each case being confided to the keeping of a priest appointed for the purpose, who alone is privileged to undo the wrappings or expose the contents. Among these tribal “medicines” may be mentioned the sacred arrows of the Cheyenne, the “flat pipe” of the Arapaho, the great shell of the Omaha, and the taime image of the Kiowa (see reference in the author’s Ghost-dance Religion and Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians).White peace pipe—This statement concerning the ancient seven-stem peace pipe carved from white stone is given on the authority of Swimmer, who said that the stone was procured from a quarry near the present town of Knoxville, Tennessee. A certain district of western North Carolina has recently acquired an unenviable reputation for the manufacture of spurious “Indian pipes,” ostensibly taken from the mounds, carved from soapstone and having from three to half a dozen stem-holes encircling the bowl.Turtle drum—This statement is on the authority of Wafford, who had talked with men who claimed to have known those who had seen the drum. He was not positive as to the town, but thought it was Keowee. It is believed that the drum was hidden by the Indians, in anticipation of their speedy return, when the country was invaded by Williamson in 1776, but as the country was never recovered by the Cherokee the drum was lost.112–115.Short humorous stories(pp.397,399): These short stories are fairly representative of Cherokee humor. Each was heard repeatedly from several informants, both east and west.116.The star feathers(p.399): This story was obtained from John Ax, with additional details from Chief Smith and others, to whom it was equally familiar. It is told as an actual happening in the early days, before the Indian had much acquaintance with the whites, and is thoroughly characteristic of the methods of medicine-men.The deception was based upon the Cherokee belief that the stars are living creatures with feathers (seenumber 9, “What the Stars are Like”).The Indian has always been noted for his love of feather decorations, and more than any from his native birds he prized the beautiful feathers of the peacock whenever it was possible to procure them from the whites. So far back as 1670 Lederer noted of a South Carolina tribe: “The Ushery delight much in feather ornament, of which they have great variety; but peacocks in most esteem, because rare in these parts” (Travels, p. 32, ed. 1891).117.The mother bear’s song(p.400): The first of these songs was obtained from Ayâsta, and was unknown to Swimmer. The second song was obtained also from Ayâsta, who knew only the verses, while Swimmer knew both the verses and the story which gives them their setting.The first has an exact parallel among the Creeks, which is thus given in the “Baby Songs” of the Tuggle manuscript:Ah tanDown the streamAh yah chokeseif you hearMah kah cho kofechase goingHoche yoke sawup the streamLit kahts chars,run,Lit kahts chars.run.A thle pooUp the streamAhyohchokeseif you hearMah kah cho kofethe chase goingThorne yoke sawto the high mountainLit karts chars,run,Lit karts chars.run.TranslationIf you hear the noise of the chaseGoing down the streamThen run up the stream.If you hear the noise of the chaseGoing up the streamThen run to the high mountain,Then run to the high mountain.118.Baby song, to please the children(p.401): This song is well known to the women and was sung by both Ayâsta and Swimmer.119.When babies are born: The wren and the cricket(p.401): These little bits of Indian folklore were obtained from Swimmer, but are common tribal property.120.The Raven Mocker(p.401): The grewsome belief in the “Raven Mocker” is universal among the Cherokee and has close parallels in other tribes. Very near to it is the Iroquois belief in the vampire or cannibal ghost, concerning which Schoolcraft relates some blood-curdling stories. He says: “It is believed that such doomed spirits creep into the lodges of men at night, and during sleep suck their blood and eat their flesh. They are invisible” (Notes on the Iroquois, p. 144). On one occasion, while the author was among the Cherokee, a sick man was allowed to die alone because his friends imagined they felt the presence of the Raven Mocker or other invisible witches about the house, and were consequently afraid to stay with him. The description of the flying terror appears to be that of a great meteor. It is a universal principle of folk belief that discovery or recognition while disguised in another form brings disaster to the witch.The “diving” of the raven while flying high in air is performed by folding one wing close to the body, when the bird falls to a lower plane, apparently turning a somersault in the descent. It seems to be done purely for amusement.121.Herbert’s spring(p.403): The subject of this old trader’s legend must have been one of the head-springs of Chattooga river, an upper branch of Savannah, having its rise in the southern part of Jackson county, North Carolina, on the eastern slope of the ridge from which other streams flow in the opposite direction to join the waters of the Tennessee. It was probably in the vicinity of the present highlands in Macon county, where the trail from Chattooga river and the settlements on Keowee crossed the Blue ridge, thence descending Cullasagee to the towns on Little Tennessee.126.Plant lore(p.420): For ceremonies, prayers, and precautions used by the doctors in connection with the gathering and preparation of medicinal roots, barks, and herbs, see the author’s Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, in the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1891.Violet—The Onondaga name signifies “two heads entangled,” referring, we are told, to “the way so often seen where the heads are interlocked and pulled apart by the stems” (W. M. Beauchamp, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, October, 1888).Cedar—For references to the sacred character of the cedar among the plains tribes, see the author’s Ghost-dance Religion, in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, part 2, 1896.Linn and basswood—The ancient Tuscarora believed that no tree but black gum was immune from lightning, which, they declared, would run round the tree a great many times seeking in vain to effect an entrance. Lawson, who records the belief, adds: “Now, you must understand that sort of gum will not split or rive: therefore, I suppose the story might arise from thence” (Carolina, pp. 345–346, ed. 1860). The Pawnee claim the same immunity for the cedar, and throw sprigs of it as incense upon the fire during storms to turn aside the lightning stroke (Grinnell, Pawnee Hero Stories, p. 126).Ginseng—For more concerning this plant see the author’s Sacred Formulas, above mentioned.
The Osage—The popular name is a corruption of Ouasage, the French spelling of Wasash, the name used by themselves. The Osage were the principal southern Siouan tribe, claiming at one time nearly the whole territory from the Missouri to the Arkansas and from the Mississippi far out into the plains. Their geographic position brought them equally into contact with the agricultural and sedentary tribes of the eastern country and the roving hunters of the prairie, and in tribal habit and custom they formed a connecting link between the two. Whether or not they deserved the reputation, they were considered by all their neighbors as particularly predatory and faithless in character, and had consequently few friends, but were generally at war with all tribes alike. They made their first treaty with the Government in 1808. In 1825 they ceded all their claims in Missouri and Arkansas, together with considerable territory in what is now Kansas. They have decreased terribly from war and dissipation, and are now, to the number of about 1,780, gathered upon a reservation in Oklahoma just west of the Cherokee and south of the Kansas line.106.The Giants from the west(p.391): This may be an exaggerated account of a visit from some warriors of a taller tribe from the plains, where it is customary to pluck out the eyebrows and to wear the hair in two long side pendants, wrapped round with otter skin and reaching to the knees, thus giving a peculiar expression to the eyes and an appearance of tallness which is sometimes deceptive. The Osage warriors have, however, long been noted for their height.With the exception of Tsulʻkalû′ there seem to be no giants in the mythology ofthe Cherokee, although all their woods and waters are peopled by invisible fairy tribes. This appears to be characteristic of Indian mythologies generally, the giants being comparatively few in number while the “little people” are legion. The Iroquois have a story of an invasion by a race of stony-skinned cannibal giants from the west (Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, p. 266). Giant races occur also in the mythologies of the Navaho (Matthews, Navaho Legends), Choctaw (Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend), and other tribes. According to the old Spanish chroniclers, Ayllon in 1520 met on the coast of South Carolina a tribe of Indians whose chiefs were of gigantic size, owing, as he was told, to a special course of dieting and massage to which they were subjected in infancy.107.The lost Cherokee(p.391): This tradition as here given is taken chiefly from the Wahnenauhi manuscript. There is a persistent belief among the Cherokee that a portion of their people once wandered far to the west or southwest, where they were sometimes heard of afterward, but were never again reunited with their tribe. It was the hope of verifying this tradition and restoring his lost kinsmen to their tribe that led Sequoya to undertake the journey on which he lost his life. These traditional lost Cherokee are entirely distinct from the historic emigrants who removed from the East shortly after the Revolution.Similar stories are common to nearly all the tribes. Thus the Kiowa tell of a chief who, many years ago, quarreled over a division of game and led his people far away across the Rocky mountains, where they are still living somewhere about the British border and still keeping their old Kiowa language. The Tonkawa tell of a band of their people who in some way were cut off from the tribe by a sudden inroad of the sea on the Texas coast, and, being unable to return, gradually worked their way far down into Mexico. The Tuscarora tell how, in their early wanderings, they came to the Mississippi and were crossing over to the west side by means of a grapevine, when the vine broke, leaving those on the farther side to wander off until in time they became enemies to those on the eastern bank. See Mooney, Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians, Seventeenth Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology, part 1, and The Last of Our Cannibals, in Harper’s Magazine, August, 1901; Cusick, quoted in Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 478.108.The massacre of the Ani′-Kuta′ni(p.392): Swimmer, Ta′gwădihĭ′, Ayâsta, and Wafford all knew this name, which Ayâsta pronouncedAni′-Kwăta′nĭ, but none of them could tell anything more definite than has been stated in the opening sentence. The hereditary transmission of priestly dignities in a certain clan or band is rather the rule than the exception Among the tribes, both east and west.109.The war medicine(p.393): The first two paragraphs are from Wafford, the rest from Swimmer. The stories are characteristic of Indian belief and might be paralleled in any tribe. The great Kiowa chief, Set-ängya, already mentioned, was—and still is—believed by his tribe to have possessed a magic knife, which he carried in his stomach and could produce from his mouth at will. The Kiowa assert that it was this knife, which of course the soldiers failed to find when disarming him, with which he attacked the guard in the encounter that resulted in his death.110.Incidents of personal heroism(p.394): The incident of the fight at Waya gap is on the authority of the late Maj. James Bryson, of Dillsboro, North Carolina, born in 1818, who had it from his great-uncle, Daniel Bryson, a member of Williamson’s expedition.Speaking of the Cherokee “War Women,” who were admitted to the tribal councils, Timberlake says (Memoirs, p. 70): “The reader will not be a little surprised to find the story of Amazons not so great a fable as we imagined, many of the Indian women being as famous in war as powerful in the Council.”111.The mounds and the constant fire: The old sacred things(p.395): What is here said concerning the mounds, based chiefly upon Swimmer’s recital, is given solelyas a matter of popular belief, shaped by tribal custom and ritual. The question of fact is for the archeologist to decide. The Indian statement is of value, however, in showing the supposed requirements for the solemn consecration of an important work.A note by John Howard Payne upon the sacred square of the Creeks, as observed by him in 1835, just before his visit to the Cherokee, may throw further light on the problem: “In the center of this outer square was a very high circular mound. This, it seems, was formed from the earth accumulated yearly by removing the surface of the sacred square thither. At every Green-corn festival the sacred square is strewn with soil yet untrodden; the soil of the year preceding being taken away, but preserved as above explained. No stranger’s foot is allowed to press the new earth of the sacred square until its consecration is complete” (Letter of 1835 in Continental Monthly, New York, 1862, p. 19). See note on the sacred fire.Conjured with disease—The practice of conjuring certain favorite spots in order to render them fatal to an invading enemy was common to many if not to all tribes. One of the most terrible battles of the Creek war was fought upon the “Holy ground,” so called because it was believed by the Indians that in consequence of the mystic rites which had been performed there for that purpose by their prophets, no white troops could set foot upon it and live.The sacred fire—The method described for producing fire and keeping it constantly smoldering in the townhouse appears to have been that actually in use in ancient times, as indicated by the name given to the plant (atsil′-sûñtĭ), and corroborated by the unanimous testimony of the old people. All the older East Cherokee believe that the ancient fire still burns within the mounds at Franklin and Bryson City, and those men who were stationed for a time near the latter place while in the Confederate service, during the Civil war, assert that they frequently saw the smoke rising from the adjacent mound.The missionary Buttrick, from old Cherokee authority, says: “They were obliged to make new fire for sacred purposes by rubbing two pieces of dry wood together, with a certain weed, called golden rod, dry, between them.... When their enemies destroyed the house in which this holy fire was kept, it was said the fire settled down into the earth, where it still lives, though unknown to the people. The place where they lost this holy fire is somewhere in one of the Carolinas” (Antiquities, p. 9).The general accuracy of Swimmer’s account is strikingly confirmed by the description of the New-fire ceremony given more than half a century before by John Howard Payne, the poet, who had gone among the Cherokee to study their ethnology and was engaged in that work when arrested, together with John Ross, by the Georgia guard in 1835. He makes the kindling of the new fire a part of the annual spring festival. At that time, says Payne, “the altar in the center of the national heptagon [i.e. townhouse] was repaired. It was constructed of a conical shape, of fresh earth. A circle was drawn around the top to receive the fire of sacrifice. Upon this was laid, ready for use, the inner bark of seven different kinds of trees. This bark was carefully chosen from the east side of the trees, and was clear and free from blemish.” After some days of preliminary purification, sacrifice, and other ceremonial performances, the day appointed for the kindling of the new fire arrived.“Early in the morning the seven persons who were commissioned to kindle the fire commenced their operations. One was the official fire-maker; the remaining six his assistants. A hearth was carefully cleared and prepared. A round hole being made in a block of wood, a small quantity of dry golden-rod weed was placed in it. A stick, the end of which just fitted the opening, was whirled rapidly until the weed took fire. The flame was then kindled on the hearth and thence taken to every house by the women, who collectively waited for that purpose. The old fires having been everywhere extinguished, and the hearths cleansed, new fires were lightedthroughout the country, and a sacrifice was made in each one of them of the first meat killed afterwards by those to whom they respectively belonged.”—Payne MS, quoted in Squier, Serpent Symbol, pp. 116–118.Similar ceremonies were common to many tribes, particularly the southern tribes and the Pueblos, in connection with the annual kindling of the sacred new fire. See Adair, History of the American Indians; Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country, quoted by Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend; Bartram, Travels; Fewkes, The New-fire Ceremony at Walpi, in American Anthropologist for January, 1900; Squier, Serpent Symbol. Going beyond our own boundaries it may be said briefly that fire worship was probably as ancient as ritual itself and well-nigh as universal.Wooden box—The sacred ark of the Cherokee is described by Adair (History of the American Indians, pp. 161–162), and its capture by the Delawares is mentioned by Washburn (Reminiscences, pp. 191, 221), who states that to its loss the old priests of the tribe ascribed the later degeneracy of their people. They refused to tell him the contents of the ark. On this subject Adair says:“A gentleman who was at the Ohio in the year 1756 assured me he saw a stranger there very importunate to view the inside of the Cheerake ark, which was covered with a drest deerskin and placed on a couple of short blocks. An Indian centinel watched it, armed with a hiccory bow and brass-pointed barbed arrows; and he was faithful to his trust, for finding the stranger obtruding to pollute the supposed sacred vehicle, he drew an arrow to the head, and would have shot him through the body had he not suddenly withdrawn. The interpreter, when asked by the gentleman what it contained, told him there was nothing in it but a bundle of conjuring traps. This shews what conjurers our common interpreters are, and how much the learned world have really profited by their informations.”Such tribal palladiums or “medicines,” upon which the existence and prosperity of the tribe are supposed to depend, are still preserved among the plains Indians, the sacred receptacle in each case being confided to the keeping of a priest appointed for the purpose, who alone is privileged to undo the wrappings or expose the contents. Among these tribal “medicines” may be mentioned the sacred arrows of the Cheyenne, the “flat pipe” of the Arapaho, the great shell of the Omaha, and the taime image of the Kiowa (see reference in the author’s Ghost-dance Religion and Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians).White peace pipe—This statement concerning the ancient seven-stem peace pipe carved from white stone is given on the authority of Swimmer, who said that the stone was procured from a quarry near the present town of Knoxville, Tennessee. A certain district of western North Carolina has recently acquired an unenviable reputation for the manufacture of spurious “Indian pipes,” ostensibly taken from the mounds, carved from soapstone and having from three to half a dozen stem-holes encircling the bowl.Turtle drum—This statement is on the authority of Wafford, who had talked with men who claimed to have known those who had seen the drum. He was not positive as to the town, but thought it was Keowee. It is believed that the drum was hidden by the Indians, in anticipation of their speedy return, when the country was invaded by Williamson in 1776, but as the country was never recovered by the Cherokee the drum was lost.112–115.Short humorous stories(pp.397,399): These short stories are fairly representative of Cherokee humor. Each was heard repeatedly from several informants, both east and west.116.The star feathers(p.399): This story was obtained from John Ax, with additional details from Chief Smith and others, to whom it was equally familiar. It is told as an actual happening in the early days, before the Indian had much acquaintance with the whites, and is thoroughly characteristic of the methods of medicine-men.The deception was based upon the Cherokee belief that the stars are living creatures with feathers (seenumber 9, “What the Stars are Like”).The Indian has always been noted for his love of feather decorations, and more than any from his native birds he prized the beautiful feathers of the peacock whenever it was possible to procure them from the whites. So far back as 1670 Lederer noted of a South Carolina tribe: “The Ushery delight much in feather ornament, of which they have great variety; but peacocks in most esteem, because rare in these parts” (Travels, p. 32, ed. 1891).117.The mother bear’s song(p.400): The first of these songs was obtained from Ayâsta, and was unknown to Swimmer. The second song was obtained also from Ayâsta, who knew only the verses, while Swimmer knew both the verses and the story which gives them their setting.The first has an exact parallel among the Creeks, which is thus given in the “Baby Songs” of the Tuggle manuscript:Ah tanDown the streamAh yah chokeseif you hearMah kah cho kofechase goingHoche yoke sawup the streamLit kahts chars,run,Lit kahts chars.run.A thle pooUp the streamAhyohchokeseif you hearMah kah cho kofethe chase goingThorne yoke sawto the high mountainLit karts chars,run,Lit karts chars.run.TranslationIf you hear the noise of the chaseGoing down the streamThen run up the stream.If you hear the noise of the chaseGoing up the streamThen run to the high mountain,Then run to the high mountain.118.Baby song, to please the children(p.401): This song is well known to the women and was sung by both Ayâsta and Swimmer.119.When babies are born: The wren and the cricket(p.401): These little bits of Indian folklore were obtained from Swimmer, but are common tribal property.120.The Raven Mocker(p.401): The grewsome belief in the “Raven Mocker” is universal among the Cherokee and has close parallels in other tribes. Very near to it is the Iroquois belief in the vampire or cannibal ghost, concerning which Schoolcraft relates some blood-curdling stories. He says: “It is believed that such doomed spirits creep into the lodges of men at night, and during sleep suck their blood and eat their flesh. They are invisible” (Notes on the Iroquois, p. 144). On one occasion, while the author was among the Cherokee, a sick man was allowed to die alone because his friends imagined they felt the presence of the Raven Mocker or other invisible witches about the house, and were consequently afraid to stay with him. The description of the flying terror appears to be that of a great meteor. It is a universal principle of folk belief that discovery or recognition while disguised in another form brings disaster to the witch.The “diving” of the raven while flying high in air is performed by folding one wing close to the body, when the bird falls to a lower plane, apparently turning a somersault in the descent. It seems to be done purely for amusement.121.Herbert’s spring(p.403): The subject of this old trader’s legend must have been one of the head-springs of Chattooga river, an upper branch of Savannah, having its rise in the southern part of Jackson county, North Carolina, on the eastern slope of the ridge from which other streams flow in the opposite direction to join the waters of the Tennessee. It was probably in the vicinity of the present highlands in Macon county, where the trail from Chattooga river and the settlements on Keowee crossed the Blue ridge, thence descending Cullasagee to the towns on Little Tennessee.126.Plant lore(p.420): For ceremonies, prayers, and precautions used by the doctors in connection with the gathering and preparation of medicinal roots, barks, and herbs, see the author’s Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, in the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1891.Violet—The Onondaga name signifies “two heads entangled,” referring, we are told, to “the way so often seen where the heads are interlocked and pulled apart by the stems” (W. M. Beauchamp, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, October, 1888).Cedar—For references to the sacred character of the cedar among the plains tribes, see the author’s Ghost-dance Religion, in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, part 2, 1896.Linn and basswood—The ancient Tuscarora believed that no tree but black gum was immune from lightning, which, they declared, would run round the tree a great many times seeking in vain to effect an entrance. Lawson, who records the belief, adds: “Now, you must understand that sort of gum will not split or rive: therefore, I suppose the story might arise from thence” (Carolina, pp. 345–346, ed. 1860). The Pawnee claim the same immunity for the cedar, and throw sprigs of it as incense upon the fire during storms to turn aside the lightning stroke (Grinnell, Pawnee Hero Stories, p. 126).Ginseng—For more concerning this plant see the author’s Sacred Formulas, above mentioned.
The Osage—The popular name is a corruption of Ouasage, the French spelling of Wasash, the name used by themselves. The Osage were the principal southern Siouan tribe, claiming at one time nearly the whole territory from the Missouri to the Arkansas and from the Mississippi far out into the plains. Their geographic position brought them equally into contact with the agricultural and sedentary tribes of the eastern country and the roving hunters of the prairie, and in tribal habit and custom they formed a connecting link between the two. Whether or not they deserved the reputation, they were considered by all their neighbors as particularly predatory and faithless in character, and had consequently few friends, but were generally at war with all tribes alike. They made their first treaty with the Government in 1808. In 1825 they ceded all their claims in Missouri and Arkansas, together with considerable territory in what is now Kansas. They have decreased terribly from war and dissipation, and are now, to the number of about 1,780, gathered upon a reservation in Oklahoma just west of the Cherokee and south of the Kansas line.106.The Giants from the west(p.391): This may be an exaggerated account of a visit from some warriors of a taller tribe from the plains, where it is customary to pluck out the eyebrows and to wear the hair in two long side pendants, wrapped round with otter skin and reaching to the knees, thus giving a peculiar expression to the eyes and an appearance of tallness which is sometimes deceptive. The Osage warriors have, however, long been noted for their height.With the exception of Tsulʻkalû′ there seem to be no giants in the mythology ofthe Cherokee, although all their woods and waters are peopled by invisible fairy tribes. This appears to be characteristic of Indian mythologies generally, the giants being comparatively few in number while the “little people” are legion. The Iroquois have a story of an invasion by a race of stony-skinned cannibal giants from the west (Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, p. 266). Giant races occur also in the mythologies of the Navaho (Matthews, Navaho Legends), Choctaw (Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend), and other tribes. According to the old Spanish chroniclers, Ayllon in 1520 met on the coast of South Carolina a tribe of Indians whose chiefs were of gigantic size, owing, as he was told, to a special course of dieting and massage to which they were subjected in infancy.107.The lost Cherokee(p.391): This tradition as here given is taken chiefly from the Wahnenauhi manuscript. There is a persistent belief among the Cherokee that a portion of their people once wandered far to the west or southwest, where they were sometimes heard of afterward, but were never again reunited with their tribe. It was the hope of verifying this tradition and restoring his lost kinsmen to their tribe that led Sequoya to undertake the journey on which he lost his life. These traditional lost Cherokee are entirely distinct from the historic emigrants who removed from the East shortly after the Revolution.Similar stories are common to nearly all the tribes. Thus the Kiowa tell of a chief who, many years ago, quarreled over a division of game and led his people far away across the Rocky mountains, where they are still living somewhere about the British border and still keeping their old Kiowa language. The Tonkawa tell of a band of their people who in some way were cut off from the tribe by a sudden inroad of the sea on the Texas coast, and, being unable to return, gradually worked their way far down into Mexico. The Tuscarora tell how, in their early wanderings, they came to the Mississippi and were crossing over to the west side by means of a grapevine, when the vine broke, leaving those on the farther side to wander off until in time they became enemies to those on the eastern bank. See Mooney, Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians, Seventeenth Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology, part 1, and The Last of Our Cannibals, in Harper’s Magazine, August, 1901; Cusick, quoted in Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 478.108.The massacre of the Ani′-Kuta′ni(p.392): Swimmer, Ta′gwădihĭ′, Ayâsta, and Wafford all knew this name, which Ayâsta pronouncedAni′-Kwăta′nĭ, but none of them could tell anything more definite than has been stated in the opening sentence. The hereditary transmission of priestly dignities in a certain clan or band is rather the rule than the exception Among the tribes, both east and west.109.The war medicine(p.393): The first two paragraphs are from Wafford, the rest from Swimmer. The stories are characteristic of Indian belief and might be paralleled in any tribe. The great Kiowa chief, Set-ängya, already mentioned, was—and still is—believed by his tribe to have possessed a magic knife, which he carried in his stomach and could produce from his mouth at will. The Kiowa assert that it was this knife, which of course the soldiers failed to find when disarming him, with which he attacked the guard in the encounter that resulted in his death.110.Incidents of personal heroism(p.394): The incident of the fight at Waya gap is on the authority of the late Maj. James Bryson, of Dillsboro, North Carolina, born in 1818, who had it from his great-uncle, Daniel Bryson, a member of Williamson’s expedition.Speaking of the Cherokee “War Women,” who were admitted to the tribal councils, Timberlake says (Memoirs, p. 70): “The reader will not be a little surprised to find the story of Amazons not so great a fable as we imagined, many of the Indian women being as famous in war as powerful in the Council.”111.The mounds and the constant fire: The old sacred things(p.395): What is here said concerning the mounds, based chiefly upon Swimmer’s recital, is given solelyas a matter of popular belief, shaped by tribal custom and ritual. The question of fact is for the archeologist to decide. The Indian statement is of value, however, in showing the supposed requirements for the solemn consecration of an important work.A note by John Howard Payne upon the sacred square of the Creeks, as observed by him in 1835, just before his visit to the Cherokee, may throw further light on the problem: “In the center of this outer square was a very high circular mound. This, it seems, was formed from the earth accumulated yearly by removing the surface of the sacred square thither. At every Green-corn festival the sacred square is strewn with soil yet untrodden; the soil of the year preceding being taken away, but preserved as above explained. No stranger’s foot is allowed to press the new earth of the sacred square until its consecration is complete” (Letter of 1835 in Continental Monthly, New York, 1862, p. 19). See note on the sacred fire.Conjured with disease—The practice of conjuring certain favorite spots in order to render them fatal to an invading enemy was common to many if not to all tribes. One of the most terrible battles of the Creek war was fought upon the “Holy ground,” so called because it was believed by the Indians that in consequence of the mystic rites which had been performed there for that purpose by their prophets, no white troops could set foot upon it and live.The sacred fire—The method described for producing fire and keeping it constantly smoldering in the townhouse appears to have been that actually in use in ancient times, as indicated by the name given to the plant (atsil′-sûñtĭ), and corroborated by the unanimous testimony of the old people. All the older East Cherokee believe that the ancient fire still burns within the mounds at Franklin and Bryson City, and those men who were stationed for a time near the latter place while in the Confederate service, during the Civil war, assert that they frequently saw the smoke rising from the adjacent mound.The missionary Buttrick, from old Cherokee authority, says: “They were obliged to make new fire for sacred purposes by rubbing two pieces of dry wood together, with a certain weed, called golden rod, dry, between them.... When their enemies destroyed the house in which this holy fire was kept, it was said the fire settled down into the earth, where it still lives, though unknown to the people. The place where they lost this holy fire is somewhere in one of the Carolinas” (Antiquities, p. 9).The general accuracy of Swimmer’s account is strikingly confirmed by the description of the New-fire ceremony given more than half a century before by John Howard Payne, the poet, who had gone among the Cherokee to study their ethnology and was engaged in that work when arrested, together with John Ross, by the Georgia guard in 1835. He makes the kindling of the new fire a part of the annual spring festival. At that time, says Payne, “the altar in the center of the national heptagon [i.e. townhouse] was repaired. It was constructed of a conical shape, of fresh earth. A circle was drawn around the top to receive the fire of sacrifice. Upon this was laid, ready for use, the inner bark of seven different kinds of trees. This bark was carefully chosen from the east side of the trees, and was clear and free from blemish.” After some days of preliminary purification, sacrifice, and other ceremonial performances, the day appointed for the kindling of the new fire arrived.“Early in the morning the seven persons who were commissioned to kindle the fire commenced their operations. One was the official fire-maker; the remaining six his assistants. A hearth was carefully cleared and prepared. A round hole being made in a block of wood, a small quantity of dry golden-rod weed was placed in it. A stick, the end of which just fitted the opening, was whirled rapidly until the weed took fire. The flame was then kindled on the hearth and thence taken to every house by the women, who collectively waited for that purpose. The old fires having been everywhere extinguished, and the hearths cleansed, new fires were lightedthroughout the country, and a sacrifice was made in each one of them of the first meat killed afterwards by those to whom they respectively belonged.”—Payne MS, quoted in Squier, Serpent Symbol, pp. 116–118.Similar ceremonies were common to many tribes, particularly the southern tribes and the Pueblos, in connection with the annual kindling of the sacred new fire. See Adair, History of the American Indians; Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country, quoted by Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend; Bartram, Travels; Fewkes, The New-fire Ceremony at Walpi, in American Anthropologist for January, 1900; Squier, Serpent Symbol. Going beyond our own boundaries it may be said briefly that fire worship was probably as ancient as ritual itself and well-nigh as universal.Wooden box—The sacred ark of the Cherokee is described by Adair (History of the American Indians, pp. 161–162), and its capture by the Delawares is mentioned by Washburn (Reminiscences, pp. 191, 221), who states that to its loss the old priests of the tribe ascribed the later degeneracy of their people. They refused to tell him the contents of the ark. On this subject Adair says:“A gentleman who was at the Ohio in the year 1756 assured me he saw a stranger there very importunate to view the inside of the Cheerake ark, which was covered with a drest deerskin and placed on a couple of short blocks. An Indian centinel watched it, armed with a hiccory bow and brass-pointed barbed arrows; and he was faithful to his trust, for finding the stranger obtruding to pollute the supposed sacred vehicle, he drew an arrow to the head, and would have shot him through the body had he not suddenly withdrawn. The interpreter, when asked by the gentleman what it contained, told him there was nothing in it but a bundle of conjuring traps. This shews what conjurers our common interpreters are, and how much the learned world have really profited by their informations.”Such tribal palladiums or “medicines,” upon which the existence and prosperity of the tribe are supposed to depend, are still preserved among the plains Indians, the sacred receptacle in each case being confided to the keeping of a priest appointed for the purpose, who alone is privileged to undo the wrappings or expose the contents. Among these tribal “medicines” may be mentioned the sacred arrows of the Cheyenne, the “flat pipe” of the Arapaho, the great shell of the Omaha, and the taime image of the Kiowa (see reference in the author’s Ghost-dance Religion and Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians).White peace pipe—This statement concerning the ancient seven-stem peace pipe carved from white stone is given on the authority of Swimmer, who said that the stone was procured from a quarry near the present town of Knoxville, Tennessee. A certain district of western North Carolina has recently acquired an unenviable reputation for the manufacture of spurious “Indian pipes,” ostensibly taken from the mounds, carved from soapstone and having from three to half a dozen stem-holes encircling the bowl.Turtle drum—This statement is on the authority of Wafford, who had talked with men who claimed to have known those who had seen the drum. He was not positive as to the town, but thought it was Keowee. It is believed that the drum was hidden by the Indians, in anticipation of their speedy return, when the country was invaded by Williamson in 1776, but as the country was never recovered by the Cherokee the drum was lost.112–115.Short humorous stories(pp.397,399): These short stories are fairly representative of Cherokee humor. Each was heard repeatedly from several informants, both east and west.116.The star feathers(p.399): This story was obtained from John Ax, with additional details from Chief Smith and others, to whom it was equally familiar. It is told as an actual happening in the early days, before the Indian had much acquaintance with the whites, and is thoroughly characteristic of the methods of medicine-men.The deception was based upon the Cherokee belief that the stars are living creatures with feathers (seenumber 9, “What the Stars are Like”).The Indian has always been noted for his love of feather decorations, and more than any from his native birds he prized the beautiful feathers of the peacock whenever it was possible to procure them from the whites. So far back as 1670 Lederer noted of a South Carolina tribe: “The Ushery delight much in feather ornament, of which they have great variety; but peacocks in most esteem, because rare in these parts” (Travels, p. 32, ed. 1891).117.The mother bear’s song(p.400): The first of these songs was obtained from Ayâsta, and was unknown to Swimmer. The second song was obtained also from Ayâsta, who knew only the verses, while Swimmer knew both the verses and the story which gives them their setting.The first has an exact parallel among the Creeks, which is thus given in the “Baby Songs” of the Tuggle manuscript:Ah tanDown the streamAh yah chokeseif you hearMah kah cho kofechase goingHoche yoke sawup the streamLit kahts chars,run,Lit kahts chars.run.A thle pooUp the streamAhyohchokeseif you hearMah kah cho kofethe chase goingThorne yoke sawto the high mountainLit karts chars,run,Lit karts chars.run.TranslationIf you hear the noise of the chaseGoing down the streamThen run up the stream.If you hear the noise of the chaseGoing up the streamThen run to the high mountain,Then run to the high mountain.118.Baby song, to please the children(p.401): This song is well known to the women and was sung by both Ayâsta and Swimmer.119.When babies are born: The wren and the cricket(p.401): These little bits of Indian folklore were obtained from Swimmer, but are common tribal property.120.The Raven Mocker(p.401): The grewsome belief in the “Raven Mocker” is universal among the Cherokee and has close parallels in other tribes. Very near to it is the Iroquois belief in the vampire or cannibal ghost, concerning which Schoolcraft relates some blood-curdling stories. He says: “It is believed that such doomed spirits creep into the lodges of men at night, and during sleep suck their blood and eat their flesh. They are invisible” (Notes on the Iroquois, p. 144). On one occasion, while the author was among the Cherokee, a sick man was allowed to die alone because his friends imagined they felt the presence of the Raven Mocker or other invisible witches about the house, and were consequently afraid to stay with him. The description of the flying terror appears to be that of a great meteor. It is a universal principle of folk belief that discovery or recognition while disguised in another form brings disaster to the witch.The “diving” of the raven while flying high in air is performed by folding one wing close to the body, when the bird falls to a lower plane, apparently turning a somersault in the descent. It seems to be done purely for amusement.121.Herbert’s spring(p.403): The subject of this old trader’s legend must have been one of the head-springs of Chattooga river, an upper branch of Savannah, having its rise in the southern part of Jackson county, North Carolina, on the eastern slope of the ridge from which other streams flow in the opposite direction to join the waters of the Tennessee. It was probably in the vicinity of the present highlands in Macon county, where the trail from Chattooga river and the settlements on Keowee crossed the Blue ridge, thence descending Cullasagee to the towns on Little Tennessee.126.Plant lore(p.420): For ceremonies, prayers, and precautions used by the doctors in connection with the gathering and preparation of medicinal roots, barks, and herbs, see the author’s Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, in the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1891.Violet—The Onondaga name signifies “two heads entangled,” referring, we are told, to “the way so often seen where the heads are interlocked and pulled apart by the stems” (W. M. Beauchamp, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, October, 1888).Cedar—For references to the sacred character of the cedar among the plains tribes, see the author’s Ghost-dance Religion, in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, part 2, 1896.Linn and basswood—The ancient Tuscarora believed that no tree but black gum was immune from lightning, which, they declared, would run round the tree a great many times seeking in vain to effect an entrance. Lawson, who records the belief, adds: “Now, you must understand that sort of gum will not split or rive: therefore, I suppose the story might arise from thence” (Carolina, pp. 345–346, ed. 1860). The Pawnee claim the same immunity for the cedar, and throw sprigs of it as incense upon the fire during storms to turn aside the lightning stroke (Grinnell, Pawnee Hero Stories, p. 126).Ginseng—For more concerning this plant see the author’s Sacred Formulas, above mentioned.
The Osage—The popular name is a corruption of Ouasage, the French spelling of Wasash, the name used by themselves. The Osage were the principal southern Siouan tribe, claiming at one time nearly the whole territory from the Missouri to the Arkansas and from the Mississippi far out into the plains. Their geographic position brought them equally into contact with the agricultural and sedentary tribes of the eastern country and the roving hunters of the prairie, and in tribal habit and custom they formed a connecting link between the two. Whether or not they deserved the reputation, they were considered by all their neighbors as particularly predatory and faithless in character, and had consequently few friends, but were generally at war with all tribes alike. They made their first treaty with the Government in 1808. In 1825 they ceded all their claims in Missouri and Arkansas, together with considerable territory in what is now Kansas. They have decreased terribly from war and dissipation, and are now, to the number of about 1,780, gathered upon a reservation in Oklahoma just west of the Cherokee and south of the Kansas line.
106.The Giants from the west(p.391): This may be an exaggerated account of a visit from some warriors of a taller tribe from the plains, where it is customary to pluck out the eyebrows and to wear the hair in two long side pendants, wrapped round with otter skin and reaching to the knees, thus giving a peculiar expression to the eyes and an appearance of tallness which is sometimes deceptive. The Osage warriors have, however, long been noted for their height.
With the exception of Tsulʻkalû′ there seem to be no giants in the mythology ofthe Cherokee, although all their woods and waters are peopled by invisible fairy tribes. This appears to be characteristic of Indian mythologies generally, the giants being comparatively few in number while the “little people” are legion. The Iroquois have a story of an invasion by a race of stony-skinned cannibal giants from the west (Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, p. 266). Giant races occur also in the mythologies of the Navaho (Matthews, Navaho Legends), Choctaw (Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend), and other tribes. According to the old Spanish chroniclers, Ayllon in 1520 met on the coast of South Carolina a tribe of Indians whose chiefs were of gigantic size, owing, as he was told, to a special course of dieting and massage to which they were subjected in infancy.
107.The lost Cherokee(p.391): This tradition as here given is taken chiefly from the Wahnenauhi manuscript. There is a persistent belief among the Cherokee that a portion of their people once wandered far to the west or southwest, where they were sometimes heard of afterward, but were never again reunited with their tribe. It was the hope of verifying this tradition and restoring his lost kinsmen to their tribe that led Sequoya to undertake the journey on which he lost his life. These traditional lost Cherokee are entirely distinct from the historic emigrants who removed from the East shortly after the Revolution.
Similar stories are common to nearly all the tribes. Thus the Kiowa tell of a chief who, many years ago, quarreled over a division of game and led his people far away across the Rocky mountains, where they are still living somewhere about the British border and still keeping their old Kiowa language. The Tonkawa tell of a band of their people who in some way were cut off from the tribe by a sudden inroad of the sea on the Texas coast, and, being unable to return, gradually worked their way far down into Mexico. The Tuscarora tell how, in their early wanderings, they came to the Mississippi and were crossing over to the west side by means of a grapevine, when the vine broke, leaving those on the farther side to wander off until in time they became enemies to those on the eastern bank. See Mooney, Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians, Seventeenth Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology, part 1, and The Last of Our Cannibals, in Harper’s Magazine, August, 1901; Cusick, quoted in Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 478.
108.The massacre of the Ani′-Kuta′ni(p.392): Swimmer, Ta′gwădihĭ′, Ayâsta, and Wafford all knew this name, which Ayâsta pronouncedAni′-Kwăta′nĭ, but none of them could tell anything more definite than has been stated in the opening sentence. The hereditary transmission of priestly dignities in a certain clan or band is rather the rule than the exception Among the tribes, both east and west.
109.The war medicine(p.393): The first two paragraphs are from Wafford, the rest from Swimmer. The stories are characteristic of Indian belief and might be paralleled in any tribe. The great Kiowa chief, Set-ängya, already mentioned, was—and still is—believed by his tribe to have possessed a magic knife, which he carried in his stomach and could produce from his mouth at will. The Kiowa assert that it was this knife, which of course the soldiers failed to find when disarming him, with which he attacked the guard in the encounter that resulted in his death.
110.Incidents of personal heroism(p.394): The incident of the fight at Waya gap is on the authority of the late Maj. James Bryson, of Dillsboro, North Carolina, born in 1818, who had it from his great-uncle, Daniel Bryson, a member of Williamson’s expedition.
Speaking of the Cherokee “War Women,” who were admitted to the tribal councils, Timberlake says (Memoirs, p. 70): “The reader will not be a little surprised to find the story of Amazons not so great a fable as we imagined, many of the Indian women being as famous in war as powerful in the Council.”
111.The mounds and the constant fire: The old sacred things(p.395): What is here said concerning the mounds, based chiefly upon Swimmer’s recital, is given solelyas a matter of popular belief, shaped by tribal custom and ritual. The question of fact is for the archeologist to decide. The Indian statement is of value, however, in showing the supposed requirements for the solemn consecration of an important work.
A note by John Howard Payne upon the sacred square of the Creeks, as observed by him in 1835, just before his visit to the Cherokee, may throw further light on the problem: “In the center of this outer square was a very high circular mound. This, it seems, was formed from the earth accumulated yearly by removing the surface of the sacred square thither. At every Green-corn festival the sacred square is strewn with soil yet untrodden; the soil of the year preceding being taken away, but preserved as above explained. No stranger’s foot is allowed to press the new earth of the sacred square until its consecration is complete” (Letter of 1835 in Continental Monthly, New York, 1862, p. 19). See note on the sacred fire.
Conjured with disease—The practice of conjuring certain favorite spots in order to render them fatal to an invading enemy was common to many if not to all tribes. One of the most terrible battles of the Creek war was fought upon the “Holy ground,” so called because it was believed by the Indians that in consequence of the mystic rites which had been performed there for that purpose by their prophets, no white troops could set foot upon it and live.
The sacred fire—The method described for producing fire and keeping it constantly smoldering in the townhouse appears to have been that actually in use in ancient times, as indicated by the name given to the plant (atsil′-sûñtĭ), and corroborated by the unanimous testimony of the old people. All the older East Cherokee believe that the ancient fire still burns within the mounds at Franklin and Bryson City, and those men who were stationed for a time near the latter place while in the Confederate service, during the Civil war, assert that they frequently saw the smoke rising from the adjacent mound.
The missionary Buttrick, from old Cherokee authority, says: “They were obliged to make new fire for sacred purposes by rubbing two pieces of dry wood together, with a certain weed, called golden rod, dry, between them.... When their enemies destroyed the house in which this holy fire was kept, it was said the fire settled down into the earth, where it still lives, though unknown to the people. The place where they lost this holy fire is somewhere in one of the Carolinas” (Antiquities, p. 9).
The general accuracy of Swimmer’s account is strikingly confirmed by the description of the New-fire ceremony given more than half a century before by John Howard Payne, the poet, who had gone among the Cherokee to study their ethnology and was engaged in that work when arrested, together with John Ross, by the Georgia guard in 1835. He makes the kindling of the new fire a part of the annual spring festival. At that time, says Payne, “the altar in the center of the national heptagon [i.e. townhouse] was repaired. It was constructed of a conical shape, of fresh earth. A circle was drawn around the top to receive the fire of sacrifice. Upon this was laid, ready for use, the inner bark of seven different kinds of trees. This bark was carefully chosen from the east side of the trees, and was clear and free from blemish.” After some days of preliminary purification, sacrifice, and other ceremonial performances, the day appointed for the kindling of the new fire arrived.
“Early in the morning the seven persons who were commissioned to kindle the fire commenced their operations. One was the official fire-maker; the remaining six his assistants. A hearth was carefully cleared and prepared. A round hole being made in a block of wood, a small quantity of dry golden-rod weed was placed in it. A stick, the end of which just fitted the opening, was whirled rapidly until the weed took fire. The flame was then kindled on the hearth and thence taken to every house by the women, who collectively waited for that purpose. The old fires having been everywhere extinguished, and the hearths cleansed, new fires were lightedthroughout the country, and a sacrifice was made in each one of them of the first meat killed afterwards by those to whom they respectively belonged.”—Payne MS, quoted in Squier, Serpent Symbol, pp. 116–118.
Similar ceremonies were common to many tribes, particularly the southern tribes and the Pueblos, in connection with the annual kindling of the sacred new fire. See Adair, History of the American Indians; Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country, quoted by Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend; Bartram, Travels; Fewkes, The New-fire Ceremony at Walpi, in American Anthropologist for January, 1900; Squier, Serpent Symbol. Going beyond our own boundaries it may be said briefly that fire worship was probably as ancient as ritual itself and well-nigh as universal.
Wooden box—The sacred ark of the Cherokee is described by Adair (History of the American Indians, pp. 161–162), and its capture by the Delawares is mentioned by Washburn (Reminiscences, pp. 191, 221), who states that to its loss the old priests of the tribe ascribed the later degeneracy of their people. They refused to tell him the contents of the ark. On this subject Adair says:
“A gentleman who was at the Ohio in the year 1756 assured me he saw a stranger there very importunate to view the inside of the Cheerake ark, which was covered with a drest deerskin and placed on a couple of short blocks. An Indian centinel watched it, armed with a hiccory bow and brass-pointed barbed arrows; and he was faithful to his trust, for finding the stranger obtruding to pollute the supposed sacred vehicle, he drew an arrow to the head, and would have shot him through the body had he not suddenly withdrawn. The interpreter, when asked by the gentleman what it contained, told him there was nothing in it but a bundle of conjuring traps. This shews what conjurers our common interpreters are, and how much the learned world have really profited by their informations.”
Such tribal palladiums or “medicines,” upon which the existence and prosperity of the tribe are supposed to depend, are still preserved among the plains Indians, the sacred receptacle in each case being confided to the keeping of a priest appointed for the purpose, who alone is privileged to undo the wrappings or expose the contents. Among these tribal “medicines” may be mentioned the sacred arrows of the Cheyenne, the “flat pipe” of the Arapaho, the great shell of the Omaha, and the taime image of the Kiowa (see reference in the author’s Ghost-dance Religion and Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians).
White peace pipe—This statement concerning the ancient seven-stem peace pipe carved from white stone is given on the authority of Swimmer, who said that the stone was procured from a quarry near the present town of Knoxville, Tennessee. A certain district of western North Carolina has recently acquired an unenviable reputation for the manufacture of spurious “Indian pipes,” ostensibly taken from the mounds, carved from soapstone and having from three to half a dozen stem-holes encircling the bowl.
Turtle drum—This statement is on the authority of Wafford, who had talked with men who claimed to have known those who had seen the drum. He was not positive as to the town, but thought it was Keowee. It is believed that the drum was hidden by the Indians, in anticipation of their speedy return, when the country was invaded by Williamson in 1776, but as the country was never recovered by the Cherokee the drum was lost.
112–115.Short humorous stories(pp.397,399): These short stories are fairly representative of Cherokee humor. Each was heard repeatedly from several informants, both east and west.
116.The star feathers(p.399): This story was obtained from John Ax, with additional details from Chief Smith and others, to whom it was equally familiar. It is told as an actual happening in the early days, before the Indian had much acquaintance with the whites, and is thoroughly characteristic of the methods of medicine-men.The deception was based upon the Cherokee belief that the stars are living creatures with feathers (seenumber 9, “What the Stars are Like”).
The Indian has always been noted for his love of feather decorations, and more than any from his native birds he prized the beautiful feathers of the peacock whenever it was possible to procure them from the whites. So far back as 1670 Lederer noted of a South Carolina tribe: “The Ushery delight much in feather ornament, of which they have great variety; but peacocks in most esteem, because rare in these parts” (Travels, p. 32, ed. 1891).
117.The mother bear’s song(p.400): The first of these songs was obtained from Ayâsta, and was unknown to Swimmer. The second song was obtained also from Ayâsta, who knew only the verses, while Swimmer knew both the verses and the story which gives them their setting.
The first has an exact parallel among the Creeks, which is thus given in the “Baby Songs” of the Tuggle manuscript:
Ah tanDown the streamAh yah chokeseif you hearMah kah cho kofechase goingHoche yoke sawup the streamLit kahts chars,run,Lit kahts chars.run.A thle pooUp the streamAhyohchokeseif you hearMah kah cho kofethe chase goingThorne yoke sawto the high mountainLit karts chars,run,Lit karts chars.run.
Translation
If you hear the noise of the chaseGoing down the streamThen run up the stream.If you hear the noise of the chaseGoing up the streamThen run to the high mountain,Then run to the high mountain.
If you hear the noise of the chaseGoing down the streamThen run up the stream.
If you hear the noise of the chase
Going down the stream
Then run up the stream.
If you hear the noise of the chaseGoing up the streamThen run to the high mountain,Then run to the high mountain.
If you hear the noise of the chase
Going up the stream
Then run to the high mountain,
Then run to the high mountain.
118.Baby song, to please the children(p.401): This song is well known to the women and was sung by both Ayâsta and Swimmer.
119.When babies are born: The wren and the cricket(p.401): These little bits of Indian folklore were obtained from Swimmer, but are common tribal property.
120.The Raven Mocker(p.401): The grewsome belief in the “Raven Mocker” is universal among the Cherokee and has close parallels in other tribes. Very near to it is the Iroquois belief in the vampire or cannibal ghost, concerning which Schoolcraft relates some blood-curdling stories. He says: “It is believed that such doomed spirits creep into the lodges of men at night, and during sleep suck their blood and eat their flesh. They are invisible” (Notes on the Iroquois, p. 144). On one occasion, while the author was among the Cherokee, a sick man was allowed to die alone because his friends imagined they felt the presence of the Raven Mocker or other invisible witches about the house, and were consequently afraid to stay with him. The description of the flying terror appears to be that of a great meteor. It is a universal principle of folk belief that discovery or recognition while disguised in another form brings disaster to the witch.
The “diving” of the raven while flying high in air is performed by folding one wing close to the body, when the bird falls to a lower plane, apparently turning a somersault in the descent. It seems to be done purely for amusement.
121.Herbert’s spring(p.403): The subject of this old trader’s legend must have been one of the head-springs of Chattooga river, an upper branch of Savannah, having its rise in the southern part of Jackson county, North Carolina, on the eastern slope of the ridge from which other streams flow in the opposite direction to join the waters of the Tennessee. It was probably in the vicinity of the present highlands in Macon county, where the trail from Chattooga river and the settlements on Keowee crossed the Blue ridge, thence descending Cullasagee to the towns on Little Tennessee.
126.Plant lore(p.420): For ceremonies, prayers, and precautions used by the doctors in connection with the gathering and preparation of medicinal roots, barks, and herbs, see the author’s Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, in the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1891.
Violet—The Onondaga name signifies “two heads entangled,” referring, we are told, to “the way so often seen where the heads are interlocked and pulled apart by the stems” (W. M. Beauchamp, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, October, 1888).
Cedar—For references to the sacred character of the cedar among the plains tribes, see the author’s Ghost-dance Religion, in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, part 2, 1896.
Linn and basswood—The ancient Tuscarora believed that no tree but black gum was immune from lightning, which, they declared, would run round the tree a great many times seeking in vain to effect an entrance. Lawson, who records the belief, adds: “Now, you must understand that sort of gum will not split or rive: therefore, I suppose the story might arise from thence” (Carolina, pp. 345–346, ed. 1860). The Pawnee claim the same immunity for the cedar, and throw sprigs of it as incense upon the fire during storms to turn aside the lightning stroke (Grinnell, Pawnee Hero Stories, p. 126).
Ginseng—For more concerning this plant see the author’s Sacred Formulas, above mentioned.