Stories and story tellers (p. [229]): Migration legend—In Buttrick’s Antiquities[2] we find some notice of this migration legend, which, as given by the missionary, is unfortunately so badly mixed up with the Bible story that it is almost impossible to isolate the genuine. He starts them under the leadership of their “greatest prophet,” Wâsĭ—who is simply Moses—in search of a far distant country where they may be safe from their enemies. Who these enemies are, or in what quarter they live, is not stated. Soon after setting out they come to a great water, which Wâsĭ strikes with his staff; the water divides so that they pass through safely, and then rolls back and prevents pursuit by their enemies. They then enter a wilderness and come to a mountain, and we are treated to the Bible story of Sinai and the tables of stone. Here also they receive sacred fire from heaven, which thereafter they carry with them until the house in which it is kept is at last destroyed by a hostile invasion. This portion of the myth seems to be genuine Indian (see notes to [number 111], “The Mounds and the Constant Fire”).
In this journey “the tribes marched separately and also the clans. The clans were distinguished by having feathers of different colors fastened to their ears. They had two great standards, one white and one red. The white standard was under the control of the priests, and used for civil purposes; but the red standard was under the direction of the war priests, for purposes of war and alarm. These were carried when they journeyed, and the white standard erected in front of the building above mentioned [the ark or palladium], when they rested.”
They cross four rivers in all—which accords with the Indian idea of the sacred four—and sit down at last beyond the fourth, after having been for many years on the march. “Their whole journey through this wilderness was attended with great distress and danger. At one time they were beset by the most deadly kind of serpents, which destroyed a great many of the people, but at length their leader shot one with an arrow and drove them away. Again, they were walking along in single file, when the ground cracked open and a number of people sank down and were destroyed by the earth closing upon them. At another time they came nigh perishing for water. Their head men dug with their staves in all the low places, but could find no water. At length their leader found a most beautiful spring coming out of a rock.”[3]
At one point in this migration, according to a tradition given to Schoolcraft by Stand Watie, they encountered a large river or other great body of water, which they crossed upon a bridge made by tying grapevines together.[4] This idea of a vine bridge or ladder occurs also in the traditions of the Iroquois, Mandan, and other tribes.
Farther on the missionary already quoted says: “Shield-eater once inquired if I ever heard of houses with flat roofs, saying that his father’s great grandfather used to say that once their people had a great town, with a high wall about it; that on a certain occasion their enemies broke down a part of this wall; that the houses in this town had flat roofs—though, he used to say, this was so long ago it is not worth talking about now.”[5]
Fire of cane splints—Bartram thus describes the method as witnessed by him at Attasse (Autossee) among the Creeks about 1775. The fire which blazed up so mysteriously may have been kept constantly smoldering below, as described in [number 111]:
“As their virgils [sic] and manner of conducting their vespers and mystical fire in this rotunda, are extremely singular, and altogether different from the customs and usages of any other people, I shall proceed to describe them. In the first place, the governor or officer who has the management of this business, with his servants attending, orders the black drink to be brewed, which is a decoction or infusion of the leaves and tender shoots of the cassine. This is done under an open shed or pavilion, at twenty or thirty yards distance, directly opposite the door of the council-house. Next he orders bundles of dry canes to be brought in: these are previously split and broken in pieces to about the length of two feet, and then placed obliquely crossways upon one another on the floor, forming a spiral circle round about the great centre pillar, rising to a foot or eighteen inches in height from the ground; and this circle spreading as it proceeds round and round, often repeated from right to left, every revolution increases its diameter, and at length extends to the distance of ten or twelve feet from the centre, more or less, according to the length of time the assembly or meeting is to continue. By the time these preparations are accomplished, it is night, and the assembly have taken their seats in order. The exterior or outer end of the spiral circle takes fire and immediately rises into a bright flame (but how this is effected I did not plainly apprehend; I saw no person set fire to it; there might have been fire left on the earth; however I neither saw nor smelt fire or smoke until the blaze instantly ascended upwards), which gradually and slowly creeps round the centre pillar, with the course of the sun, feeding on the dry canes, and affords a cheerful, gentle and sufficient light until the circle is consumed, when the council breaks up.”[6]
[1.] How the world was made (p. [239]): From decay of the old tradition and admixture of Bible ideas the Cherokee genesis myth is too far broken down to be recovered excepting in disjointed fragments. The completeness of the destruction may be judged by studying the similar myth of the Iroquois or the Ojibwa. What is here preserved was obtained chiefly from Swimmer and John Ax, the two most competent authorities of the eastern band. The evergreen story is from Ta′gwădihĭ′. The incident of the brother striking his sister with a fish to make her pregnant was given by Ayâsta, and may have a phallic meaning. John Ax says the pregnancy was brought about by the “Little People,” Yuñwĭ Tsunsdi′, who commanded the woman to rub spittle (of the brother?) upon her back, and to lie upon her breast, with her body completely covered, for seven days and nights, at the end of which period the child was born, and another thereafter every seven days until the period was made longer. According to Wafford the first man was created blind and remained so for some time. The incident of the buzzard shaping the mountains occurs also in the genesis myth of the Creeks[7] and Yuchi,[8] southern neighbors of the Cherokee, but by them the first earth is said to have been brought up from under the water by the crawfish. Among the northern tribes it is commonly the turtle which continues to support the earth upon its back. The water beetle referred to is the Gyrinus, locally known as mellow bug or apple beetle. One variant makes the dilsta′yaʻtĭ, water-spider (“scissors,” Dolomedes), help in the work. Nothing is said as to whence the sun is obtained. By some tribes it is believed to be a gaming wheel stolen from a race of superior beings. See also [number 7], “The Journey to the Sunrise.”
The missionaries Buttrick and Washburn give versions of the Cherokee genesis, both of which are so badly warped by Bible interpretation as to be worthless. No native cosmogonic myth yet recorded goes back to the first act of creation, but all start out with a world and living creatures already in existence, though not in their final form and condition.
Hand-breadth—The Cherokee word is utawâ′hilû, from uwâyĭ, hand. This is not to be taken literally, but is a figurative expression much used in the sacred formulas to denote a serial interval of space. The idea of successive removals of the sun, in order to modify the excessive heat, is found with other tribes. Buttrick, already quoted, says in his statement of the Cherokee cosmogony: “When God created the world he made a heaven or firmament about as high as the tops of the mountains, but this was too warm. He then created a second, which was also too warm. He thus proceeded till he had created seven heavens and in the seventh fixed His abode. During some of their prayers they raise their hands to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh heaven,” etc.[9]