[27.] Why the Deer’s teeth are blunt (p. [276]): This story follows the last in regular sequence and was told by the same informants.
In a Jicarilla myth the Fox kills a dangerous Bear monster under pretense of trimming down his legs so that he can run faster (Russell, Myth of the Jicarilla, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, p. 262, October, 1898).
[28.] What became of the Rabbit (p. [277]): This version was obtained from Suyeta, who says the Rabbit never went up, because he was “too mean” to be with the other animals. Swimmer, however, says that he did afterward go up to Gălûñ′lătĭ. The belief in a large rabbit still existing beyond a great river may possibly have its origin in indirect reports of the jack-rabbit west of the Missouri.
The myth has close parallel in the southern negro story of “The Origin of the Ocean” (Harris, Nights with Uncle Remus), in which the Rabbit by a stratagem persuades the Lion to jump across a creek, when the Rabbit “cut de string w’at hol’ de banks togedder.... Co’se wen Brer Rabbit tuck’n cut de string, de banks er de creek, de banks dey fall back, dey did, en Mr Lion can’t jump back. De banks dey keep on fallin’ back, en de creek keep on gittin’ wider en wider, twel bimeby Brer Rabbit en Mr Lion ain’t in sight er one er n’er, en fum dat day to dis de big waters bin rollin’ ’twix um.”
Kû!—A Cherokee exclamation used as a starting signal and in introducing the paragraphs of a speech. It might be approximately rendered, Now!
[29.] Why the Mink smells (p. [277]): Obtained from John Ax.
[30.] Why the Mole lives underground (p. [277]): This story, from John Ax, not only accounts for the Mole’s underground habit, but illustrates a common Cherokee witchcraft belief, which has parallels all over the world.
[31.] The Terrapin’s escape from the Wolves (p. [278]): This story, of which the version here given, from Swimmer and John Ax, is admittedly imperfect, is known also among the western Cherokee, having been mentioned by Wafford and others in the Nation, although for some reason none of them seemed able to fill in the details. A somewhat similar story was given as belonging to her own tribe by a Catawba woman married among the East Cherokee. It suggests [number 21], “The Rabbit and the tar wolf,” and has numerous parallels.
In the Creek version, in the Tuggle manuscript, the Terrapin ridicules a woman, who retaliates by crushing his shell with a corn pestle. He repairs the injury by singing a medicine song, but the scars remain in the checkered spots on his back. In a variant in the same collection the ants mend his shell with tar, in return for his fat and blood. Other parallels are among the Omaha, “How the Big Turtle went on the Warpath” (Dorsey, Contributions to North American Ethnology; VI, p. 275), and the Cheyenne, “The Turtle, the Grasshopper, and the Skunk” (Kroeber, Cheyenne Tales, in Journal of American Folk-Lore, July, 1900). The myth is recorded also from west Africa by Chatelain (“The Man and the Turtle,” in Folktales of Angola, 1894).
Kanahe′na.—This is a sour corn gruel, the tamfuli or “Tom Fuller” of the Creeks, which is a favorite food preparation among all the southern tribes. A large earthern jar of kanahe′na, with a wooden spoon upright in it, is always upon a bench just inside the cabin door, for every visitor to help himself.