[32.] Origin of the Groundhog dance (p. [279]): This story is from Swimmer, the supplementary part being added by John Ax. The Groundhog dance is one of those belonging to the great thanksgiving ceremony, Green-corn dance. It consists of alternate advances and retreats by the whole line of dancers in obedience to signals by the song leader, who sings to the accompaniment of a rattle. The burden of the song, which is without meaning, is
Ha′wiye′ĕhi′ Yaha′wiye′ĕhi [twice] Yu-u
Hi′yagu′wĕ Hahi′yagu′wĕ [twice] Yu-yu.
[33.] The migration of the animals (p. [280]): This little story is given just as related by Ayâsta, the only woman privileged to speak in council among the East Cherokee. A similar incident occurs in [number 76], “The Bear Man.” According to one Cherokee myth concerning the noted Track Rock gap, near Blairsville in upper Georgia, the pictographs in the rocks there are the footprints of all sorts of birds and animals which once crossed over the gap in a great migration toward the south.
[34.] The Wolf’s revenge: The Wolf and the Dog (p. [280]): These short stories from Swimmer illustrate the Cherokee belief that if a wolf be injured his fellows will surely revenge the injury. See also note to [number 15], “The Fourfooted Tribes,” and [number 3], “Kana′tĭ and Selu.”
In a West African tale recorded by Chatelain (Folktales of Angola, 1894) the dog and the jackal are kinsmen, who live together in the bush until the jackal sends the dog to the village for fire. The dog goes, enters a house and is fed by a woman, and thereupon concludes to stay in the village, where there is always food.
[35.] The bird tribes (p. [280]): The eagle killer—Of the Southern tribes generally Adair says: “They use the feathers of the eagle’s tail in certain friendly and religious dances, but the whole town will contribute, to the value of 200 deerskins, for killing a large eagle—the bald eagle they do not esteem—and the man also gets an honorable title for the exploit, as if he had brought in the scalp of an enemy.”[39]
Timberlake says that the Cherokee held the tail of an eagle in the greatest esteem, as these tails were sometimes given with the wampum in their treaties, and none of their warlike ceremonies could be performed without them (Memoirs, p. 81). The figurative expression, “a snowbird has been killed,” used to avoid offending the eagle tribe, is paralleled in the expression, “he has been scratched by a brier,” used by the Cherokee to mean, “he has been bitten by a snake.” Professional eagle killers existed among many tribes, together with a prescribed ceremonial for securing the eagle. The most common method was probably that described in a note to [number 98], “Gana’s Adventures among the Cherokee.” A detailed account of the Blackfoot method is given by Grinnell, in his Blackfoot Lodge Tales, pp. 236–240. The eagle, being a bird of prey, as well as a sacred bird, was never eaten.
The shifting of responsibility for the killing to a vicarious victim is a common feature of Indian formulas for obtaining pardon, especially for offenses against the animal tribe or the spirits of the dead. A remarkable parallel to the Cherokee prayer, from the Quichua of Peru, is given by Dr G. A. Dorsey. Having started, with a party of Indian laborers and a Spanish gentleman who was well acquainted with the native language, to examine some cave tombs near the ancient city of Cuzco, they had arrived at the spot and he was about to give the order to begin operations, when the Indians, removing their blankets and hats, knelt down and recited in unison in their own language a prayer to the spirits of the dead, of which the following translation is an extract: