Long-Ago Stories of the Eastern Cherokee (5 page)

The others rose higher in the sky, until finally they were lost forever to the people. We see them now as the Pleiades, which the Cherokee call “The Boys.”

The Mother, whose son sank in the ground, came every morning and every afternoon to cry when he disappeared. Her tears were so many that they turned the ground wet, and finally a small sprout appeared out of the ground. This sprout grew taller and taller until it became a tree that we now call the Pine.

W
HY
THE
P
OSSUM
'
S
T
AIL
IS
B
ARE

In the old days, the Possum had a long, beautiful tail, and he was always grooming his tail and telling everybody how beautiful his tail was. All the Animals got tired of listening to Possum brag about his tail.

The Animals' council came together, and they decided to have a big dance at which everybody could sing their songs. The Rabbit was the messenger for the Animals' council and he was sent out to tell all the Animals about the dance.

The Rabbit went around to all of the Animals' homes. Finally, he came to the Possum's home. He called to the Possum, and the Possum came out. The Possum was grooming his tail as usual and he asked the Rabbit, “Don't you think my tail is beautiful today?”

The Rabbit agreed and he said, “Possum we're going to have a great dance, and everybody will be singing their songs and doing their dances.”

The Possum said, “You will have a place of honor for me where everybody can see my tail as they dance by.”

The Rabbit agreed, and said, “Possum will have a place of honor there in the dance arena. And I brought the Crickets with me to comb and dress the fur on your tail.”

Now, the Cherokee know the Crickets are great haircutters, and the Rabbit had given these two Crickets very special instructions.

The Rabbit told the Possum, “They will comb and clean your hair, then wrap it with bark and tie it with vines to keep it clean. And you don't untie the bark and the vines until it's your turn to get up to dance.”

The Possum agreed. He walked over to a stump, sat down and the Crickets started working on his tail. The Crickets trimmed the fur next to the bottom of his tail and then they wrapped it with bark and tied it in vines all the way down to the end. Then the Crickets told Possum, “Now don't untie it until it's your turn to get up to dance.”

Possum agreed. He went down to the dance area on the appointed day. The Animals were all gathered around waiting to get started. The Possum called, “Rabbit, Rabbit!”

The Rabbit came bounding up to the Possum. The Possum said, “Where is my place of honor?”

The Rabbit replied, “We have rolled a rock right up here, and you can sit on this rock, and everybody will dance in front of you.”

The Possum agreed and sat down on the rock and put his tail, still wrapped in the bark with the vines, behind him. They started calling Animals up. Each, in turn, would dance around a circle in front of the Possum and sing his song.

Finally they called for the Possum to dance and sing. The Possum stood up, reached behind him, untied the vines and pulled the bark off his tail. And then he started dancing and singing his song, “I am the only one who has a tail like this.”

The Animals yelled, “Ah ha!”

And the Possum thought, “They like my song. This is good.”

He sang and danced some more, “I am the only one with a tail like this in the whole world.”

And the Animals again yelled, “Ah ha!”

The Possum thought, “This is a very good song.”

He sang and danced again, “Don't you wish you had a tail like mine?”

This time the Animals were laughing. Some of them were lying on the ground and pointing at the Possum.

The Possum looked around. He didn't know what they were laughing at. Finally he looked behind him and he saw that all of the hair had been cut off his tail. All that was left was the naked tail that he has to this very day. The Possum was so embarrassed that he fell over in a faint, which is what he does to this very day whenever he is frightened or embarrassed. And now you know the reason why.

T
HE
R
ABBIT
G
OES
D
UCK
H
UNTING

The Rabbit was always bragging that whatever someone had done, he had done it better. On top of that, he claimed that whatever it was had been harder when Rabbit had done it.

One day, the Mink was talking to some of the Animals and telling them what a great fisherman he was. The Rabbit said he was a great fisherman too. The Mink just looked at him. Then the Mink said, “I'm a great duck hunter too.”

“Well, I'm a great duck hunter too,” said the Rabbit.

The Mink had had enough of the Rabbit's bragging so he turned to the Rabbit and said, “All right Rabbit. Why don't you show us what a great duck hunter you are.”

The Rabbit said, “All right Mink! But, how can I show you with no ducks around here?”

Then the Mink said, “There's a little pond on up the river where there are always ducks. We can go up there and you can show us all what a great duck hunter you are.”

The Rabbit was caught. He didn't have any choice but to go with the Mink. So all the animals went up the riverbank, and soon they came to a pond. The Mink pointed to the ducks across the pond and said, “Rabbit, go show us what a great duck hunter you are.”

The Rabbit said, “Mink, go ahead and try it and then I'll show you how it should be done.”

The Mink said, “OK,” and he slid off the bank into the water. He swam across the pond underwater and the ducks had no idea the Mink was approaching. He swam underneath the ducks and he grabbed one by the legs, jerking it underwater. It happened so fast that the other ducks didn't see him disappear. The Mink swam back under the water, got out on the bank and held up his duck. “I've got mine, now you get yours.”

Well, while the Mink had been swimming underwater, the Rabbit had gone to a nearby tree and started stripping the bark off of the tree. He made a lasso out of the bark by weaving it together. By the time the Mink got back, the Rabbit had finished making a rope with a noose on the end of it. When the Mink showed his duck and asked Rabbit to go get his, Rabbit picked the lasso up and held it in his mouth. He walked down into the water and started trying to swim, but it was hard to swim with the bark in his mouth. Water kept getting in his mouth. He was splashing and making a big noise in the water. The ducks turned around to see what was making all the noise. They realized that it was just the Rabbit trying to swim and they didn't pay any more attention to the noise.

The Rabbit started getting the idea of how he should swim, but Rabbits aren't that good as swimmers. The Rabbit started getting a little bit better as he tried going underwater and discovered he had to keep his mouth closed to keep water from getting down his throat. He kept coming up and sputtering, but he was learning fast and finally he was able swim underwater for some distance. He kept getting closer to the ducks and still they were not paying any attention to him.

Finally, the Rabbit got close enough. He took a deep breath and swam along underneath the ducks with the noose in his paw. He came up in the middle of the ducks and threw the noose over the head of one of the ducks. All the ducks went flying wildly into the sky and the Rabbit managed to lasso of one of the biggest ducks in the group. As the ducks started flying off the water, the noose tightened up around the biggest duck's neck and he started to pull the Rabbit out of the water. The Rabbit was hanging on to the rope until he looked down and saw how far below the Earth was. The Rabbit realized he was going to go even higher and he decided to turn the duck loose. He let go of the rope and fell. He fell down into the hollow stump of a sycamore tree.

The Rabbit was stunned for a while and then he was able to get up and move around. He looked around the bottom of the stump for a way out. He didn't see any holes, so he looked higher around the stump and didn't see any holes up high. Then he looked up to the top of the stump and there was a way out. But he couldn't jump that high at a standstill, and there was no room to get a running start. He kept trying and trying to jump out, but he couldn't even get halfway up the stump. He stayed there for long time, and he was starting to get hungry.

Finally, the Rabbit started eating his fur, which is what he does to this very day whenever he is starving. Then he heard some Children's voices outside. He listened very closely, and knew that the Children were approaching the stump. The Rabbit started singing to them. He sang, “Come closer and see my beautiful fur.” The Children started looking around to see where the voice was coming from. They finally realized it was coming from the stump.

They surrounded the stump and said, “Who are you?”

And the Rabbit answered back, “Cut a hole in the stump, so you can see my beautiful fur.”

The Children didn't have an axe with them. One of them was sent back to the village to bring an adult with an axe. The Child arrived back at the village, told his Father what they had heard coming from the stump and asked his Father to bring his axe. The Father was interested in this talking stump. He had never heard of anything like this. He picked up his axe and followed his Child into the forest.

When they reached the stump, the Father could hear the Rabbit singing to the Children. The Rabbit was still singing about how beautiful his fur was, and claiming that they should cut a hole in the stump so that they could see his beautiful fur. The Father started using his axe on the stump, cutting a hole in the side. The Rabbit told him to cut the hole larger so they could see all of him. The Father made the hole much bigger. Finally, the Rabbit said, “That's big enough. Now stand back so you can see all of my fur.”

They moved away from the stump. The Rabbit jumped out of the stump and ran away into the forest. And that's the story of the Rabbit that went duck hunting.

 

T
HE
R
EMOVED
T
OWNHOUSES

Long ago, the Cherokee who lived on the Valley and Hiwassee Rivers heard voices in the air warning them of wars and bad things to come. The voices invited them to live with the Immortals under the mountains and waters. For many days the voices could be heard, and then they said, “If you would live with us, gather everyone in your townhouses and fast there for seven days and no one should raise a shout or a war whoop in all that time. Do this and we shall come and you will see us and we shall take you to live with us.”

The people were afraid of the bad things to come and they knew that the Immortals of the mountains and the waters were always happy. So they held a council meeting and decided to go with the Immortals. The people of one town came together in their townhouse. They fasted and prayed for six days. On the seventh day they heard a noise from far away in the mountains. It got closer and louder, until all the people could hear was thunder and the ground shook under their feet. They were frightened, and some screamed.