Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney
5. The Daughter of the Sun: Origin of death (p. 252): This is one
1553 words | Chapter 161
of the principal myths of the Cherokee, and like most of its class,
has several variants. The sequel has an obvious resemblance to the
myth of Pandora. It was obtained in whole or in part from Swimmer,
John Ax, James Blythe, and others of the eastern band. The version
mainly followed is that of Swimmer, which differs in important details
from that of John Ax.
As told by John Ax, it is the Sun herself, instead of her daughter,
who is killed, the daughter having been assigned the duty of lighting
the earth after the death of her mother, the original Sun. The only
snakes mentioned are the Spreading Adder and the Rattlesnake, the
first being a transformed man, while the other is a stick, upon which
the Little Men cut seven rings before throwing it in the pathway of
the Sun, where it becomes a rattlesnake. The seven rods or staves of
the Swimmer version are with John Ax seven corncobs, which are thrown
at the girl as she passes in the dance (cf. Hagar variant of number
8 in notes). The Little Men (see number 3, "Kana'ti and Selu," and
other stories) belong to the John Ax version. The others have only
a conjurer or chief to direct proceedings.
This myth is noted in the Payne manuscript, of date about 1835, quoted
in Squier, Serpent Symbol, page 67: "The Cherokees state that a number
of beings were engaged in the creation. The Sun was made first. The
intention of the creators was that men should live always. But the Sun,
when he passed over, told them that there was not land enough and that
people had better die. At length the daughter of the Sun, who was
with them, was bitten by a snake and died. The Sun, on his return,
inquired for her and was told that she was dead. He then consented
that human beings might live always, and told them to take a box and
go where the spirit of his daughter was and bring it back to her body,
charging them that when they got her spirit they should not open the
box until they had arrived where her body was. However, impelled by
curiosity, they opened it, contrary to the injunction of the Sun, and
the spirit escaped; and then the fate of all men was decided, that they
must die." This is copied without credit by Foster, Sequoyah, page 241.
Another version is thus given by the missionary Buttrick, who died in
1847, in his Antiquities of the Cherokee Indians, page 3: "Soon after
the creation one of the family was bitten by a serpent and died. All
possible means were resorted to to bring back life, but in vain. Being
overcome in this first instance, the whole race was doomed to follow,
not only to death, but to misery afterwards, as it was supposed that
that person went to misery. Another tradition says that soon after
the creation a young woman was bitten by a serpent and died, and her
spirit went to a certain place, and the people were told that if they
would get her spirit back to her body that the body would live again,
and they would prevent the general mortality of the body. Some young
men therefore started with a box to catch the spirit. They went to a
place and saw it dancing about, and at length caught it in the box and
shut the lid, so as to confine it, and started back. But the spirit
kept constantly pleading with them to open the box, so as to afford a
little light, but they hurried on until they arrived near the place
where the body was, and then, on account of her peculiar urgency,
they removed the lid a very little, and out flew the spirit and was
gone, and with it all their hopes of immortality."
In a variant noted by Hagar the messengers carry four staves and
are seven days traveling to the ghost country. "They found her
dancing in the land of spirits. They struck her with the first
'stick,' it produced no effect--with the second, and she ceased
to dance--with the third, and she looked around--with the fourth,
and she came to them. They made a box and placed her in it." He was
told by one informant: "Only one man ever returned from the land of
souls. He went there in a dream after a snake had struck him in the
forehead. He, Turkey-head, came back seven days after and described
it all. The dead go eastward at first, then westward to the Land of
Twilight. It is in the west in the sky, but not amongst the stars"
(Stellar Legends of the Cherokee, MS, 1898).
In a Shawano myth a girl dies, and, after grieving long for her,
her brother sets out to bring her back from the land of shadows. He
travels west until he reaches the place where the earth and sky meet;
then he goes through and climbs up on the other side until he comes to
the house of a great beneficent spirit, who is designated, according
to the Indian system of respect, as grandfather. On learning his errand
this helper gives him "medicine" by which he will be able to enter the
spirit world, and instructs him how and in what direction to proceed
to find his sister. "He said she would be at a dance, and when she
rose to join in the movement he must seize and ensconce her in the
hollow of a reed with which he was furnished, and cover the orifice
with the end of his finger." He does as directed, secures his sister,
and returns to the house of his instructor, who transforms both into
material beings again, and, after giving them sacred rituals to take
back to their tribe, dismisses them by a shorter route through a
trapdoor in the sky. [529]
In an Algonquian myth of New Brunswick a bereaved father seeks his
son's soul in the spirit domain of Papkootpawut, the Indian Pluto,
who gives it to him in the shape of a nut, which he is told to
insert in his son's body, when the boy will come to life. He puts
it into a pouch, and returns with the friends who had accompanied
him. Preparations are made for a dance of rejoicing. "The father,
wishing to take part in it, gave his son's soul to the keeping of
a squaw who stood by. Being curious to see it, she opened the bag,
on which it escaped at once and took its flight for the realms of
Papkootpawut." [530] In a myth from British Columbia two brothers go
upon a similar errand to bring back their mother's soul. After crossing
over a great lake they approach the shore of the spirit world and hear
the sound of singing and dancing in the distance, but are stopped at
the landing by a sentinel, who tells them: "Your mother is here, but
you cannot enter alive to see her, neither can you take her away." One
of them said, "I must see her!" Then the man took his body or mortal
part away from him and he entered. The other brother came back. [531]
In the ancient Egyptian legend of Râ and Isis, preserved in a Turin
papyrus dating from the twentieth dynasty, the goddess Isis, wishing
to force from the great god Râ, the sun, the secret of his power,
sends a serpent to bite him, with the intention of demanding the
secret for herself as the price of assistance. Taking some of her
spittle, "Isis with her hand kneaded it together with the earth
that was there. She made thereof a sacred serpent unto which she
gave the form of a spear. She ... cast it on the way which the great
god traversed in his double kingdom whenever he would. The venerable
god advanced, the gods who served him as their Pharaoh followed him,
he went forth as on every day. Then the sacred serpent bit him. The
divine god opened his mouth and his cry reached unto heaven.... The
poison seized on his flesh," etc. [532]
The sky vault--See other references in number 1, "How the World was
Made;" number 3, "Kana'ti and Selu," and number 7, "The Journey to
the Sunrise."
My grandchildren--The Sun calls the people tsûñgili'si, "my
grandchildren," this being the term used by maternal grandparents, the
corresponding term used by paternal grandparents being tsûñgini'si. The
Moon calls the people tsûñkina'tli, "my younger brothers," the
term used by a male speaking, the Moon being personified as a man
in Cherokee mythology. The corresponding term used by a female is
tsûñkita'.
The Little Men--The Thunder Boys, sons of Kana'ti (see number 3,
"Kana'ti and Selu"). They are always represented as beneficent wonder
workers, of great power.
Changed to snakes--The Cherokee names of the rattlesnake (Crotalus),
copperhead (Trigonocephalus), and spreading adder (Heterodon) are,
respectively, utsa'nati, "he has a bell" (?); wâ'dige'i askâ'li,
"red-brown head"; and da'liksta', "vomiter," from its habit of vomiting
yellow slime, as is told in the story. For more concerning the Uktena
see number 50, "The Uktena and the Ulûñsû'ti."
Hand-breadth--See note to number 1, "How the World was Made."
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