Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney
111. The mounds and the constant fire: The old sacred things (p. 395):
1341 words | Chapter 268
What is here said concerning the mounds, based chiefly upon Swimmer's
recital, is given solely as a matter of popular belief, shaped by
tribal custom and ritual. The question of fact is for the archeologist
to decide. The Indian statement is of value, however, in showing the
supposed requirements for the solemn consecration of an important work.
A note by John Howard Payne upon the sacred square of the Creeks, as
observed by him in 1835, just before his visit to the Cherokee, may
throw further light on the problem: "In the center of this outer square
was a very high circular mound. This, it seems, was formed from the
earth accumulated yearly by removing the surface of the sacred square
thither. At every Green-corn festival the sacred square is strewn with
soil yet untrodden; the soil of the year preceding being taken away,
but preserved as above explained. No stranger's foot is allowed to
press the new earth of the sacred square until its consecration is
complete" (Letter of 1835 in Continental Monthly, New York, 1862,
p. 19). See note on the sacred fire.
Conjured with disease--The practice of conjuring certain favorite
spots in order to render them fatal to an invading enemy was common
to many if not to all tribes. One of the most terrible battles of
the Creek war was fought upon the "Holy ground," so called because it
was believed by the Indians that in consequence of the mystic rites
which had been performed there for that purpose by their prophets,
no white troops could set foot upon it and live.
The sacred fire--The method described for producing fire and keeping
it constantly smoldering in the townhouse appears to have been that
actually in use in ancient times, as indicated by the name given to the
plant (atsil'-sûñti), and corroborated by the unanimous testimony of
the old people. All the older East Cherokee believe that the ancient
fire still burns within the mounds at Franklin and Bryson City, and
those men who were stationed for a time near the latter place while
in the Confederate service, during the Civil war, assert that they
frequently saw the smoke rising from the adjacent mound.
The missionary Buttrick, from old Cherokee authority, says: "They
were obliged to make new fire for sacred purposes by rubbing two
pieces of dry wood together, with a certain weed, called golden rod,
dry, between them.... When their enemies destroyed the house in which
this holy fire was kept, it was said the fire settled down into the
earth, where it still lives, though unknown to the people. The place
where they lost this holy fire is somewhere in one of the Carolinas"
(Antiquities, p. 9).
The general accuracy of Swimmer's account is strikingly confirmed by
the description of the New-fire ceremony given more than half a century
before by John Howard Payne, the poet, who had gone among the Cherokee
to study their ethnology and was engaged in that work when arrested,
together with John Ross, by the Georgia guard in 1835. He makes the
kindling of the new fire a part of the annual spring festival. At that
time, says Payne, "the altar in the center of the national heptagon
[i.e. townhouse] was repaired. It was constructed of a conical shape,
of fresh earth. A circle was drawn around the top to receive the
fire of sacrifice. Upon this was laid, ready for use, the inner
bark of seven different kinds of trees. This bark was carefully
chosen from the east side of the trees, and was clear and free from
blemish." After some days of preliminary purification, sacrifice,
and other ceremonial performances, the day appointed for the kindling
of the new fire arrived.
"Early in the morning the seven persons who were commissioned to
kindle the fire commenced their operations. One was the official
fire-maker; the remaining six his assistants. A hearth was carefully
cleared and prepared. A round hole being made in a block of wood,
a small quantity of dry golden-rod weed was placed in it. A stick,
the end of which just fitted the opening, was whirled rapidly until
the weed took fire. The flame was then kindled on the hearth and
thence taken to every house by the women, who collectively waited for
that purpose. The old fires having been everywhere extinguished, and
the hearths cleansed, new fires were lighted throughout the country,
and a sacrifice was made in each one of them of the first meat killed
afterwards by those to whom they respectively belonged."--Payne MS,
quoted in Squier, Serpent Symbol, pp. 116-118.
Similar ceremonies were common to many tribes, particularly the
southern tribes and the Pueblos, in connection with the annual kindling
of the sacred new fire. See Adair, History of the American Indians;
Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country, quoted by Gatschet, Creek
Migration Legend; Bartram, Travels; Fewkes, The New-fire Ceremony at
Walpi, in American Anthropologist for January, 1900; Squier, Serpent
Symbol. Going beyond our own boundaries it may be said briefly that
fire worship was probably as ancient as ritual itself and well-nigh
as universal.
Wooden box--The sacred ark of the Cherokee is described by Adair
(History of the American Indians, pp. 161-162), and its capture by
the Delawares is mentioned by Washburn (Reminiscences, pp. 191, 221),
who states that to its loss the old priests of the tribe ascribed
the later degeneracy of their people. They refused to tell him the
contents of the ark. On this subject Adair says:
"A gentleman who was at the Ohio in the year 1756 assured me he saw
a stranger there very importunate to view the inside of the Cheerake
ark, which was covered with a drest deerskin and placed on a couple of
short blocks. An Indian centinel watched it, armed with a hiccory bow
and brass-pointed barbed arrows; and he was faithful to his trust,
for finding the stranger obtruding to pollute the supposed sacred
vehicle, he drew an arrow to the head, and would have shot him through
the body had he not suddenly withdrawn. The interpreter, when asked
by the gentleman what it contained, told him there was nothing in it
but a bundle of conjuring traps. This shews what conjurers our common
interpreters are, and how much the learned world have really profited
by their informations."
Such tribal palladiums or "medicines," upon which the existence and
prosperity of the tribe are supposed to depend, are still preserved
among the plains Indians, the sacred receptacle in each case being
confided to the keeping of a priest appointed for the purpose, who
alone is privileged to undo the wrappings or expose the contents. Among
these tribal "medicines" may be mentioned the sacred arrows of the
Cheyenne, the "flat pipe" of the Arapaho, the great shell of the
Omaha, and the taime image of the Kiowa (see reference in the author's
Ghost-dance Religion and Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians).
White peace pipe--This statement concerning the ancient seven-stem
peace pipe carved from white stone is given on the authority of
Swimmer, who said that the stone was procured from a quarry near the
present town of Knoxville, Tennessee. A certain district of western
North Carolina has recently acquired an unenviable reputation for
the manufacture of spurious "Indian pipes," ostensibly taken from the
mounds, carved from soapstone and having from three to half a dozen
stem-holes encircling the bowl.
Turtle drum--This statement is on the authority of Wafford, who
had talked with men who claimed to have known those who had seen the
drum. He was not positive as to the town, but thought it was Keowee. It
is believed that the drum was hidden by the Indians, in anticipation
of their speedy return, when the country was invaded by Williamson
in 1776, but as the country was never recovered by the Cherokee the
drum was lost.
112-115. Short humorous stories (pp. 397, 399): These short stories
are fairly representative of Cherokee humor. Each was heard repeatedly
from several informants, both east and west.
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