1st Edition, March 26, 2001 Last change 8/28/2001
      Our research has convinced us that it was over by 1880 -- that is, by then all the people of Cherokee blood in the Oklahoma area were living just like their white pioneer neighbors around them. There was nothing Cherokee left. There were no more clans, no council meetings, no teaching of the young in ancient Cherokee ways, because by then nobody alive knew anything about it. It only takes one generation (who are not taught) for it to be gone forever, and that time had passed. The previous generation had just been moved (mostly through the Trail of Tears) from their ancestral grounds east of the Mississippi into what is now the northeastern part of Oklahoma. The times had been hard. Many had died. Very little, if anything, had been passed on by word of mouth. It was gone.
     Fortunately, some of the old ways had been written down... not enough, but some. It seems impossible that the names of the seven Cherokee clans (which controlled all Cherokee affairs) cannot be accurately ascertained today. There are a half dozen lists of them, none of which totally agree.
     And, late in the 20th century, we never found a person claiming Cherokee blood (even the ones who can prove their Cherokee ancestry, and have a registration card to prove it) who ever heard of a Cherokee "king", much less can give you the names of even one. The genocide had worked -- whether deliberate or due to cruel circumstances, knowledge of ancient Cherokee life ("before the white man came and ruined everything") was gone. .
     All the living Cherokees of the last century ever heard was this "chief" crap (chief is an English word which became a generic term, like "moccasin" and "tomahawk") but it is not Native American at all, in any language. It was not in general use, or official use, by the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, etc. until into the 19th century, about the time they wrote their constitutions in the 1830's. Until then, the Cherokees were presided over by an Oukah (uku, ukuh, ookuh) which was always translated as "king", the Creeks, Choctaws, Alabamu's, etc (Muskogeean) by a "Micco", always translated as 'king".
     Young Cherokees today tell us they grew up being told they were an "Indian" belonging to a "tribe". They should have been told they are a "Cherokee" belonging to a "nation".
     Introducing an "oukah" (king) to them has been an almost impossible task, and introducing them to some truth of their own heritage has been like beating our heads against a stone wall. What little they do know is all wrong, produced by "old wives tales" made up at the moment, bad western movies and worse comic strips. Yet they clasp that poison to their breasts, not knowing it is poison and is killing them. It is their lies, and it is all that they know. Still, we have persisted in trying to teach some of the truth that we know, and have uncovered, and discovered. We do so again with this work, which nobody else has seen fit to produce, or has known enough about to produce. Here, below, is the best we can do, along with as many sources as we can name, or feel necessary to prove the point.
Lee MacDonald, Editor, Triskelion Press
Cherokees of North Texas, Inc.

 POWERS, WILLIAM K. "Here Is Your Hobby: Indian Dancing and Costumes". G.  P. Putnam's  Sons, NY  1966. This book tells you, with illustrations, about the basicdances, and dance steps. It is basic, but thorough. Goes into Posture; Head Movements; Shoulder and Torso Movements; Hands, and Style. The costumes are  straight out of Hollywood, but that's what they are wearing today on the "circuit". Yuk!

In "Tribes that Slumber", Lewis & Kneberg write: "The sacredness of the number seven was constantly emphasized in Cherokee ceremonies. Six of these took place each year, but the seventh was celebrated only every seven years. They were held at the capital town of the nation where the paramount chief resided, and the local inhabitants welcomed into their homes the visitors who congregated from far and wide. In preparation, messengers were dispatched throughout the nation to announce the date in advance, and hunters from the capital town sent to the forests to seek meat for the feasts. The six annual ceremonies, which took place between March and November, will be described in the order of their occurrence.
                                         ***************************
1. FIRST NEW MOON OF SPRING: "When the grass began to grow and the trees send out their pale new leaves, the chief and his advisors met to plan for the festival in honor of the first new moon of spring. At this meeting, held early in March during the dark of the moon, seven elder women, honored leaders in their respective clans, performed the Friendship Dance. Then the chief, after conferring with his advisors, announced the date of the ceremony and ordered the messengers to notify the towns in the nation. During the following days, while some of the men went hunting, others repaired the altar in the temple and procured firewood from seven different species of trees.
    "On the day set by the chief, the visitors from all of the other towns assembled at the capital. When evening came and the moon's slender crescent appeared above the western horizon, the women opened the ceremony with the Friendship Dance. By the time the dance was finished, the moon had set, and the first day's activities were over.
    "Shortly after dawn the next morning, the entire population crowded into the temple. The chief, now acting as high priest, brought out the sacred crystal which was believed to have the power to foretell the future. Pure quartz crystals, used by Cherokee chiefs and priests on most important occasions, were considered peculiarly sacred, and at the same time dangerous --only persons trained from childhood could handle them without harmful effects. Because this festival initiated the planting season, the crystal's predictions were concerned with the success or failure of the crops. The people awaited these predictions, tense with emotion compounded of hope and anxiety.
    "After this part of the ritual, everyone left the temple and assembled on the river bank. There, they plunged into the water and, facing toward the east, completely submerged themselves seven times. Following this chilly purification, they changed into dry clothes to await the feast which would take place after sunset. Because no food had been eaten since the day before, it may be imagined that these hours seemed very long.
    "Just before sunset, everyone returned to the temple and the priest performed a ritual sacrifice by burning dried tobacco flowers and a deer's tongue into the sacred fire. The smoke from this sacrifice was believed to carry the prayers of the Cherokee to the sun. The feast followed this rite, and after the feast the night was spent in dancing.
    "Seven days later, the interim being a period for visiting and recreation, the people again met in the temple, this time for the ritual of relighting the sacred fire. The fire-maker, a person initiated into the mysteries of the tribal religion, extinguished the altar flames and, with the aid of his six assistants, prepared to rekindle it. For this, he used two pieces of dry basswood, one a rod and the other a flat slab having a cup-shaped depression. Placing some tinder composed of dried goldenrod blossoms in the depression, he rotated the rod rapidly back and forth between the palms of his hands until the friction produced fire. Once the tinder was ignited, the feeble flame was fed with the seven different kinds of wood. Previously, the fires in the homes had been extinguished and all of the old ashes removed from the hearths. After the sacred fire in the temple was once more burning strongly, the women were given glowing coals to relight their hearth fires. Even the visitors carried home burning embers to be used for the same purpose. (Lewis & Kneberg, 176,7,8,9,0)
2. GREEN CORN CEREMONY: "In August when the new corn crop was ripe enough to eat, the Green Corn Ceremony took place, eating of new corn being tabooed until after this event. Preliminary preparations were the same as for the first new moon of spring festival, except that along the route the messengers gathered seven ears of corn, each of these ears coming from a field of a different clan. When the messengers returned with the corn, the chief and his seven counselors fasted for the following six days. Meanwhile, the people assembled, and after an all night vigil, the ceremony began on the seventh day.
    "The sacred fire was extinguished and rekindled as before, and the chief prepared the sacrifice. In addition to the deer's tongue, he used kernels from each of seven ears of corn. First he dedicated the corn to Yowa and offered a prayer of thanksgiving. Then, placing the corn and the deer's tongue into the sacred fire, he sprinkled over them a powder made from tobacco.
    "In the meantime, food prepared from the new corn was brought to the temple where everyone was served -- that is, everyone except the chief and his seven counselors who for another seven days could only eat corn from the previous year's harvest." (Lewis & Kneberg, 180)
3. RIPE CORN CEREMONY: "Only one of all the ancient ceremonies of the Cherokee survived until the twentieth century. It was primarily a harvest festival to celebrate the final maturing of the corn crop. Since it lacked many of the religious features of the other ceremonies, conflict was less between it and doctrines of the Christian religion which the Cherokee began to adopt during the eighteenth century.
    "In late September the usual preparations for notifying the nation and providing food for the feasts having begun, the square ground was made ready. The ceremony was an outdoor affair lasting four days, during which feasting and dancing were the main activities. Arbors shaded by boughs were constructed around the square, and a leafy tree was set in the center. A special portable platform, upon which the right-hand man of the chief was to perform a dance, was also built. Each man then provided himself with a green bough to be carried during the men's dance.
    "The dance was performed during the daytime and, while it was taking place, women were excluded from the square. The dance started some distance beyond the square, each man carrying his green bough in his right hand. As they followed a leader in single file, the men entered the square and circled the tree in the center seven times, singing and leaping in the traditional steps of the dance. Meanwhile, on the platform held aloft on the shoulders of a group of men, the chief's right-hand man performed his dance. During each of the four days of the ceremony, the men carried out this ritual which was one of intense exertion and excitement. After sunset came the feast which was followed by social dances in the square, women also participating in these." (Lewis & Kneberg, 180,1)
4. GREAT NEW MOON CEREMONY: "When autumn leaves began to fall and the October new moon appeared in the sky, the new year ceremony took place. This was the season of the year in which the world was created, according to Cherokee tradition. The proper name for the ceremony was Nuwatiegwa, meaning 'big medicine', but it was also called the Great New Moon Ceremony.
    "In addition to the usual preparations, each family that attended brought produce from its own fields -- corn, beans, pumpkins, etc. Part of this was for the general feast and the rest for the chief to distribute among unfortunate families whose harvest had been insufficient.
    "On the night of the moon's appearance, the women performed a religious dance. Only infants were permitted to sleep, the rest of the people keeping vigil until just before dawn. Then everyone, infants included, assembled on the river bank and were arranged in one long line by the priest. At sunrise the priest signaled for all to wade in and submerge themselves and their children seven times. While this was taking place, the priest placed the sacred crystal on a stand near the river's edge. Then, emerging from the water, one at a time, the people gazed into the crystal. If their image reflected by the crystal appeared to be lying down, they believed that they would die before spring. If, on the other hand, they appeared to be standing erect, they would survive the coming winter.
    "Those who felt themselves doomed remained apart and fasted, while the others changed into dry clothes and returned to the temple. There the priest made the usual sacrifice of a deer's tongue, and a feast followed. Most of the night was devoted to a religious dance by the women, and none but infants slept.
    "Before nightfall, those who had been themselves lying down in the crystal were taken once more by the priest to the river bank where the crystal-gazing was repeated. If on the second try, some saw themselves standing erect, they repeated the seven submergings in the river and then considered themselves safe. The unfortunates, whose images on the second try were still reclining, had one more chance to escape their fate. But this was deferred until the next new moon, four weeks later.
    "This was a short ceremony lasting only two days and nights. It was followed after ten days by the fifth ceremony, the intervening time being devoted to preparations." (Lewis & Kneberg, 181,2,3)
5. RECONCILIATION OR 'FRIENDS MADE' CEREMONY: "Atohuna, meaning 'friends made' was the name of the fifth ceremony. The name referred to a relationship between two persons of either the same or opposite sex. This relationship was a bond of eternal friendship in which each person vowed to regard the other as himself as long as they both lived. The guiding theme of the ceremony was a universal vow of brotherly love, and entailed reconciliation between those who had quarreled during the previous year. Beyond its earthly significance, the ceremony symbolized the uniting of the people with Yowa, and a purification of their minds and bodies. Hence, of all the Cherokee ceremonies it was the most profoundly religious.
    "During the ten days that intervened between this and the Great New Moon Ceremony, seven hunters were sent after game, seven other men to procure seven kinds of evergreen plants, and seven more to clean and prepare the temple. In addition, seven women were designated to fast for seven days in company with the chief officials.
    "Just before dawn on the day of the ceremony, the sacred vessels and the seats for the officials were whitened with clay. White buckskins were spread over the seats and on the ground in front of them, white being symbolic of peace and purity.
    "At sunrise, the people assembled in the temple to witness the ritual rekindling of the sacred fire. Seven different kinds of wood -- blackjack oak, post oak, red oak, sycamore, locust, plum and redbud -- were used to feed the fire. Next, the high priest sprinkled powdered tobacco on the fire, and as the smoke rose, he wafted it in the four cardinal directions, using the wing of white heron as a fan. Then a whitened pottery vessel filled with water was placed on the fire, and a small cane basket containing the seven evergreen plants was dropped into it. This brew, composed of cedar, white pine, hemlock, mistletoe, greenbrier, heartleaf and ginseng, became the ritual medicine of purification that was used on several occasions during the five days of the festival.
    "The second event of the ceremony was performed by seven men furnished with white sycamore rods. Their function was to drive away evil spirits by chanting a sacred formula while they struck the eaves of all buildings with their rods. While they were carrying out this task, the priest who was to sing the great hymn to Yowa was dressed in white robes by his assistants. When the men with the sycamore rods returned, he went outside and began to sing, ascending onto the roof of the temple as he sang. The hymn had seven verses, each sung in a different melody and repeated four times. At the conclusion of the hymn, the priest descended and re-entered the temple.
    "Next, the seven men who had driven the evil spirits from the town dipped seven white gourds into the medicine which had been brewing on the sacred fire. Then, each handed a gourd full of medicine to the head man of his own clan who drank from it and handed it on. As it passed from person to person, each drank and rubbed some on his chest.  After all had partaken, the hymn to Yowa was repeated.
    "The usual ritual bathing and sacrifice followed. By this time it was sunset, and the Yowa hymn was sung again. A feast was then served, and during the evening the women joined in the Friendship Dance.
    "The rituals of the second and third days were the same; except that the Yowa hymn was not sung. The fourth day was a repetition of the first day, including the Yowa hymn. On the fifth and last day the medicine basket was withdrawn from the vessel and stored in a secret place. The ceremony was concluded when the officials and priests left, saying as they made their exit, 'Now I depart'. The people followed, holding in their hearts a deep sense of security and peace.
6. BOUNDING BUSH CEREMONY: "Few details are known concerning the sixth annual ceremony. It appears to have been a non-religious affair that featured dancing and feasting. In the main dance, men and women alternated in pairs. The two leaders, who were men, carried hoops having four spokes, to the ends of which white feathers were fastened. Other pairs in the center and at the end of the dancing column also carried hoops. All of the remaining couples carried white pine boughs in their right hands. The dance movement was circular, and in the center was a man with a small box. He danced around within the circle, singing as he did so, and as he passed by the dancers, each dropped a piece of tobacco into the box. This dance, which ended at midnight, was repeated on three successive nights.
    "On the fourth night, a feast preceded the dancing which did not begin until after midnight. This time, when the man with the box appeared, the people dropped pine needles in the box. At the conclusion of the dance near daylight, all of the dancers formed a circle around the altar fire. One by one, they advanced three times toward the fire, the third time tossing both tobacco and pine needles into the flames.
    "Symbolic sacrifice appears to have been the theme of this ceremony, but too few of its details have been preserved for its true meaning to be understood. It concluded the six great annual ceremonies, although at each new moon during the year there were minor local observances."
(Lewis & Kneberg, 184-185)
7. THE UKU DANCE: "Every seventh year, the chief of the Cherokee nation led his people in a thanksgiving ceremony of great rejoicing. It was called the Uku dance because the chief, whose title was Uku, was at this time reconsecrated in his office of high priest. Uku was one of several titles conferred upon him. During the 'friends made' ceremony, for example, his title meant 'one who renews heart and body'"
    "When the Uku dance occurred, it replaced the Great New Moon Ceremony. The customary seven days of preparation preceded it, and on the evening of the last day, the chief's seven counselors took charge and appointed individuals to perform special tasks. Among these were men to direct the feast and women to cook the food. The 'Honored Woman' was responsible for warming water with which two of the counselors were to bathe the chief. Another counselor was selected to disrobe him, and still another to dress him in a ceremonial costume. Three additional appointments included a musician to lead the singing, an attendant to fan the chief, and a third to build two elevated seats, one in the square ground and the other between the temple and the chief's home. These seats were tall, throne like platforms, whitened with clay and protected by canopies.
    "The ceremony proper began the next morning with the seven counselors going to the home of the chief where they met the 'Honored Woman' waiting with the warm water. After undressing and bathing the chief, they arrayed him in the new costume. His usual garments on ceremonial occasions wee white, including his moccasins and feather headdress. But for this event, his entire costume was dyed bright yellow.
    "Then the chief, carried on the back of one of the counselors, was brought to the throne that stood between his home and the temple. In this procession, several of the counselors preceded the chief, the musician walked at one side, the fanner at the other, and the rest followed. All except the one who carried the chief sang as they advanced. After a short rest, during which the chief was seated on the throne, they resumed their march to the square ground. Arriving there, he was placed upon the second throne where he would remain until the next day. During this long vigil, he and his officials kept perfect silence, while the rest of the people spent the night dancing in the temple.
    "Early the next morning, after the men of the tribe had assembled, the attendants lifted the chief from the throne and carried him to a previously marked circle in the center of the square. Not until then had his feet been allowed to touch the ground. Within the sacred circle he began the Uku dance. Moving slowly with great dignity he inclined his head to each spectator, who bowed to him in return. Outside the circle the officials followed in single file, imitating his steps. When the dance was finished he was again placed upon the white throne where, surrounded by his attendants, he remained until sunset. Meanwhile, the rest of the people enjoyed a feast. Late in the afternoon, food was brought to the chief and his counselors, after which he was carried back to his home and disrobed. With the exception of the ritual bathing, the same performance was repeated on the next three days.
    "After the Uku's dance on the fourth day, he was reinvested with his religious and civil powers by his right-hand man, and the ceremony was concluded.
    "Although the religious behavior of peoples of different cultures, such as the prehistoric Cherokee, often includes rituals and beliefs incomprehensible to the outsider, religion among all peoples is the outgrowth of human desire for an orderly and understandable universe. Of all cultural achievements, religion is the most highly symbolic and is as necessary to mankind as food, water and air." (Lewis & Kneberg, 185,6,7,8)

1. No player could go near his wife or any woman during the 7 days of the dances and training. Some scratched themselves in order the better to fit themselves for the play. They could not associate with women for 24 days after being scratched.
2. The players must eat no meat nor anything salty or hot. They must eat only corn bread and drink parched corn broth.
3. Their food much be received from boys who took it from women who had set it down some distance off. The seven men with the conjurer could eat only food prepared by the seven women.
4. The seven women officiating as cooks must not be pregnant nor afflicted with any uncleanness.
5. The seven men assistants to the conjurer might be married but their wives could not be pregnant nor of any account unclean.
6. If any player had a pregnant wife, he must keep behind the other players in the dancing and marching.
7. No woman must come to the place of dance of the ball players nor walk a path that the players had to walk during the 7 days of training.

         On the second day of training the players killed a squirrel, without shooting it, for the ball skin. A man selected from the Bird Clan took the skin, dressed it, stuffed it with deer's hair, and then placed it in the deerskin of the conjurer to stay until the play was over. On the seventh night the players danced seven times instead of four and the seven women danced the whole night a short distance away. Their musician accompanied his voice with the drum.
    "On the morning of the eighth day just at sunrise the whooper raised his whoop and the players, standing in a cluster with their faces toward the ball ground, responded four times with a cry. Then all plunged in the creek seven times and started toward the ball ground. The conjurer laid down the deerskin and the conjuring apparatus and the players laid down the articles which they had bet. The conjurer gave a certain root to the players to chew and rub on their bodies. He also gave red feathers to the players to wear in their hair. The leading player took the ball and kept it until the play commenced.
    "An influential player than spoke to the players urging action. They marched forward to meet their antagonists in the middle of the field. Four men were selected as marshalls to keep order and to see that no detail was overlooked. Two others were chosen as tallymen. Each talleyman had 12 sticks, one of which he stuck in the ground as the ball was carried through by his side. A score of 12 runs to a tree or other goal won the game. A circle was made in the ground to show the players how far to approach. As the opening speech was being made by one of the overseers he suddenly tossed the ball into the air and the game began. When one side had gained the victory the spectators extolled the players in every way possible. On the way home the players kept together in good order.
    "The ancient ball game can be seen to have been from this description quite similar if not identical with the game as it is played today. The same ritualistic elements which allied it to war existed at that time. The players were separated just as warriors were, from the ordinary life of the community, and had to be purified from all uncleanliness or contamination. The same rivalry between villages and the same conjuring magic characterized the game in the ancient period as characterizes it today. (Gilbert, 337-338)
    (Eastern Cherokee, about 1900). "The first and most important of all Cherokees sports is the ball game... The dantelidahi, or 'captain', organizes his team from the available young men of the town and may have as many as 20 players enrolled. In the actual playing only 12 are allowed to participate. There are appointed two "drivers" to separate the players in the scrimmages and keep the game going. As a rule each town has its team play three games a year. Summer is the ball game season.
    "The way of arranging a match is for the captain of one team to send out two messengers to a rival town challenging them to a game. The rival town appoints two men to receive the challenge and to accept it. Then the rival captains get busy and search for the best conjurer available in order that as strong a magical power as possible can be brought in to aid in winning. Extraordinary measures are sometimes resorted in to aid in winning. Extraordinary measures are sometimes resorted to in order to secure a good conjurer. The whole community may turn out to hoe the fields or perform work on the conjurer's fields in order to show their good will and regard for the conjurer's powers.
    "The conjurer prays and divines what the future has in store by a special technique. If he finds that the opponents are stronger than the home team, he takes measures to strengthen the latter. These measures consist of 'scratchings', prayers, going to the river and bathing at stated intervals, and the dance for the 4th night before the day of the game. The players must fast and abstain from their wives during the latter part of their period of training. The captain of the team 'calls' the leaders of the nightly ball dances. In the magical rites of strengthening, the conjurer especially looks after the ayeli anakstone i, or 'center knockers' for these are the men who jump in the center when the ball is first tossed up at the beginning of the game and this even is important in deciding which side first gets the ball.
    "Before the game bets are placed by players and spectators alike on the probable outcome. These bets, generally wearing apparel or more often (today) money, are thrown in a pile and two men, one from each side, are appointed to watch them. Sharp sticks are stuck into the ground to register the bets.
    "The game is played between two goals, generally trees. The touching of the opponents' goal with the ball in hand by a player of the other side constitutes a score of one. Twelve scores win the game. The ball, a small golf-ball-sized object, is tossed into the air by one of the drivers and is then batted back and forth with racquets until someone catches it in his hand and runs to the opposite goal. If two players start wrestling for the ball, a foul is declared and the ball is tossed up again for a fresh start. The manner of playing is extremely rough and injuries are frequent, especially since the players are dressed only in the equivalent of a pair of trunks. After the game, the players are ceremonially scratched and retire for supper, the bets being allotted out to the winners. Seven days after the game, the winners hold an Eagle or Victory Dance to celebrate. Great stress is laid on magical power as the sole determinant of the winning or losing of games. The games, in fact, resolve themselves into a rivalry of conjurers in opposing towns rather than into any rivalry of teams. Hence, the magical rites surrounding the game are extensive and esoteric." (Gilbert, 268-269)
    "It is now mid-afternoon and the next event is a ball game. Young men are the center of attention for the next few hours. This is the "brother of war" game, and only the most stalwart youths are taking part in it. Sides are chosen, with sixty players on each side. Their bodies are brilliantly painted, they are dressed in breech clouts and moccasins; attached to the back of the breech clouts are the tails of swift-footed animals. Each player carries two ball sticks shaped somewhat like small tennis rackets, made of hickory and strung with deerskin thongs. Both teams have medicine men hidden in the woods, making medicine as fast as they can. The small ball is made of deer hair covered with deer skin and sewed with deer sinews.
    "The field is nearly a quarter of a mile long with a goal at each end formed by two uprights and a crossbar. Now the game is about to begin. All the players rush out and throw down their rackets. These must be counted to make sure that each side has the same number. Then the men divide into five squads, with the opposing players facing each other along the two sides of the field. At the mid-point the ball is tossed up by an old man, and the contest is on. A player catches the ball with his rackets, and either runs with it or throws it. The objective is to hit either the goal posts or crossbar with the ball. After each goal, the ball is put back in play at the center of the field. An especially good player must be wary because his opponents will deliberately try to injure him and put him out of the game. When that happens, the other side must also discard a player, but it is certain not to be one of their best.
    "On the side lines are the scorekeepers, each having ten small sticks for tallies. Whenever a goal is made, a tally is stuck in the ground by the scorekeeper for that team. After ten goals, the sticks are withdrawn one at a time to score the subsequent points. The first side to score twenty points wins. Quantities of valuable objects are wagered on the outcome. Point after point is made and, finally, one team is victorious. Then the winning players run to their goal post and perform an exultant dance while the other team takes to its heels. The losing group is jeered at and especially derided by those who bet on them". (Lewis & Kneberg, 129,30,31)
BALL PLAY: "The ball game or racquet play consisted of a form of lacrosse and was played in a manner not different from that of later times. The only other important game was nettecawaw or "chunkey". This consisted in the darting of poles at rolling disks of stone, with the score depending on the distance of the spot where the pole hit from the center of the disk. The games were of social significance in that huge stakes were laid on them..." (Gilbert, 318)
    ""Accompanying each team is a "finder" whose duty is to locate the ball when grounded. He carries a keen birch switch, with which he locates its position, and, if there is too much clinching, which is sure to happen, the switch goes into action against bare brown shoulders or legs" (Milling, 378)
      James Mooney wrote about "The Cherokee Ball Play", American Anthropologist, o.s III (1890), 105ff; see also Twenty-Fourth Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Below is an exerpt from his writing:
     "The ball now used is an ordinary leather-covered ball, but in former days it was made of deer hair covered with deerskin. The ball sticks vary considerably among different tribes. The Cherokee player uses a pair, catching the ball between them and throwing it the same way. The stick is somewhat less than 3 feet in length, and its general appearance closely resembles a tennis racket, or a long wooden spoon, the bowl of which is a loose network of thongs of twisted squirrel skin or strings of hemp. The frame is made of a slender hickory stick, bent upon itself, and so trimmed and fashioned that the handle seems to be of one solid round piece, when, in fact, it is double.
    "In addition to the athletic training, which begins two or three weeks before the regular game, each player is put under a strict gaktunta or tabu, during the same period. He must not eat the flesh of a rabbit (of which they are generally very fond) because the rabbit is a timid animal, easily alarmed and liable to lose its wits when pursued by the hunter. Hence the player must abstain from it, lest he, too, should become disconcerted and lose courage in the game. He must also avoid meat of the frog ... because the frog's bones are brittle and easily broken, and a player who should partake of the animal would expect to be crippled in the first inning. For a similar reason he abstains from eating the young of any bird or animal, and from touching an infant... The tabu lasts for seven days preceding the game, but in most cases is enforced for twenty-eight days -- i.e. 4 x 7 -- 4 and 7 being sacred numbers. Above all, he must not touch a woman. If a woman even as much as touches a ball stick on the eve of a game, it is thereby rendered unfit for use.
     "When a player fears a particular contestant on the other wide, as is frequently the case, his own shaman (medicine man) performs a special incantation, intended to compass the defeat and even the disabling or death of his rival.
    "On the night preceding the game each party holds the ball-play dance in its own settlement. On the reservation the dance is always held on Friday night, so that the game may take place on Saturday afternoon, in order to give the players and spectators an opportunity to sleep off the effects on Sunday.
    "The dance  must be held close to the river, to enable the players to "go to the water" during the night, but the exact spot selected is always a matter of uncertainty up to the last moment, excepting with a chosen few. If this were not the case, a spy from the other settlement might endeavor to insure the defeat of the party by strewing along their trail a soup made of the hamstrings of rabbits, which would have the effect of rendering the players timorous and easily confused.
    The dance begins soon after dark on the night preceding the game, and lasts until daybreak, and from the time they eat supper before the dance until after the game, on the following afternoon, no food passes the lips of the players.
    "Each party holds a dance in its own settlement, the game taking place about midway between... Several fires were burning... Around the larger fires were the dancers, the men stripped as for the game, with their ball sticks in their hands and the firelight playing upon their naked bodies.
    "The ball-play dance is participated in by both sexes, but differs considerably from any other of the dances..., being a dual affair throughout. The dancers are the players of the morrow, with seven women, representing the seven Cherokee clans. The men dance in a circle around the fire, chanting responses to the sound of a rattle carried by another performer, who circles around on the outside, while the women stand in line a few feet away and dance to and fro, now advancing a few steps towards the men, then wheeling and dancing away from them, but all the while keeping time to the sound of the drum and chanting the refrain to the ball sounds made by the drummer, who is seated on the ground on the side farthest from the fire. The rattle is a gourd fitted with a handle and filled with small pebbles, while the drum resembles a small keg with a head of ground-hog leather. The drum is partly filled with water, the head being also moistened to improve the tone, and is beaten with a single stick. Men and women dance separately throughout, the music, the evolutions, and the songs being entirely distinct, but all combine to produce a harmonious whole. The women are relieved at intervals by others who take their places, but the men dance in the same narrow circle the whole night long.
    "At one side of the fire are set up two forked poles, supporting a third laid horizontally, upon which the ball sticks are crossed in pairs, until the dance begins. Small pieces from the wing of the bat are sometimes tied to these poles, and also to the rattle used in the dance, to insure success in the contest. The skins of several bats and swift-darting insectivorous birds were formerly wrapped up in a piece of deerskin, together with the cloth and beads used in the conjuring ceremonies later on, and hung from the frame during the dance. On finally dressing for the game at the ball ground, the players took the feathers from these skins to fasten in their hair or upon the ball stick, to insure swiftness and accuracy in their movements.
    "Sometimes also hairs from the whiskers of the bat are twisted into the netting of the ball sticks. The players are all stripped and painted, with feathers in their hair, just as they appear in the  game. When all is ready an attendant takes down the ball sticks from the frame, throwing them over his arm in the same fashion, and, walking around the circle, gives to each man his own. Then the rattler, taking his instrument in his hand, begins to trot around on the outside of the circle, uttering a sharp "Hi!" to which the players respond with a quick "Hi-hi!" while slowly moving around the circle with their ball sticks held tightly in front of their breasts. Then with a quicker movement, the song changes to "Ehu!" and the responses to "Hahi! Ehu! Ehu! Hahi!". Then, with a prolonged shake of the rattle, it changes again to "Ahiye!" the dancers responding with the same word "Ahiye!" but in a higher key; the movements become more lively and the chorus louder, till at a given signal with the rattle the players clap their ball sticks together, and, facing around, go through the motions of picking up and tossing an imaginary ball. Finally, with a grand rush, they dance up close to the women, and the first part of the performance ends with a loud, prolonged "Hu-u" from the whole crowd.
     Dance:  "In the meantime the women have taken positions in a line a few feet away, with their backs turned to the men, while in front of them the drummer is seated on the ground, but with his back turned toward them and the rest of the dancers. After a few preliminary taps on the drum, he begins a slow, measured beat, and strikes up one of the dance refrains, which the women take up in chorus. This is repeated a number of times until all are in harmony with the tune, when he begins to improvise, choosing words which will harmonize with the measure of the chorus, and at the same time be appropriate to the subject of the dance. As this requires a ready wit in addition to ability as a singer, the selection of a drummer is a matter of considerable importance, and that functionary is held in corresponding estimation. He sings of the game on the morrow, of the fine things to be won by the men of his party, of the joy with which they will be received by their friends on their return from the field, and of the disappointment and defeat of their rivals. Throughout it all the women keep up the same minor refrain, like an instrumental accompaniment to vocal music. As Cherokee songs are always in a minor key, they have a plaintive effect, even when the sentiment is cheerful or even boisterous, and are calculated to excite the mirth of one who understands their language. The impression is heightened by the appearance of the dancers themselves, for the women shuffle solemnly back and forth all night long without ever a smile upon their faces, while the occasional laughter of the men seems half subdued. The monotonous repetition, too, is intolerable to any one but an Ind. the same words, to the same tune, being sometimes sung over and over again for a half hour or more. Although the singer improvises as he proceeds, many of the expressions have now become stereotyped and are used at almost every ball dance.
    MYTH: "According to a Cherokee myth, the animals once challenged the birds to a great ball play. The wager was accepted, the preliminaries were arranged, and at last the contestants assembled at the appointed spot -- the animals on the ground, while the birds took position in the tree-tops to await the throwing of the ball. On the side of the animals were the bear, whose ponderous weight bore down all opposition; the deer, who excelled all others in running; and the terrapin, who was invulnerable to the stoutest blows. On the side of the birds were the eagle, the hawk, and the great Tlaniwa -- all noted for their swiftness and power of flight. While the latter were preening their feathers and watching every motion of their adversaries below, they noticed two small creatures, hardly larger than mice, climbing up the tree on which was perched the leader of the birds. Finally they reached the top and humbly asked to be allowed to join in the game. The captain looked at them a moment, and, seeing that they were four-footed, asked them why they did not go to the animals where they properly belonged. The little things explained that they had done so, but had been laughed at and rejected on account of their diminutive size. On hearing their story the bird captain was disposed to take pity on them, but there was one serious difficulty in the way -- how could they join the birds when they hd no wings? The eagle, the hawk, and the rest now crowded around, and after some discussion it was decided to try and make wings for the little fellows. But how to do it! All at once, by a happy inspiration, one bethought himself of the drum which was used in the dance. The head was made of ground-hog leather, and perhaps a corner could be cut off and utilized for wings. No sooner suggested than done. Two pieces of leather taken from the drumhead were cut into shape and attached to the legs of one of the small animals, and thus originated Tlameha, the bat. The ball was now tossed up, and the bat was told to catch it, and his expertness in dodging and circling about, keeping the ball constantly in motion and never allowing it to touch the ground, soon convinced the birds that they had gained a most valuable ally. They next turned their attention to the other little creature; and now beheld a worse difficulty! All their leather had been used in making wings for the bat, and there was no time to send for more. In this dilemma it was suggested that perhaps wings might be made by stretching out the skin of the animal itself. So two large birds seized him from opposite sides with their bills, and by tugging and pulling at his fur for several minutes succeeded in stretching the skin between the fore and hind feet until at last the thing was done and there was Tewa, the flying squirrel. Then the bird captain, to try him, threw up the ball, when the flying squirrel, with a graceful bound, sprang off the limb, catching it in his teeth, carried it through the air to another tree-top a hundred feet away.
    When all was ready, the game began, but at the very outset the flying squirrel caught the ball and carried it up a tree, and then threw it to the birds, who kept it in the air for sometime, when it dropped, but just before it reached the ground the bat seized it, and by his dodging and doubling kept it out of the way of even the swiftest of the animals until he finally threw it in at the goal, and thus won the victory for the birds. Because of their assistance on this occasion, the ball player invokes the aid of the bat and the flying squirrel and ties a small piece of the bat's wing to his ball stick or fastens it to the frame on which the sticks are hung during the dance. End of Myth.
   Back to Ball Play:  At a certain stage of the dance a man, especially selected for the purpose, leaves the group of spectators around the fire and retires a short distance into the darkness in the direction of the rival settlement. Then, standing with his face turned in the same direction, he raises his hand to his mouth and utters four yells, the last prolonged into a peculiar quaver. He is answered by the players with a chorus of yells -- or rather yelps, for the Ind. yell resembles nothing else so much as the bark of a puppy. Then he comes running back until he passes the circle of dancers, when he halts and shouts out a single word, which may be translated, "They are already beaten!" Another chorus of yells greets this announcement. The man is called talala, or woodpecker, on account of his peculiar yell, which is considered to resemble the sound made by a woodpecker tapping on a dead tree trunk. According to the orthodox Cherokee belief, this yell is heard by the rival players in the other settlement -- who, it will be remembered, are having a ball dance of their own at the same time -- and so terrifies them that they lose all heart for the game. The fact that both sides alike have a talala in no way interferes with the theory.
      "At frequent intervals during the night all the players, accompanied by the shaman and his assistant, leave the dance and go down to a retired spot on the river's bank, where they perform the mystic rite known as 'going to water' hereafter to be described. While the players are performing this ceremony, the women, with the drummer, continue the dance and chorus. The dance is kept up without intermission, and almost without change, until daybreak. At the final dance green pine tops are thrown upon the fire, so as to produce a thick smoke, which envelops the dancers. Some mystic properties are ascribed to this pine smoke, but what they are I have not yet learned, although the ceremony seems to be intended as an exorcism, the same thing being done at other dances when there has recently been a death in the settlement.
      At sunrise, the players, dressed now in their ordinary clothes, but carrying their ball sticks in their hands, start for the ball ground, accompanied by the shamans and their assistants. The place selected for the game, being always about midway between the two rival settlements, was in this case several miles above the dance ground and on the opposite side of the river. On the march each party makes four several halts, when each player again "goes to water" separately with the shaman. This occupies considerable time, so that it is usually afternoon before the two parties meet on the ball ground. While the shaman is busy with his mysteries in the laurel bushes down by the water's edge, the other players, sitting by the side of the trail, spend the time twisting extra strings for their ball sticks, adjusting their feather ornaments, and discussing the coming game. In former times the player during these halts was not allowed to sit upon a log, a stone, or anything but the ground itself; neither was it permissible to lean against anything except the back of another player, on penalty of defeat in the game, with the additional risk of being bitten by a rattlesnake.
    "On coming up from the water after the fourth halt, the principal shaman assembles the players around him and delivers an animated harangue, exhorting them to do their utmost in the coming contest, telling them that they will undoubtedly be victorious, as the omens are all favorable, picturing to their delighted vision the stakes to be won and the ovation awaiting them from their friends after the game, and finally assuring them in the mystic terms of the formulas that their adversaries will be driven through the four gaps into the gloomy shadows of the Darkening :Land, where they will perish forever from remembrance. The address, delivered in rapid, jerky tones like the speech of an auctioneer, has a very inspiriting effect upon the hearers and frequently interrupted by a burst of exultant yells from the players. At the end, with another chorus of yells, they again take up the march.
    "On arriving in sight of the ball ground, the talala again comes to the front and announces their approach with four loud yells, ending with a long quaver, as on the previous night of the dance. The players respond with another yell, and then turn off to a convenient sheltered place by the river, to make final preparations.
    "The shaman then marks off a small space upon the ground to represent the ball field, and, taking in his hand a small bundle of sharpened stakes about a foot in length, addresses each man in turn, telling him the position which he is to occupy in the field at the tossing up of the ball, after the first inning, and driving down a stake to represent each player until he has a diagram of the whole field spread out upon the ground.
     "The players then strip for the final scratching. This painful operation is performed by an assistant, in this case an old man named Standing Water. The instrument of torture is called a kanuga and resembles a short comb with seven teeth, seven being a sacred number with the Cherokees. The teeth are made of sharpened splinters from the leg bone of a turkey and are fixed in a frame made from the shaft of a turkey quill, in such a manner that by the slight pressure of the thumb they can be pushed out to a length of a small tack. Why the bone and feather of the turkey should be selected I have not yet learned, but there is undoubtedly a reason for the choice.
    "The players having stripped, the operator begins by seizing the arm of a player with one hand while holding the kanuga in the other, and plunges the teeth into the flesh at the shoulder, bringing the instrument down with a steady pressure to the elbow, leaving seven white lines which become red a moment later as the blood starts to the surface. He now plunges the kanuga in again at another place near the shoulder, and again brings it down to the elbow. Again and again the operation is repeated until the victim's arm is scratched in twenty-eight lines above the elbow. It will be noticed that twenty-eight is a combination of four and seven, the two sacred numbers of the Cherokee. The operator then makes the same number of scratches in the same manner on the arm below the elbow. Next the other arm is treated in the same way; then each leg, both above and below the knees, and finally an x is scratched across the breast of the sufferer, the upper ends are joined by another stroke from shoulder to shoulder, and a similar pattern is scratched upon his back. By this time the blood is trickling in little streams from nearly three hundred gashes. None of the scratches are deep, but they are unquestionably very painful, as all agree who have undergone the operation. Nevertheless the young men endure the ordeal willingly and almost cheerfully, regarding it as a necessary part of the ritual to secure success in the game. To cause blood to flow more freely, the young men sometimes scrape it off with chips as it oozes out. The shaman then gives to each player a small piece of root, to which he has imparted magic properties by the recital of certain secret formulas. The men chew these roots and spit out the juice over their limbs and bodies, rubbing it well into the scratches; then going down to the water, plunge in and wash off the blood, after when they come out and dress themselves for the game.
    "The modern Cherokee ball costume consists simply of a pair of short trunks, ornamented with various patterns in red and blue cloth, and a feather charm worn upon the head. Formerly the breechcloth alone was worn, as is still the case in some instances, and the strings with which it was tied were purposely made weak, so that if seized by an opponent in the scuffle the strings would break, leaving the owner to escape with the loss of his sole article of raiment. The ornament worn in the hair is made up of an eagle's feathers, to give keenness of sight; a deer tail, to give swiftness, and a snake's rattle, to render the wearer terrible to his adversaries. The player also marks his body in various patterns with paint or charcoal. The charcoal is taken from the dance fire, and whenever possible is procured by burning the wood of a tree which has been struck by lightning, such wood being regarded as peculiarly sacred and endowed with mysterious properties. According to one formula, the player makes a cross over his heart and a spot upon each shoulder, using pulverized charcoal procured from the shaman and made by burning together the wood of a honey-locust tree and a tree which had been struck by lightning, but not killed. The charcoal is pulverized and put, together with a red and black bead, into an empty cocoon from which one end has been cut off. This paint preparation makes the player swift like the lightning and invulnerable as the tree that defies the thunderbolt, and renders his flesh as hard and firm to the touch as the wood of the honey-locust. Just before dressing, the players rub their bodies with grease or the chewed bark of the slippery elm or the sassafras, until their skin is slippery as that of the proverbial eel.
    "Sometimes a player applies to the shaman to conjure a dangerous opponent, so that he may be unable to see the ball in its flight, or may dislocate a wrist or break a leg. The shaman draws upon the ground an armless figure of his rival with a hole where his heart should be. Into this hole he drops two black beads, covers them with earth and stamps upon them, and thus the dreaded rival is doomed, unless (and this is always the saving clause) his own shaman has taken precautions against such a result, or the one in whose behalf the charm is made has rendered the incantation unavailing by a violation of some one of the interminable rules of the gaktunta.
    "The players have dressed, are now ready to go to water for the last time, for which purpose the shaman selects a bend of the river where he can look toward the east while facing upstream. This ceremony of going to water is the most sacred and impressive of the whole Cherokee ritual, and must always be performed fasting, and in most cases also is preceded by an all-night vigil. It is used in connection with prayers to obtain a long life, to destroy an enemy, to win the love of a woman, to secure success in the hunt and the ball play, and for recovery from a dangerous illness, but is performed only as a final resort of when the occasion is one of special importance.
    "The men stand looking down upon the water, with their ball sticks clasped upon their breasts, while the shaman stands just behind them, and an assistant kneeling at his side spreads out upon the ground the cloth upon which are placed the sacred beads. These beads are of two colors, red and black, each kind resting upon a cloth of the same color, and corresponding in number to the number of players. The red beads represent the players for whom the shaman performs the ceremony, while the black beads stand for their opponents, red being symbolic of power and triumph, while black is emblematic of death and  misfortune. All being ready, the assistant hands to the shaman a red bead, which he takes between the thumb and finger of his right hand; and then a black bead, which he takes in the same manner in his left hand. Then, holding his hands outstretched, with his eyes intently fixed upon the beads, the shaman prays on behalf of his client to Yuwi Gunahita, the Long Man, the sacred name of the river. "O, Long Man, I come to the edge of your body. You are mighty and most powerful. You bear up great logs and toss them about where the foam is white. Nothing can resist you. Grant me such strength in the contest that my enemy may be of no weight in my hands -- that I may be able to toss him in the air or dash him to the earth". In a similar strain he prays to the Red Bat in the Sun Land to make him expert in dodging; to the Red Deer to make him fleet of foot; to the great Red Hawk to render him keen of sight; and to the Red Rattlesnake to render him terrible to all who oppose him.
    "Then, in the same low tone and broken accents in which all the formulas are recited, the shaman declares that his client (mentioning his name and clan) has now ascended to the first heaven. As he continues praying he declares that he has now reached the second heaven (and here he slightly raises his hands); soon he ascends to the third heaven, and the hands of the shaman are raised still higher; then, in the same way, he ascends to the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth heaven, and finally, as he raises his trembling hands aloft, he declares that the spirit of the man now has risen to the seventh heaven, where his feet and resting upon the Red Seats, from which they shall never be displaced.
    "Turning now to his client, the shaman, in a low voice, asks him the name of his most dreaded rival on the opposite side. The reply is given in a whisper, and the shaman, holding his hands outstretched as before, calls down the most withering curses upon the head of the doomed victim, mentioning him likewise by name and clan. He prays to the Black Fog to cover him so that he may be unable to see his way; to the Black Rattlesnake to envelop him in his slimy folds; and at last to the Black Spider to let down his black thread from above, wrap it around the soul of the victim and drag it from his body along the black trail to the Darkening Land in the west, there to bury it in the black coffin under the black clay, never to reappear. At the final imprecation he stoops and, making a hole in the soft earth with his finger (symbolic of stabbing the doomed man in the heart) drops the black bead into it and covers it from sight with a vicious stamp of his foot; then with a simultaneous movement each man dips his ball sticks into the water, and bringing them up, touches them to his lips; then, stooping again, he dips up the water in his hand and laves his head and breast.
    "The ceremony ended, the players form in line, headed by the shaman, and march in single file to the ball ground, where they find awaiting them a crowd of spectators -- men, women and children -- sometimes to the number of several hundred, for they always turn out to the ball play, no matter how great the distance, from old Big Witch, stooping under the weight of nearly a hundred years, down to babies slung along at their mothers' backs. The ball ground is a level field by the river side, surrounded by the high timber-covered mountains. At either end are the goals, each consisting of a pair of upright poles, between which the ball must be driven to make a run, the side which makes 12 home runs being declared the winner of the game and the stakes. The ball is furnished by the challengers, who sometimes try to select one so small that it will fall through the netting of the ball sticks of their adversaries; but as the others are on the lookout for this, the trick usually fails of its purpose. After the ball is once set in motion it must be picked up only with the ball sticks, although after having picked up the ball with the sticks the player frequently takes it in his hand, and throwing away the sticks, runs with it until intercepted by one of the other party, when he throws it, if he can, to one of his friends farther on. Should a player pick up the ball with his hands, as sometimes happens in the scramble, there at once arises all over the field a chorus of "Uwahi Guti! Uwayi Guti!" (With the hand! With the hand" -- equivalent to our own "Foul! foul! '' and that inning is declared a draw.
    "While our men are awaiting the arrival of the other party, their friends crowd around them, and the women throw across their outstretched ball sticks the pieces of calico, the small squares of sheeting used as shawls, and the bright red handkerchiefs so dear to the heart of the Cherokee, which they intend to stake upon the game. Knives, trinkets, and sometimes small coins, are also wagered. But these Cherokees today are poor indeed. Hardly a man among them owns a horse, and never again will a chief bet a thousand dollars upon his favorites, as was done in Georgia in 1834. Today, however, as then, they will risk all they have.
    "Now a series of yells announces the near approach of the men from (the other town) and in a few minutes they come filing out from the bushes, stripped, scratched, and decorated like the others, carrying their ball sticks in their hands, and headed by a shaman. The two parties come together in the center of the ground, and for a short time the scene resembles an auction, as men and women move about, holding up the articles they propose to wager on the game and bidding for stakes to be matched against them. The betting being ended, the opposing players are drawn up in two lines facing each other, each man with his ball sticks laid together upon the ground in front of him, with the heads pointed toward the man facing him. This is for the purpose of matching the players so as to get the same number on each side; and should it be found that a player has no antagonist to face him he must drop out of the game. Such a result frequently happens, as both parties strive to keep their arrangements secret up to the last moment. There is no fixed number, the common quota being from nine to twelve on a side.
    "During the whole time that the game is in progress the shaman, concealed in the bushes by the water side, is busy with his prayers and incantations for the success of his clients and the defeat of their rivals. Through his assistant, who acts as messenger, he is kept advised of the movements of the players by seven men, known as counselors, appointed to watch the game for that purpose. Every little incident is regarded as an omen, and the shaman governs himself accordingly.
    "An old man now advances with the ball, and standing at one end of the lines, delivers a final address to the players, telling them that Unelanuhi, the Apportioner -- the sun -- is looking down upon them, urging them to acquit themselves in the games as their fathers have done before them; but above all to keep their tempers, so that none may have it to say that they got angry or quarreled, and that after it is over each one may return in peace along the white trail to rest in his white house. White in these formulas is symbolic of peace and happiness and all good things. He concludes with a loud "Ha! Taldu-gwu!" (Now for the twelve!" and throws the ball into the air. Instantly twenty pairs of ball sticks clatter together in the air, as their owners spring to catch the ball in its descent. In the scramble it usually happens that the ball falls to the ground, when it is picked up by one more active than the rest. Frequently, however, a man will succeed in catching it between his ball sticks as it falls, and, disengaging himself from the rest, starts to run with it to the goal; but before he has gone a dozen yards they are upon him, and the whole crowd goes down  together, rolling and tumbling over each other in the dust, straining and tugging for possession of the ball, until one of the players manages to extricate himself from the struggling heap and starts off with the ball. At once the others spring to their feet, and, throwing away their ball sticks, rush to intercept him or prevent his capture, their black hair streaming out behind and their naked bodies glistening in the sun as they run. The scene is constantly changing. Now the players are all together at the lower end of the field, when suddenly, with a powerful throw, a player sends the ball high over the heads of the spectators and into the bushes beyond. Before there is time to realize it, here they come with a grand sweep and a burst of short, sharp Cherokee exclamations, charging right into the crowd, knocking men and women to right and left, and stumbling over dogs and babies in their frantic efforts to get at the ball.
    "It is a very exciting game, as well as a very rough one, and in its general features is a combination of baseball, football, and the old-fashioned shinny. Almost everything short of murder is allowable in the game, and both parties sometimes go into the contest with the deliberate purpose of crippling or otherwise disabling the best players on the opposing sides. Serious accidents are common. In the last game which I witnessed one man was seized around the waist by a powerful adversary, raised into the air, and hurled down upon the ground with such force as to break his collar-bone. His friends pulled him out to one side and the game went on. Sometimes two men lie struggling on the ground, clutching at each other's throats, long after the ball has been carried to the other end of the field, until the drivers, armed with long stout switches, come running up and belabor both over their bare shoulders until they are forced to break their hold. It is also the duty of these drivers to gather the ball sticks thrown away in the excitement and restore them to their owners at the beginning of the next inning.
    "When the ball has been carried through the goal, the players come back to the center and take position in accordance with the previous instructions of their shamans. The two captains stand facing each other, and the ball is then thrown up by the captain of the side which won the last inning. Then the struggle begins again; and so the game goes on until one party scores 12 runs and is declared the victor and the winner of the stakes.
    "As soon as the game is over, usually about sundown, the winning players immediately go to the water again with their shamans and perform another ceremony for the purpose of turning aside the revengeful incantations of their defeated rivals. They then dress, and the crowd of hungry players, who have eaten nothing since they started for the dance the night before, make a combined attack on the provisions which the women now produce from their shawls and baskets. It should be mentioned that, to assuage thirst during the game, the players are allowed to drink a sour preparation made from green grapes and wild crabapples.
    "Although the contestants on both sides are picked men and strive to win, straining every muscle to the utmost, the impression left upon my mind after witnessing a number of games is that the same number of athletic young white men would have infused more robust energy into the play,  -- that is, provided they could stand upon their feet after all the preliminary fasting, bleeding, and loss of sleep.
     "Before separating, the defeated party usually challenges the victors to a second contest, and in a few days preparations are actively under way for another game.
References: Adair; Gilbert.
      Ballgame described by Louis-Philippe, Prince of Orleans, in 1797: "After dinner we crossed the river again with two hogsheads of whiskey, the garrison's drum, and a crowd of Inds. one or two of whom spoke English. We bore the two hogsheads in triumph onto the battlefield where all was being readied for the ball game. The Inds. call it Hannatsoke', with a long o and a very distinct last syllable. Ordinarily the game is preceded by a challenge from one team to the other, then come the war cry, the scalping cry, ...and finally the death cry.
    "...Before beginning, all the players strip down to a belt with a little square of cloth before, red, yellow, etc. hemmed in another color, and the same behind; which is called a breechclout. These two squares of cloth are tied together below in such a way that while they do not appear fastened, no indecencies are possible. That is their combat uniform, and they never wear more in war. Each player is armed with two rackets, crude versions of our tennis rackets. But they are narrower than ours and concave; you will see why. There is less string than in ours, and it is fairly slack. There is only one ball for the whole game. Each team defends one goal line.
    "The ball is topped up at center, where the players always begin by leaping in en masse, whacking rackets together in a scramble for the ball. Usually it falls to the ground and there is another battle of rackets for possession. Finally the one who comes up with it holds it between his two rackets, carries it off or at least passes it toward the goal line; victory goes to the team that moves the ball across the goal line most often. So one team will try to gain possession to pass it if not over, then at least in the general direction of the goal line, and the other tries to capture it and bring it back the other way. As soon as the ball crosses a goal line the offensive team scores one and the ball is brought back to center for another toss. The first team to score 12 wins. The game sparks race after race and shows off the savages' agility. It is highly suspenseful as well, for I have seen the ball picked up almost at one goal line and played all the way back to the other. If the player who has snared the ball is slow in passing it, he stands a good chance of losing it, and no holds are barred in taking it away from him. They start by chasing him, and if they catch him before he has thrown it, that is his hard luck; they buffet one another mercilessly and produce horrible spills; some have seen men killed on the spot. What is most admirable is that neither during the game nor afterward is there ever the least argument. During play no one says a word; the chiefs and spectators keep score, and as soon as the game ends the losers disappear, the winners carry off the prizes, and in a moment the battlefield is deserted. (Louis-Philippe, 92,93,94)

OTHER GAMES: "The game of Cherokee football was a form of social opposition between the sexes. It was played by a team of from 10 to 15 women matched against 10 or 15 men. Usually the women were given one strong man on their side for additional assistance. Each team was organized by a manager. The small groups comprising these teams were drawn from the same neighborhood. One side would challenge the other and the challenger had the privilege of kicking off. As in the ball game, scoring consisted in getting the ball to the enemy goal by fair means or foul and 12 scores counted a game. The ball used was the size of a baseball and was made of buckskin or cloth. An interesting phase of this game was the betting. The men generally bet a deer and the women bet bread. If the men were beaten they had to hunt and prepare a deer for a feast. If the women were beaten they had to prepare bread for a feast. This was generally chestnut or walnut bread.
    "The Cherokee basket game is a 'parlor game' (Culin, 1907). It is used in the family circle to while away the long winter evenings. The dice are 6 beans cut in half, the one side showing the black husk and the other the white interior. Sometimes 6 pieces of wood or 6 grains of corn colored black on one side are used. The dice are shaken in a shallow basket (4 inches deep by a foot square) and if 1 bean of a given color comes up it counts 1, if none comes up it counts 2 for the player. From a pile of from 18 to 24 beans kept as counters the corresponding number according to the score are put in front of the player. As soon as the counters are exhausted in the main pile, it becomes a contest between the players' piles and generally dwindles down into a contest between two. After the center pile is exhausted, 2 or 3 beans are taken from each player and this generally eliminates the weaker players. Most of the time 2 or 3 beans of a color come up and the player cries, "konigit! (nothing)" and passes the basket to another. If he scores, however, he gets another trial. Two partners may play against 2 others in this game and the women play against the men. Betting in the game as in the football game consists in the men betting a deer, squirrel, or rabbit against the women's bread. Today money is bet.
    "A sport current until... "about 1900"... was the grapevine pulling contest. This consisted in a contest between four to six men on one side and several women with one strong man on the other. The stronger side had to pull their opponents over a predetermined course in order to win. As in other sports, the women would bet bread and the men some form of game. (Gilbert, 270)
    "In reference to children's sports, one trait to be noted is the absolute separation of girls' from boys' sports. The boys play at hunting and athletic contests, the girls play at housekeeping or the like.
    "Running through Cherokee sports in general, then, are the following elements: Opposition and separation of the sexes, opposition of towns and conjurer groups, betting of goods and money, and the influence of magic." (Gilbert, 270)
CHUNKEY: "...each town had a chunkey yard. The latter, a large square court scraped smooth and level, was used for the game called 'chunkey'. This was played with a large disk made from quartzite, granite, or other fine-grained stone. The disks, five to six inches in diameter and about two inches thick, had concave faces. Almost perfectly symmetrical and highly polished, they required a prodigious amount of labor to make. The game was played by two persons at a time, each carrying a pole eight to ten feet long. As one of the players rolled the disk down the center of the court, he and his opponent ran after it, attempting to throw their poles close to the spot where they estimated the disk would stop rolling. The nearest pole gained the player one point, or if actually touching, two points. The game, once described as 'running hard labor' provided an outlet ...for gambling, with players and spectators alike staking their possessions on the outcome." (Lewis & Kneberg, 120,21)
      "..the greater part resolved to amuse themselves at a game they call nettecawaw, which I can give no other description of, than that each player having a pole about ten feet long, with several marks or divisions, one of them bowls a round stone, with one flat side and the other convex, on which the players all dart their poles after it; and the nearest counts according to the vicinity of the bowl to the marks on his pole." (Timberlake, 99,100)
       "Chungke" is translated as "running hard labor". Adair wrote: "They have near their state house, a square piece of ground well cleaned, and fine sand is carefully strewed over it, when requisite, to promote a swifter motion to what they throw along the surface.
     "Only one, or two on a side, play at this ancient game. They have a stone about two fingers broad at the edge, and two spans around; each party has a pole of about eight feet long, smooth, and tapering at each end, the points flat. They set off a-breast of each other at six yards from the end of the play ground: then one of them hurls the stone on its edge, in as direct a line as he can, a considerable distance toward the middle of the other end of the square; when they have run a few yards, each darts his pole anointed with bear's oil, with a proper force, as near as he can guess in proportion to the motion of the stone, that the end may lie close to the stone -- when this is the case, the person counts two of the game, and in proportion to the nearness of the poles to the mark, one is counted, unless by measuring, both are found to be at equal distance from the stone. In this manner, the players will keep running most part of the day, at half speed, under the violent heat of the sun, staking their silver ornaments, their nose, finger, and ear rings; their breast, arm and wrist plates, and even all their wearing apparel, except that which barely covers their middle. All the American Inds. are much addicted to this game, which to us appears to be a task of stupid drudgery; it seems however to be of early origin, when their forefathers used diversions as simple as their manners. The hurling stones they use at present, were time immemorial rubbed smooth on the rocks and with prodigious labour; they are kept with the strictest religious care, from one generation to another, and are exempted from being buried with the dead. They belong to the town where they are used, and are carefully preserved."
    "...The most popular game was the game called chunkey. Always played by males... they used a wheel-shaped disc made of carefully polished stone.... The rims of the stones vary, some are flat, some rounded, and some are believed such that when the stone is rolled, it goes in an arc to one side. The game was usually played by two men at a time, with crowds of onlookers betting on the outcome. Each player had  a pole. One of them rolled the stone and just as it was about to stop rolling, they both cast their poles at it, the object being to hit as near the stone as possible when it came to a rest. After they cast their poles, they ran after them, perhaps empathizing with their flight in the way modern bowlers empathize with the course of their bowling balls.
     "The chunkey stones were owned by the towns, or ...Each town had a smooth chunkey yard, sometimes covered with packed sand, where the game was played. The Cherokees scored their games in terms of how close the stone was to various marks on the pole. ...they sometimes bet extravagantly on the game, even to the point of losing all that they possessed." (Hudson, 421,2,3)
     HIDDEN BALL OR MOCCASIN GAME: "In this game a small stone or a similar object was hidden under one of our pieces of cloth or items of clothing, such as moccasins. The object of the game was to guess which one of the object was under. The skill consisted in misleading the guesser by special chants, swaying from side to side, and other tricks to make him guess wrongly. They kept score with small tally sticks cut two or three inches long. The game was played widely in North America, and the Inds. were amazingly adept at using subtle means of suggestion to make their opponents guess wrongly. The player, in turn, made false moves toward the moccasins to see if he could induce his opponent to give away the true location of the object. The same was adopted by the whites who reduced the number of "moccasins" to three.  it became such a popular gambling game that laws were passed against it in some places. The whites generally called the game, "bullet". Later it was called "the shell game".
     DICE: "They have several other Plays and Games: as, with the Kernels or Stones of Persimmons, which are in effect the same as our Dice, because Winning or Losing depend on which side appear uppermost, and how they happen to fall together" (Lawson, 180)
     BEAN GAME: Another game of pure chance was played with half a dozen or so beans or seeds that had a light side and a darkened side, much as the two faces of a coin. The Cherokees, for example, played the game with six beans or fruit seeds. They put them in  a shallow basket, shook them, and tossed them up into the air. Scoring was on the basis of the number of light or dark sides facing up." (Hudson, 426)
     SPLIT REED GAME: (proper name not known): This game is "played with small split reeds, seven inches in length, fifty-one in number. A player would throw a handful of reeds to his opponent and quickly announce his guess as to the number thrown and the number remaining in his hand. A set of these reeds was valued at a dressed doe skin." (Rights, 256)
"Their chiefest Game is a sort of Arithmetick, which is managed by a Parcel of small split Reeds, the Thickness of a small Bent; these are made very nicely, so that they part, and are tractable in their Hands. They are fifty one in Number, their Length about seven Inches; when they play, they throw part of them to their Antagonist; the Art is, to discover, upon sight, how many you have, and what you throw to him that plays with you. Some are so expert at their Numbers, that they will tell ten times together, what they throw out of their Hands. Although the whole Play is carried on with the quickest Motion it's possible to use, yet some are so expert at this Game, as to win great... Estates by this Play. A good Sett of these Reeds, fit to play withal, are valued and sold for a dress'd Doe-Skin." (Lawson, 179,180)

Dunuwa is an old verb, meaning "it has penetrated" probably referring to the fangs of the snake.
     Translation of the second and fourth lines:
Listen! Ha! It is only a common frog which has passed by and put it (the intruder) into you.
Listen! Ha! It is only an Usugi which has passed by and put it into you.
(Prescription) - Now this at the beginning is a song. One should say it twice and also say the second line twice. Rub tobacco juice on the bite for some time, or if there be no tobacco, just rub on saliva once. In rubbing it on, one must go around four times. Go around toward the left and blow four times in a circle. This is because in lying down the snake always coils to the right and this is just the same as uncoiling it. (Rights, 216,217)

MOVING PAINS IN THE TEETH (NEURALGIA?)
"Listen! In the sunland you repose, O Red Spider. Quickly you have brought and laid down the red path. O great adawehi, quickly you have brought down the red threads from above. The intruder in the tooth has spoken and it is only a worm. The tormentor has wrapped itself around the root of the tooth. Quickly you have dropped down the red threads, for it is just what you eat. Now it is for you to pick it up. The relief has been caused to come. Yu!" etc. etc.
    The disease spirit is called "the intruder" and "the tormentor" and is declared to be a mere worm, which has wrapped itself around the base of the tooth. This is the regular toothache theory. The shaman prays first to the Red Spider, and then in turn to the Blue Spider in the north, the Black Spider in the west, and the White Spider above, to let down the threads and take up the intruder, which is just what the spider eats.

HUNTING BIRDS
Listen! O Ancient White, where you dwell in peace. I have come to rest. Now let your spirit arise. Let it (the game shot and killed) be buried in your stomach, and may your appetite never be satisfied. The red hickories have tied themselves together. The clotted blood is your recompense...
O Ancient White, put me in the successful hunting trail. Hang the mangled things upon me. Let me come along the successful trail with them doubled up (under my belt). It (the road) is clothed with mangled things.
O Ancient White, O Kanati, support me continually, that I may never become blue. Listen!
     This formula is recited by the bird hunter in the morning while standing over the fire at his hunting camp before starting out for the day's hunt. On the way to the hunting ground he shoots away at random a short blowgun arrow and carries along the remaining six of regulation size.
    The prayer is addressed to the "Ancient White" (Fire), the spirit most frequently invoked by the hunter. The "clotted blood" refers to the blood-stained leaves upon which the fallen game has lain. The hunter gathers these up and casts them into the fire, in order to draw omens for the morrow from the manner in which they burn. "Let it be buried in your stomach" refers also to the offering made to the fire. By the "red hickories" are meant the strings of hickory bark which the bird hunter twists about his waist for a belt. The dead birds are carried by inserting their heads under this belt. "The mangled things" are the wounded birds.

FOR CATCHING LARGE FISH
This incantation, like many others, was given by "The Swimmer", Eastern Cherokee, about 1888.
     Listen! Now you settlements have drawn  near to hearken. Where you have gathered in the foam you are moving about as one. You Blue Cat and the others. I have come to offer you freely the white food. Let the paths from every direction recognize each other. Our spittle shall be in agreement. Let them (your spittle and my spittle) be together as we go about. They (the fish) have become a prey and there shall be no loneliness. Your spittle has become agreeable. I am called Swimmer. Yu!"
     "Spitting on the bait to attract big fish is evidently a very ancient custom. According to Swimmer's instructions, the fisherman must first chew a small piece of a plant which catches insects and spit it upon the bait and also upon the hook. He will be able to pull out the fish at once, or if the fish are not about at the moment, they will come in a very short time." (Rights, 219)

LOVE INCANTATION
     Ku! Listen! In Alahiyi you repose, O Terrible Woman, O you have drawn near to hearken. There in Elahiyi you are at rest, O White Woman. No one is ever lonely with you. You are most beautiful. Instantly and at once you have rendered me a white man. No one is ever lonely when with me. Now you have made the path white for me. It shall never be dreary. Now you have put me into it. It shall never become blue. You have brought down to me from above the white road.. I am very handsome. You have put me into the white house. I shall be in it as it moves about and no one with me shall ever be lonely. Verily, I shall never become blue....
     And now there in Elahiyi you have rendered the woman blue. Now you have made the path blue for her. Let her be completely veiled in loneliness. Put her into the blue road. And now bring her down. Place her standing upon the earth where her feet are now and wherever she may go. Let loneliness leave its mark upon her. Let her be marked out for loneliness where she stands.
     Ha! I belong to the (....____) clan, that one alone which was allotted for you. No one is ever lonely with me. I am handsome. Let her put her soul into the very center of my soul, never to turn away. Grant that in the midst of men she shall never think of them. I belong to the one clan alone which was allotted for you when the seven clans were established.
     When (other) men live it is lonely. They are very loathsome. The common polecat has made him so like himself that they are fit only for his company. They have become mere refuse. They are very loathsome. The common opossum has made them so like himself that they are fit only to be with him. They are very loathsome. Even the crow has made them so like himself that they are fit only for his company. They are very loathsome. The miserable rain-crow has made them so like himself that they are fit only to be with him.
     The seven clans all alike made one feel very lonely in their company. They are not even good looking. They go about clothed with mere refuse. They even go about covered with ordure. But I - I was ordained to be a white man. I stand with my face toward the Sun Land. No one is ever lonely with me. I am very handsome. I shall certainly never become blue. I am covered by the everlasting white house wherever I go. No one is ever lonely with me. Your soul has come into the very center of my soul, never to turn away. I (...name...) take your soul. Sge!
     Be careful of the colors listed here. The "white" does not mean that he has become like a white, European man, but has the Cherokee meaning of "white".... and  the "blue" is the opposite: it does not have the Cherokee meaning of  the color blue, but means that he shall never become depressed or apprehensive.
     Rights records In a somewhat similar strain there were formulas designed to fix affections. Here is a fragment from such a charm:
     Listen! "Ha! Now the souls have met, never to part," you have said, O Ancient One above. O Black Spider, you have been brought down from on high. You have let down your web -- Her soul you have wrapped up in your web... May you hold her soul in your web so that it shall never get through the meshes.

OVERCOMING ILL WILL
 "Cherokees had several formulas which a person could use to create a feeling of good will among a group of people in which he was going to be present. In some cases a man used a formula which was specifically meant to overcome the ill will that a particular member of a group held for him. If a person in the group was known to hold a bitter grudge, then it would become necessary to "remake" some tobacco and smoke it in his presence. The following is a particularly powerful formula.
     Now! Nearby here the Great Red Uktena now wends his way.
    Now! Now the glare of the Purple Lightning will dazzle the Red Uktena.
    Also this Ancient Tobacco will be as much of a thorough-going Wizard.
    Now! The Seven Reversers looking at me will be dazzled by the Great Red Uktena.
      In this formula a conjurer infuses the Red Uktena into the tobacco to bedazzle any Cherokee who was working against him or who held enmity toward him.
"Run Toward the Nightland", Kilpatrick & Kilpatrick, 149-153)

ATTRACTING A LOVER
    "In affairs of the heart the Cherokees used formulas, often strikingly beautiful ones abounding in bird symbolism. Used by both sexes, many of the formulas were meant to attract members of the opposite sex. Just as one could remake tobacco, one could invoke the red cardinal, red hummingbird, and red Tlanuwa and remake oneself, surrounding oneself with a spiritual aura which was irresistible to members of the opposite sex. The following formula was recited by a man who wished to gain a particular woman's attention at a dance. He recited it while bathing in a stream.
     Listen! O, now instantly, you have drawn near to hearken, O Ageyaguya (the moon). You have come to put your red spittle upon my body. My name is ___________. My clan is ___________.
The blue had affected me. You have come and clothed me with a red dress. She is of the _______ clan. She has become blue. You have directed her paths straight to where I have my feet, and I shall feel exultant. Listen!
     "The formula refers to the moon because the moon was believed to have a great effect on women, and the color red attracted women irresistibly. The allusion to the moon's spittle, the essence of its being, refers to the fact that in some of the formulas a person would actually spit on his hands and rub the saliva over his face and other parts of his body. The color blue represents a type of loneliness that made one susceptible to the opposite sex.
    The Cherokees also had formulas which guarded against alienation of affection. A man might be worried about his young wife who could be attracted by other men. At night, after she had fallen asleep, the man would sing the following song in a low voice:
      Listen! O, now you have drawn near to hearken.
         ---Your spittle, I take it, I eat it. (first night)
         ---Your body, I take it, I eat it. (second night)
         ---Your flesh, I take it, I eat it. (third night)
         ---Your heart, I take it, I eat it. (fourth night)
    Listen! O, now you have drawn near to hearken, O, Ancient One. This woman's soul has come to rest at the edge of your body. You are never to let go your hold upon it. It is ordained that you shall do just as you are requested to do. Let her never think upon any other place. His soul has faded within him. He is bound by black threads.
     On four successive nights, the man would moisten his fingers with spittle and rub it on his wife's breast while singing this formula. The second line of the formula was repeated four times. The last two sentences are curses on any would-be seducer. Cherokee priests claimed that if a man performed this ritual, he need never fear for his wife.
     To deal with still another affair of the heart, the Cherokees had a formula which a jealous suitor could use to separate two lovers or even husband and wife. A man either smoked tobacco or threw it in the fire before reciting the following formula:
     Yu! Oh high you repose, O Blue Hawk, there at the far distant lake. The blue tobacco has come to be your recompense. Now you have arisen at once and come down. You have alighted midway between them where they two are standing. You have spoiled their souls immediately. They have at once become separated.
    I am a white man; I stand at the sunrise. The good sperm shall never allow any feeling of loneliness. The white woman is of the ________ clan; she is called ___________. We shall instantly turn her soul over. We shall turn it over as we go toward the Sun Land. I am a white man.
My name is __________________. My clan is ____________. Here where I stand her soul has attached itself to mine. Let her eyes in their sockets be forever watching for me. There is no loneliness where I am."
"Sacred Formulas", Mooney, (381-382)
     The Blue Hawk is invoked because it brings trouble with it, separating the lovers and spoiling their souls for each other. The man uttering the formula says that he is a "white man" meaning that he is happy, attractive, fortunate, and never lonely.

VENGEANCE:
    "The conjury feared most ... was that which was done in the spirit of vengeance. They believed that a priest could cause a person to fall ill by magically intruding small objects, such as bits of cloth, flint, or charcoal, into his body. The Cherokee word for a priest who did this was dida:hnese:sg(i), literally a "putter-in and drawer-out of them". When Cherokees felt small rheumatic pains or stitches in their sides, they would suspect that they were being attacked by conjury. If they subsequently fell ill they would go to a priest who would make small incisions over the affected part of the body with a piece of briar, a sliver of flint, or a rattlesnake tooth. Then he would suck the object out.
    Or a person seeking vengeance could go to a priest and hire him to perform conjury that would cause his enemy to go made. Here is a particularly chilling formula to induce madness.
     Your Pathways are Black; you have become wood, not a human  being!
    Dog excrement will cling nastily to you.
    You will be living intermittently, "Woof!" You will be saying along toward the Nightland.
    Your Black Viscera will be lying all about. You will be all alone.
    You will be like the Brown Dog in heat. You are changed;  you have just become old.
              This is your clan _______________.
    In the very middle of the Prairie, changed, you will be carrying dog stools. "Woof!"
              you will be saying.
    "Your Pathway lies towards the Nightland!
      In this formula the victim is turned into a wooden thing with no feeling. In his madness he will behave like a dog, befouled with excrement, making the sounds of a dog - Woof!.
     "In addition to intruding objects into his victim's body a priest was believed to be able to cause his victim to fall ill or even to die by "changing his saliva", i.e., by causing it to change into lizards or plants inside his body. Mooney collected a formula from Swimmer which was believed to accomplish this. The priest first followed his victim around until he chanced to spit on the ground. Then he collected a little of the victim's spittle on the end of a stick and placed it inside a hollow joint of wild parsnip, a poisonous plant. Into this same hollow joint he placed seven earthworms beaten into a paste and several splinters from a tree which had been struck by lightning, thus thoroughly confounding and mixing things of the Upper World and Under World. The priest then took this tube into the forest to a tree which had been struck by lightning. At the base of the tree he dug a hole, placing a large yellow stone slab in the bottom. He placed the tube in the hold along with seven yellow pebbles. Then he filled the hold with earth, built a fire over it, and recited the following formula.
      Listen! Now I have come to step over your soul. You are of the __________ clan. Your name is ___________. My name is _________________. I am of the  _____________ clan. Your spittle I have put at rest under the earth. Your soul I have put at rest under the earth. I have come to cover you over with the black rock. I have come to cover you over with the black cloth. I have come to cover you with the black slabs, never to reappear. Toward the black coffin of the upland in the Darkening Land your paths shall stretch out. So shall it be for you. The clay of the upland has come to cover you. Instantly the black clay has lodged there where it is at rest at the black houses in the Darkening Land. With the black coffin and the black slabs I have come to cover you. Now your soul has faded away. It has become blue. When darkness comes your spirit shall grow less and dwindle away, never to reappear. Listen!
      Throughout this entire procedure, the priest and his client had to observe a strict fast. The statement that the victim's soul was blue means that he should begin to feel ill and experience troubles. The repeated uses of black signify death. If this ceremony were properly carried out, the victim was supposed to begin to feel the effects at once, and if he did not employ counter magic his soul was supposed to shrivel up and death would come within seven days. The priest and his client observed the man closely. If nothing happened to him they would assume that he had used counter magic, and perhaps that he had even succeeded in turning the curse back upon them -- a serious matter." (Hudson, 361,362).

 KEEPING THE WITCH AWAY:
     "...the difference between a priest and a witch. The priest used conjury to attack people in accordance with legal and moral concepts, while the witch attacked people involuntarily and uncontrollably. The priest wa moral, the witch was amoral. Because witches were believed to steal years of life away from their victims and add them to their own, it followed that witches were likely to be very old.
    The Cherokees believed that witches could read a person's thoughts, and that they could cause evil to happen by merely thinking it. They were believed to have the ability to transform themselves into other shapes, particularly into the guise of a purplish ball of fire, a wolf, a raven, a cat, or an owl. The Cherokees had several euphemisms for witches -- including "owl", "raven-mocker' and "night-walker", the latter referring to the witch's abnormal propensity for moving about at night, either flying throught he air or burrowing beneath the earth. As a way of keeping witches from stealing the soul of a person who was ill, a priest would blow a circle of smoke from remade ancient tobacco all around the house and recite the following formula.
    Now! No one is to climb over me!
    His soul itself over there will be broken as the Sun rises, this Thinker of me;
         in the very middle of the light of the setting Sun he will be broken,
         this Thinker of me!
    I will have emerged from the Seven Clans,
    Then I have just come to strike you with Small Arrows,
         with Small Arrows I have just come to strike you!
    Then I have just come to strike you with Lightning!
    Then I have just come to strike you with Thunder!
    Then with Clay your soul will be broken!
"Run Toward the Nightland", Kilpatrick & Kilpatrick, 158-159)
Fire and lightning, the principal means of achieving purity, were especially powerful against witches.

DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIPS:
    "...they lived out their lives in small, intense, social worlds, where disordered relationships could cause grave difficulties. And getting at the root of such troubled relationships could be a murky business indeed. Seen in this light, it is altogether likely that the means of divination used by the priests might have actually helped to free their minds from thinking in the accustomed channels, thus helping them come up with unusual solutions to what was troubling their patients. This is suggested in a remarkable formula:
    May I have Your attention now? Thunder, I obey You, and You love me for it.
    You feed upon my soul.
    All night long I am filled with Your Spirit, which is life itself.
    No evil can come to me.
    Make my consciousness weightless and free, like the movements of that agile insect,
               the Water Strider.
    Well! You know I have a duty to perform; to find out something.
    You know me: for I am ________________ of the _________________ clan.
 "Run Toward the Nightland", Kilpatrick and Kilpatrick, (119-120)

BEAR: "ORIGIN OF THE BEAR: The Bear Songs."
    Long ago there was a Cherokee clan called the Ani-Tsaguhi, and in one family of this clan was a boy who used to leave home and be gone all day in the mountains. After a while he went oftener and stayed longer, until at last he would not eat in the house at all, but started off at daybreak and did not come back until night. His parents scolded, but that did no good, and the boy still went every day until they noticed that long brown hair was beginning to grow out all over his body. Then they wondered and asked him why it was that he wanted to be so much in the woods that he would not even eat at home. Said the boy, "I find plenty to eat there, and it is better than the corn and beans we have in the settlements, and pretty soon I am going into the woods to stay all the time". His parents were worried and begged him not to leave them, but he said, "It is better there than here, and you see I am beginning to be different already, so that I can not live here any longer. If you will come with me, there is plenty for all of us and you will never have to work for it; but if you want to come you must first fast seven days".
     The father and mother talked it over and then told the headmen of the clan. They held a council about the matter and after everything had been said they decided: "Here we must work hard and have not always enough. There he says there is always plenty without work. We will go with him". So they fasted seven days, and on the seventh morning all the Ani-Tsaguhi left the settlement and started for the mountains as the boy led the way.
    When the people of the other towns heard of it they were very sorry and sent their headmen to persuade the Ani-Tsaguhi to stay home and not go into the woods to live. The messengers found them already on the way, and were surprised to notice that their bodies were beginning to be covered with hair like that of animals, because for seven days they had not taken human food and their nature was changing. The Ani-Tsaguhi would not come back, but said, "We are going where there is always plenty to eat. Hereafter we shall be called yanu (bears), and when you yourselves are hungry come into the woods and call us and we shall come to give you our own flesh. You need not be afraid to kill us, for we shall live always". Then they taught the messengers the songs with which to call them, and the bear hunters have these songs still. Then they had finished the songs the Ani-Tsaguhi started on again and the messengers turned back to the settlements, but after going a little way they looked back and saw a drove of bears going into the woods.
     NOTE: It is for these reasons that a Cherokee did not have to offer apologies, or make ritual offerings, for killing a bear, as they did for other animals. .

DISEASE: "ORIGIN OF DISEASE AND MEDICINE".
     In the old days quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and insects could all talk, and they and the human race lived together in peace and friendship. But as time went on the people increased so rapidly that their settlements spread over the whole earth and the poor animals found themselves beginning to be cramped for room. This was bad enough, but to add to their misfortunes man invented bows, knives, blowguns, spears, and hooks, and began to slaughter the larger animals, birds, and fishes for the sake of their flesh or their skins, while the smaller creatures, such as the frogs and worms, were crushed and trodden upon without mercy, out of pure carelessness or contempt. In this state of affairs the animals resolved to consult upon measures for their common safety.
    The bears were the first to meet in council in their town house in Kuwahi, the "Mulberry Place" (one of the high peaks of the Smoky Mountains, on the Tennessee line, near Clingman's Dome), and the old White Bear chief presided. After each in turn had made complaint against the way in which man killed their friends, devoured their flesh, and used their skins for his own adornment, it was unanimously decided to begin war at once against the human race. Some one asked what weapons man used to accomplish their destruction. "Bows and arrows, of course", cried all the bears in chorus. "And what are they made of?" was the next question. "The bow of wood and the string of our own entrails," replied one of the bears. It was then proposed that they make a bow and some arrows and see if they could not turn man's weapons against himself. So one bear got a nice piece of locust wood and another sacrificed himself for the good of the rest in order to furnish a piece of his entrails for the string. But when everything was ready and the first bear stepped up to make the trial it was found that in letting the arrow fly after drawing back the bow, his long claws caught the string and spoiled the shot. This was annoying, but another suggested that he could overcome the difficulty by cutting his claws, which was accordingly done, and on a second trial it was found that the arrow went straight to the mark. But here the chief, the old White Bear, interposed and said that it was necessary that they should have long claws in order to climb trees. "One of us has already died to furnish the bow, and if we now cut off our claws we shall all have to starve together. It is better to trust to the teeth and claws which nature gave us, for it is evident that man's weapons were not intended for us".
    No one could suggest any better plan, so the old chief dismissed the council and the bears dispersed to their forest haunts without having concerted any means for preventing the increase of the human race. Had the result of the council been otherwise, we should now be at war with the bears, but as it is, the hunter does not even ask the bear's pardon when he kills one.
    The deer next held a council under their chief, the Little Deer, and after some deliberation resolved to inflict rheumatism upon every hunter who should kill one of their number, unless he took care to ask their pardon for the offense. They sent notice of their decision to the nearest settlement of Inds and told them at the same time how to make propitiation when necessity forced them to kill one of the deer tribe. Now, whenever the hunter brings down a deer, the Little Deer, who is swift as the wind and cannot be wounded, runs quickly up to the spot and bending over the blood stains asks the spirit of the deer if it has heard the prayer of the hunter for pardon. If the reply be "Yes" all is well and Little Deer goes on his way; but if the reply be in the negative he follows on the trail of the hunter, guided by the drops of blood on the ground, until he arrives at the cabin in the settlement, when the Little Deer enters invisibly and strikes the neglectful hunter with rheumatism, so that he is rendered on the instant a helpless cripple. No hunter who has regard for his health ever fails to ask pardon of the deer for killing it, although some who have not learned the proper formula may attempt to turn aside the Little Deer from his pursuit by building a fire behind them in the trail.
    Next came the fishes and reptiles, who had their own grievances against humanity. They held a joint council and determined to make their victims dream of snakes twining about them in slimy folds and blowing their fetid breath in their faces, or to make them dream of eating raw or decaying fish, so that they would lose appetite, sicken, and die. Thus it is that snake and fish dreams are accounted for.
    Finally the birds, insects, and smaller animals came together for a like purpose, and the grubworm presided over the deliberations. It was decided that each in turn should express his opinion and then vote on the question as to whether or not man should be deemed guilty. Seven votes were to be sufficient to condemn him. One after another denounced man's cruelty and injustice toward the other animals and voted in favor of his death. The Frog spoke first and said: "We must do something to check the increase or the race of people will become so numerous that we shall be crowded from off the earth. See how man has kicked me about because I'm ugly, as he says, until my back is covered with sores", and here he showed the spots on his skin. Next came the Bird, who condemned man because "he burns my feet off", alluding to the way in which the hunter barbecues birds by impaling them on a stick set over the fire, so that their feathers and tender feet are singed and burned. Others followed in the same train. The Ground Squirrel alone ventured to say a word in behalf of man, who seldom hurt him because he was so small; but this so enraged the others that they fell upon the Ground Squirrel and tore him with their teeth and claws, and the stripes remain on his back to this day.
    The assembly began to devise and name various diseases, one after another, and had not their invention finally failed them not one of the human race would have been able to survive. The Grubworm in his place of honor hailed each new malady with delight, until at last they had reached the end of the list, when someone suggested that it be arranged so that ailments peculiar to woman would sometimes prove fatal. On this he rose up in his place and cried: "Watan! Thanks! I'm glad some of them will die, for they are getting so thick that they tread on me". He fairly shook with joy at the thought, so that he fell over backward and could not get on his feet again, but had to wriggle off on his back, as the Grubworm has done ever since.
     When the plants, who were friendly to man, heard what had been done by the animals, they determined to defeat their evil designs. Each tree, shrub, and herb, down even to the grasses and mosses, agreed to furnish a remedy for some one of the diseases named, and each said: "I shall appear to help man when he calls upon me in his need". Thus did medicine originate, and the plants, each one of which has its use if we only knew it, furnish the antidote to counteract the evil wrought by the revengeful animals. When the doctor is in doubt what treatment to apply for the relief of a patient, the spirit of the plant suggests to him the proper remedy."
 
FIRE: "THE FIRST FIRE"
    In the beginning there was no fire, and the world was cold, until the Thunders(Ani-Hyuntik- walaski) who lived up in Galunlati, sent their lightning and put fire into the bottom of a hollow sycamore tree which grew on an island. The animals knew it was there, because they could see the smoke rising out at the top, but they could not get to it on account of the water, so they held a council to decide what to do. This was a long time ago.
    Every animal that could fly or swim was anxious to go after the fire. The Raven offered, and because he was so large and strong they thought he could surely do the work, so he was sent first. He flew high and far across the water and alighted on the sycamore tree, but while he was wondering what to do next, the heat had scorched all his feathers black, and he was frightened and came back without the fire. The little Screech-owl (Wahuhu) volunteered to go, and reached the place safely, but while he was looking down into the hollow tree a blast of hot air came up and nearly burned out his eyes. He managed to fly home as best he could, but it was a long time before he could see well, and his eyes are red to this day. Then the Hooting Owl (Uguku) and the Horned Owl (Tskuli) went, but by the time they got to the hollow tree the fire was burning so fiercely that the smoke nearly blinded them, and the ashes carried up by the wind made white rings about their eyes. They had to come home again without the fire, but with all their rubbing they were never able to get rid of the white rings.
    Now no more of the birds would venture, and so the little Uksuhi snake, the black racer, said he would go through the water and bring back some fire. He swam across the island and crawled through the grass to the tree, and went in by a small hole at the bottom. The heat and smoke were too much for him, too, and after dodging about blindly over the hot ashes until he was almost on fire himself he managed by good luck to get out again at the same hole, but his body had been scorched black, and he has ever since had the habit of darting and doubling on his track as if trying to escape from close quarters. He came back, and got the great blacksnake, Gulegi, "The Climber" offered to go for fire. He swam over to the island and climbed up the tree on the outside, as the blacksnake always does, but when he put his head down into the hole the smoke choked him so that he fell into the burning stump, and before he could climb out again he was as black as the Uksuhi.
    Now they held another council, for still there was no fire, and the world was cold, but birds, snakes, and four-footed animals, all had some excuse for not going, because they were all afraid to venture near the burning sycamore, until at last Kananeski Amaiyehi (the Water Spider) said she would go. This is not the water spider that looks like a mosquito, but the other one, with black downy hair and red stripes on her body. She can run on top of the water or dive to the bottom, so there would be no trouble to get over to the island, but the question was, How could she bring back the fire? "I'll manage that" said the Water Spider; so she spun a thread from her body and wove it into a tusti bowl, which she fastened on her back. Then she crossed over to the island and through the grass to where the fire was still burning. She put one little coal of fire into her bowl, and came back with it, and ever since we have had fire, and the Water Spider still keeps her tusti bowl.

NIKWASI:  "The Spirit Defenders of Nikwasi".
    Long ago a powerful unknown tribe invaded the Cherokee country, killing people and destroying settlements wherever they went. No leader could stand against them, and in a little while they had wasted all the lower settlements and advanced into the mountains. The warriors of the old town of Nikwasi, on the head of the Little Tennessee, gathered their wives and children into the townhouse and kept scouts constantly on the lookout for the presence of danger.
     One morning just before daybreak the spies saw the enemy approaching and at once gave the alarm. The Nikwasi men seized their arms and rushed out to meet the attack, but after a long, hard fight they found themselves overpowered and began to retreat, when suddenly a stranger stood among them and shouted to the War Leader  to call off his men and he himself would drive back the enemy. From the dress and language of the stranger the Nikwasi people thought him a chief who had come with reinforcements from the Overhill settlements in Tennessee. They fell back along the trail, and as they came near the townhouse they saw a great company of warriors coming out from the side of the mound as through an open doorway. Then they knew that their friends were .. the Immortals, although no one had ever heard before that they lived under Nikwasi mound.
    The Immortals poured out by hundreds, armed and painted for the fight, and the most curious thing about it all was that they became invisible as soon as they were fairly outside of the settlement, so that although the enemy saw the glancing arrow or the rushing tomahawk, and felt the stroke, he could not see who sent it. Before such invisible foes the invaders soon had to retreat, going first south along the ridge to where it joins the main ridge which separates the French Broad from the Tuckasegee, and then turning with it to the northeast. As they retreated they tried to shield themselves behind rocks and trees, but the Immortals arrows went around the rocks and killed them from the other side, and they could find no hiding place. All along the ridge they fell, until when they reached the head of Tuckasegee not more than half a dozen were left alive, and in despair they sat down and cried out for mercy.
     Ever since then the Cherokee have called the place Dayulsunyi, "Where they cried". Then the Immortals War Leader  told them they had deserved their punishment for attacking a peaceful people, and he spared their lives and told them to go home and take the news to their people. This was the custom, always to spare a few to carry back the news of defeat. They went home toward the north and the Immortals went back to the mound.
     And they are still there, because in the Civil War when a strong party of Federal troops came to surprise a handful of Confederates posted there, they saw so many soldiers guarding the town that they were afraid and went away without making an attack." (Hudson, 171)

POSSUM: WHY THE POSSUM'S TAIL IS BARE
    The Possum used to have a long bushy tail, and was so proud of it that the combed it out every morning and sang about it at the dance, until the Rabbit, who had had no tail since the Bear pulled it out, became very jealous and made up his mind to play the Possum a trick.
    There was to be a great council and a dance at which all the animals were to be present. It was the Rabbit's business to send out the news, so as he was passing the Possum's place he stopped to ask him if he intended to be there. The Possum said he would come if he could have a special seat, "because I have such a handsome tail that I ought to sit where everybody can see me". The Rabbit promised to attend to it and to send some one besides to comb and dress the Possum's tail for the dance; so the Possum was very, very pleased and agreed to come.
     Then the Rabbit went over to the Cricket, who is such an expert hair-cutter that the people call him the Barber, and told him to go next morning and dress the Possum's tail for the dance that night. He told the Cricket just what to do and then went on about some other mischief.
    In the morning the Cricket went to the Possum's house and said he had come to get him ready for the dance. So the Possum stretched himself out and shut his eyes while the Cricket combed out his tail and wrapped a red string around it to keep it smooth and straight until night. But all this time, as he would wind the string around, he was clipping off the hair close to the roots, and the Possum never knew it.
    When it was night the Possum went to the townhouse where the dance was to be and found the best seat ready for him, just as the Rabbit had promised. When his turn came in the dance he loosened the string from his tail and stepped into the middle of the floor. The drummers began to drum and the Possum began to sing, "See my beautiful tail". Everybody shouted and he danced around the circle and sang again, "See what a fine color it has". They shouted again and he danced around another time, singing "See how it sweeps the ground". The animals shouted more loudly than ever, and the Possum was delighted. He danced around the circle of animals and they were all laughing at him. Then he looked down at his beautiful tail and saw that there was not a hair left upon it, but that it was as bare as the tail of a lizard. He was so much astonished and ashamed that he could not say a word, but rolled over helpless on the ground and grinned, as the Possum does to this day when taken by surprise.

RABBIT: "THE RABBIT GOES DUCK HUNTING"
    The Rabbit was so boastful that he would claim to do whatever he saw anyone else do, and so tricky that he could usually make the other animals believe it all. Once he pretended that he could swim in the water and eat fish just as the Otter did, and when the others told him to prove it he fixed up a plan so that the Otter himself was deceived.
    Soon afterward they met again and the Otter said, "I eat ducks sometimes". Said the Rabbit, "Well, I eat ducks, too". The Otter challenged him to try it; so they went up along the river until they saw several ducks in the water and managed to get near without being seen. The Rabbit told the Otter to go first. The Otter never hesitated, but dived from the bank and swam under water until he reached the ducks, when he pulled one down without being noticed by the others, and came back in the same way.
    While the Otter had been under the water the Rabbit had peeled some bark from a sapling and made himself a noose. "Now," he said, "Just watch me", and he dived in and swam a little way under the water until he was nearly choking and had to come up to the top to breathe. He went under again and came up again a little nearer to the ducks. He took another breath and dived under, and this time he came up among the ducks and threw the noose over the head of one and caught it. The duck struggled hard and finally spread its wings and flew from the water with the Rabbit hanging on to the noose.
    It flew on and on until at last the Rabbit could not hold on any longer, but had to let go and drop. As it happened, he fell into a tall hollow sycamore stump without any hole at the bottom to get out from, and there he stayed until he was so hungry that he had to eat his own fur, as the rabbit does ever since when he is starving. After several days, when he was very weak with hunger, he heard children playing outside around the trees. He began to sing:
    Cut a door and look at me;
    I'm the prettiest thing you ever did see.
The children ran home and told their father, and came and began to cut a hole in the tree. As he chopped away the Rabbit inside kept singing, "Cut it larger, so you can see me better; I'm so pretty". They made the hole larger, and then the Rabbit told them to stand back so that they could take a good look at him as he came out. They stood away back, and the Rabbit watched his chance and jumped out and got away.

RABBIT AND POSSUM: "THE RABBIT AND THE POSSUM AFTER A WIFE"
    The Rabbit and the Possum each wanted a wife, but no one would marry either of them. They talked over the matter and the Rabbit said, "We can't get wives here; let's go to the next settlement. I'm the messenger for the council, and I'll tell the people that I bring an order that everybody must take a mate at once, and then we'll be sure to get our wives."
    The Possum thought this was a fine plan, so they started off together to the next town. As the Rabbit traveled faster, he got there first and waited outside until the people noticed him and took him into the townhouse. When the chief came to ask his business, the Rabbit said he brought an important order from the council that everybody must get married without delay. So the chief called the people together and told them the message from the council. Every animal took a mate at once, and the Rabbit got a wife.
    The Possum traveled so slowly that he got there after all the animals had mated, leaving him still without a wife. The Rabbit pretended to be sorry for him and said, "Never mind, I'll carry the message to the people in the next settlement and you hurry on as fast as you can,  and this time you will get your wife."
    So he went on to the next town, and the Possum followed close after him. But when the Rabbit got to the townhouse he sent out the word that, as there had been peace so long that everybody was getting lazy, the council had ordered that there must be a war at once and that they must begin right in the townhouse. So they all began fighting, but the Rabbit made four great leaps and got away just as the Possum came in. Everybody jumped on the Possum, who had not thought of bringing his weapons on a wedding trip, and so he could not defend himself. They nearly beaten the life out of him when he had a good idea. He fell over and pretended to be dead until he saw a good chance to jump up and get away. The Possum never got a wife, but he remembers the lesson, and ever since, when he is in a close corner, he just lays down,  pretends to be dead, and fools everyone. . That's where we got the expression, "Playing Possum!"

RAVEN MOCKER:
     Of all the Cherokee wizard or witches the most dreaded is the Raven Mocker ... the one that robs the dying man of life. They are of either sex and there is no sure way to know one, though they usually look withered and old, because they have added so many lives to their own.
    At night, when someone is sick or dying in the settlement, the Raven Mocker goes to the place to take the life. He flies through the air in fiery shape, with arms outstretched like wings, and sparks trailing behind, and a rushing sound like the voice of a strong wind. Every little while as he flies he makes the cry like the cry of a raven when it 'dives' in the air -- not like the common raven cry -- and those who hear it are afraid, because they know that some man's life will soon go out. When the Raven Mocker comes to the house he finds others of his kind waiting there, and unless there is a doctor on guard who knows how to drive them away they go inside, all invisible, and frighten and torment the sick man until they kill him. Sometimes to do this they even lift him from the bed and throw him on the floor, but his friends who are with him think he is only struggling for breath.
    After the witches kill him they take out his heart and eat it, and so add to their own lives as many days or years as they have taken from his. No one in the room can see them, and there is no scar where they take out the heart, but yet there is no heart left in the body. Only one who has the right medicine can recognize a Raven Mocker, and if such a man stays in the room with the sick person these witches are afraid to come in, and retreat as soon as they see him, because when one of them is recognized in his right shape he must die within seven days.
    The other witches are jealous of the Raven Mockers and afraid to come into the same house with one. Once a man who had the witch medicine was watching by a sick man and saw these other witches outside trying to get in. All at once they heard a Raven Mocker cry overhead and the others scattered like a flock of pigeons when the hawk sweeps down. When at last a Raven Mocker dies these other witches sometimes taken revenge by digging up the body and abusing it.
    The following is told as a true story:
    A young man had been out on a hunting trip and was on his way home when night came on while he was still a long distance from the settlement. He knew of a house not far off the trail where an old man and his wife lived, so he turned in that direction to look for a place to sleep until morning. When he got to the house there was nobody in it. He looked into the as (A small, heavily insulated house, used in cold weather) and found no one there either. He thought maybe they had gone after water, and so stretched himself out in the farther corner to sleep. Very soon he heard a raven cry outside, and in a little while afterwards the old man came into the as and sat down by the fire without noticing the young man, who kept still in the dark corner. Soon there was another raven cry outside, and the old man said to himself, "Now my wife is coming", and sure enough in a little while the old woman came in and sat down by her husband. Then the young men knew they were Raven Mockers and he was frightened and kept very quiet.
    Said the old man to his wife, "Well, what luck did you have?" "None," said the old woman, "there were too many doctors watching. What luck did you have?" "I got what I went for," said the old man, "there is no reason to fail, but you never have luck. Take this and cook it and let's have something to eat". She fixed the fire and then the young man smelled meat roasting and thought it smelled sweeter than any meat he had ever tasted. He peeped out from one eye, and it looked like a man's heart roasting on a stick.
    Suddenly the old woman said to her husband, "Who is over in the corner?" "Nobody," said the old man. "Yes, there is," said the old woman. "I hear him snoring", and she stirred the fire until it blazed up and lighted up the whole place, and there was the young man lying in the corner. He kept quiet and pretended to be asleep. The old man made a noise at the fire to wake him, but still he pretended to sleep. Then he old man came over and shook him, and he sat up and rubbed his eyes as if he had been asleep all the time.
    Now it was near daylight and the old woman was out in the other house getting breakfast ready, but the hunter could hear her crying to herself. "Why is your wife crying?" he asked the old man. "Oh, she has lost some of her friends lately and feels lonesome," said her husband, but the young man knew that she was crying because he had heard them talking.
    When they came out to breakfast the old man put a bowl of corn mush before him and said, "This is all we have -- we have had no meat for a long time". After breakfast the young man started on again, but when he had gone a little way the old man ran after him with a fine piece of beadwork and gave it to him, saying, "Take this, and don't tell anybody what you heard last night, because my wife and I are always quarreling that way". The young man took the piece, but when he came to the first creek he threw it into the water and then went on to the settlement. There he told the whole story, and a party of warriors started back with him to kill the Raven Mockers. When they reached the place it was seven days after the first night. They found the old man and his wife lying dead in the house, so they set fire to it and burned it and the witches together".

SPEARFINGER:
    Long, long ago -- in ancient time -- there dwelt in the mountains a terrible ogress, a woman monster, whose food was human livers. She could take on any shape or appearance to suit her purpose, but in her right form she looked very much like an old woman, excepting that her whole body was covered with a skin as hard as a rock that no weapon could wound or penetrate, and that on her right hand she had a long, stony forefinger of bone, like an awl or spearhead, with which she stabbed everyone to whom she could get near enough. On account of this fact she was called "Spearfinger", and on account of her stony skin she was sometimes called "Stone-dress". There was another stone-clothed monster that killed people, but that is a different story.
    Spearfinger had such powers over stone that she could easily lift and carry immense rocks, and could cement them together by merely striking one against another. To get over the rough country more easily she undertook to build a great rock bridge through the air from -- the "Tree rock" on Hiwassee, over to ... Whiteside mountain on the Blue Ridge, and had it well started from the top of the "Tree rock" when the lightning struck it and scattered the fragments along the whole ridge, where the pieces can still be seen by those who go there. She used to range all over the mountains about the heads of the streams and in the dark passes of Nantahala, always hungry and looking for victims. Her favorite haunt  on the Tennessee side was about the gap on the trail where Chilhowee mountain comes down to the river.
    Sometimes an old woman would approach along the trail where the children were picking strawberries or playing near the village, and would say to them coaxingly, "Come, my grandchildren, come to your granny and let granny dress your hair". When some little girl ran up and laid her head on the old woman's lap to be petted and combed the old witch would gently run her fingers through the child's hair until it went to sleep, when she would stab the little one through the heart or back of the neck with the long awl finger, which she had kept hidden under her robe. Then she would take out the liver and eat it.
    She would enter a house by taking the appearance of one of the family who happened to have gone out for a short time, and would watch her chance to stab someone with her long finger and take out his liver. She could stab him without being noticed, and often the victim did not even know it himself at the time -- for it left no wound and caused no pain -- but went on about his affairs, until all at once he felt weak and began gradually to pine away, and was always sure to die, because Spearfinger had taken his liver.
    When the Cherokee went out in the fall, according to their custom, to burn the leaves off from the mountains in order to get the chestnuts on the ground, they were never safe, for the old witch was always on the lookout, and as soon as she saw the smoke rise she knew there were people there and sneaked up to try to surprise one alone. So as well as they could they tried to keep together, and were very cautious of allowing any stranger to approach the camp. But if one went down to the spring for a drink they never knew but it might be the liver eater that came back and sat with them.
    Sometimes she took her proper form, and once or twice, when far out from the settlements, a solitary hunter had seen an old woman, with a queer-looking hand, going through the woods singing  low to herself:
                                          Uwela natsiku' Su sa' sai
                                           Liver, I eat it. Su sa' sai.
     It was rather a pretty song, but it chilled his blood, for he knew it was the liver eater, and he hurried away, silently before she might see him.
    At last a great council was held to devise some means to get rid of Spearfinger before she should destroy everybody. The people came from all around, and after much talk it was decided that the best way would be to trap her in a pitfall where all the warriors could attack her at once. So they dug a deep pitfall across the trail and covered it over with earth and grass as if the ground had never been disturbed. Then they kindled a large fire of brush near the trail and hid themselves in the laurels, because they knew she would come as soon as she saw the smoke.
    Sure enough they soon saw an old woman coming along the trail. She looked like an old woman whom they knew well in the village, and although several of the wiser men wanted to shoot at her, the others interfered, because they did not want to hurt one of their own people. The old woman came slowly along the trail, with one hand under her blanket, until she stepped upon the pitfall and tumbled through the brush top into the deep hole below. Then, at once, she showed her true nature, and instead of the feeble old woman there was the terrible Spearfinger with her stony skin, and her sharp awl finger reaching out in every direction for some one to stab.
    The hunters rushed out from the thicket and surrounded the pit, but shoot as true and as often as they could, their arrows struck the stony mail of the witch only to be broken and fall useless at her feet, while she taunted them and tried to climb out of the pit to get at them. They kept out of her way, but were only wasting their arrows when a small bird -- the titmouse, perched on a tree overhead, and began to sing, "un, un, un". They thought it was saying unahu' (heart) meaning that they should aim at the heart of the stone witch. They directed their arrows where the heart should be, but the arrows only glanced off with the flint heads broken.
    Then they caught the titmouse and cut off its tongue, so that ever since its tongue is short and everybody knows it is a liar. When the hungers let it go it flew straight up into the sky until it was out of sight and never came back. The titmouse that we know now is only an image of the other.
    They kept up the fight without result until another bird, little chickadee, flew down from a tree and alighted upon the witch's right hand. The warriors took this as a sign that they must aim there, and they were right, for her heart was on the inside of her hand, which she kept doubled into a fist, this same awl hand with which she had stabbed so many people. Now she was frightened in earnest, and began to rush furiously at them with her long awl finger and to jump about in the pit to dodge the arrows, until at last a lucky arrow struck just where the awl joined her wrist and she fell down dead.
    Ever since then the chickadee is known as a truth teller, and when a man is away on a journey, if this bird comes and perches near the house and chirps its song, his friends know he will soon be safe home."

 STRAWBERRIES: "ORIGIN OF STRAWBERRIES"
    When the first man was created and a mate was given to him, they lived together very happily for a time, but then began to quarrel, until at last the woman left her husband and started off toward Nundagunyi, the Sunland, in the east. The man followed alone and grieving, but the woman kept on steadily ahead and never looked behind, until Unelanunhi, (The great Apportioner, the Sun) took pity on him and asked him if he was still  angry with his wife. He said he was not, and Unelanunhi then asked him if he would like to have her back again, to which he eagerly answered yes.
    So Unelanunhi caused a patch of the finest ripe huckleberries to spring up along the path in front of the woman, but she passed by without paying any attention to them. Farther on he put a clump of blackberries, but these also she refused to notice. Other fruits, one, two, and three, and then some trees covered with beautiful red service berries, were placed beside the path to tempt her, but she still went on until suddenly she saw in front a patch of large ripe strawberries, the first ever known. She stopped to gather a few to eat, and as she picked them she chanced to turn her face to the west, and at once the memory of her husband came back to her and she found herself unable to go on. She sat down, but the longer she waited the stronger became her desire for her husband, and at last she gathered a bunch of the finest berries and started back along the path to give them to him. He met her kindly and they went home happily together.

TERRAPIN AND RABBIT: "HOW THE TERRAPIN BEAT THE RABBIT".
    The Rabbit was a great runner, and everybody knew it. No one thought the Terrapin anything but a slow traveler, but he was a great warrior and very boastful, and the two were always disputing about their speed. At last they agreed to decide the matter by a race. They fixed the day and the starting place and arranged to run across four mountain ridges, and the one who came in first at the end was to be the winner.
    The Rabbit felt so sure of it that he said to the Terrapin, "You know you can't run fast. You can never win the race, so I'll give you the first ridge and then you'll have only three to cross while I go over four".
    The Terrapin said that would be all right, but that night when he went home to his family he sent for his Terrapin friends and told them he wanted their help. He said he knew he could not outrun the  Rabbit, but he wanted to stop the Rabbit's boasting. He explained his plan to his friends and they agreed to help him.
    "When the day came all the animals were there to see the race. The Rabbit was with them, but the Terrapin was gone ahead toward the first ridge, as they had arranged, and they could hardly see him on account of the long grass. The word was given and the Rabbit started off with long jumps up the mountain, expecting to win the race before the Terrapin could get down the other side. But before he got up the mountain he saw the Terrapin go over the ridge ahead of him. He ran on, and when he reached the top he looked all around, but could not see the Terrapin on account of the long grass. He kept on down the mountain and began to climb the second ridge, but when he looked up again there was the Terrapin just going over the top. Now he was surprised and made his longest jumps to catch up, but when he got to the top there was the Terrapin away in front going over the third ridge. The Rabbit was getting tired now and nearly out of breath, but the kept on down the mountain and up the other ridge until he got to the top just in time to see the Terrapin cross the fourth ridge and thus win the race.
    The Rabbit could not make another jump, but fell over on the ground crying mi, mi, mi, mi, as the Rabbit does ever since when he is too tired to run any more. The race was given to the Terrapin and all the animals wondered how he could win against the Rabbit, but he kept still and never told.
    It was easy enough, however, because all the Terrapin's friends looked just alike, and he had simply posted one near the top of each ridge to wait until the Rabbit came in sight and then climb over and hide in the long grass. When the  Rabbit came on he could not find the Terrapin and so thought the Terrapin was ahead, and if he had met one of the other terrapins he would have thought it was the same one because they all looked so much alike. The real Terrapin had posted himself on the fourth ridge, so as to come in at the end of the race and be ready to answer questions if the animals suspected anything.

TLANUWA:
    "    The Cherokees lived between two worlds that were neither wholly friendly nor wholly hostile toward them. But the Upper World and the Under World were opposed to each other. This is why the Tlanuwa and the Uktena were mortal enemies. The Cherokee often found himself in the middle of this cosmic conflict, and could sometimes play one side off against the other.
    The Nest of the Tlanuwa. On the north bank of the Little Tennessee River, in a bend below the mouth of Citico Creek to Blount County, Tennessee, is a high cliff hanging over the water, and about halfway up the face of the rock is a cave with two openings. The rock projects outward above the cave, so that the mouth can not be seen from above, and it seems impossible to reach the cave either from above or below. There are white streaks in the rock from the cave down to the water. The Cherokee call it ... "the place of the Tlanuwa", or great mythic hawk.
    In the old time, away back soon after the creation, a pair of Tlanuwas had their nest in this cave. The streaks in the rock were made by the droppings from the nest. They were immense birds, larger than any that live now, and very strong and savage. They were forever flying up and down the river, and used to come into the settlements and carry off dogs and even young children playing near the houses. No one could reach the next to kill them, and when the people tried to shoot them the arrows only glanced off and were seized and carried away in the talons of the Tlanuwas.
    At last the people went to a great medicine man, who promised to help them. Some were afraid that if he failed to kill the Tlanuwas they could take revenge on the people, but the medicine man said he could fix that. He made a long rope of linn bark, just as the Cherokee still do, with loops in it for his feet, and had the people let him down from the top of the cliff at a time when he knew that the old birds were away. When he came opposite the mouth of the cave he still could not reach it, because the rock above hung over, so he swung himself backward and forward several times until the tope swung near enough for him to pull himself into the cave with a hooked stick that he carried, which he managed to fasten in some bushes growing at the entrance. In the next he found four young ones, and on the floor of the cave were the bones of all sorts of animals that had  been carried there by the hawks. He pulled the young ones out of the next and threw them over the cliff into the deep water below, where a great uktena serpent that lived there finished them. Just then he saw the old ones coming, and had barely time to climb up again to the top of the rock before they reached the next.
    When they found the nest empty they were furious, and circled around and round in the air until they saw the snake put up its head from the water. Then they darted straight downward, and while one seized the snake in his talons and flew far up in the sky with it, his mate struck at it and bit off piece after piece until nothing was left. They were so high up that when the pieces fell they made holes in the rock, which are still to be seen there, at the place which we call "Where the Tlanuwa-cut it up" opposite the mouth of Citico. Then the two Tlanuwas circled up and up until they went out of sight, and they have never been seen since." (Hudson, 136,7,8,9). (Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, 315,16)

TOBACCO: HOW THEY BROUGHT BACK THE TOBACCO
     In the beginning of the world, when people and animals were all the same, there was only one tobacco plant, to which they all came for their tobacco until the Dagulsku geese stole it and carried it far away to the south. The people were suffering without it, and there was one old woman who grew so thin and weak that everybody said she would soon die unless she could get tobacco to keep her alive.
    Different animals offered to go for it, one after another, the larger ones first and then the smaller ones, but the Dagulku saw and killed every one before he could get to the plant. After the others the little Mole tried to reach it by going under the ground, but the Dagulku saw his track and killed him as he came out.
    At last the Hummingbird offered, but the others said he was entirely too small and might as well stay at home. He begged them to let him try, so they showed him a plant in a field and told him to let them see how he would go about it. The next moment he was gone and they saw him sitting on the plant, and then in a moment he was back again, but no one had seen him going or coming, because he was so swift. "This is the way I'll do," said the Hummingbird, so they let him try.
    He flew off to the east, and when he came in sight of the tobacco the Dagulku were watching all about it, but they could not see him because he was so small and flew so swiftly. He darted down on the plant -- tsa! -- and snatched off the top with the leaves and seeds, and was off again before the Dagulku knew what had happened. Before he got home with the tobacco the old woman had fainted and they thought she was dead, but he blew the smoke into her nostrils, and with a cry of "Tsalu! (Tobacco!) she opened her eyes and was alive again.

UKTENA:
    Long ago -- in ancient time -- when the Sun became angry at the people on earth and sent a sickness to destroy them, the Little Men changed a man into a monster snake, which they called Uktena, "The Keen-eyed", and sent him to kill her. He failed to do the work, and the Rattlesnake had to be sent instead, which made the Uktena so jealous and angry that the people were afraid of him and had him taken up to the Upper World, to stay with the other dangerous things. He left others behind him, though, nearly as large and dangerous as himself and they hide now in deep pools in the river and about lonely passes in the high mountains, the places which the Cherokee call "Where the Uktena stays".
    Those who know say that the Uktena is a great snake, as large around as a tree trunk, with horns on its head, and a bright, blazing crest like a diamond upon its forehead, and scales glittering like sparks of fire. It has rings or spots of color along its whole length, and can not be wounded except by shooting in the seventh spot from the head, because under this spot are its heart and its life. The blazing diamond is called Ulunsuti, "Transparent", and he who can win it may become the greatest wonder worker in the world, but it is worth a man's life to attempt it, for whoever is seen by the Uktena is so dazed by the bright light that he runs toward the snake instead of trying to escape. Even to see the Uktena asleep is death, not to the hunter himself, but to his family.
    Of all the daring warriors who have started out in search of the Ulunsuti only.... (Ground-hog's Mother, a great magician) ever came back successful. The Eastern Cherokee still keep the one which he brought. It is like a large transparent crystal, nearly the shape of a cartridge bullet, with a blood-red streak running through the center from top to bottom. The owner keeps it wrapped in a whole deerskin, inside an earthen jar hidden away in a secret cave in the mountains. Every seven days he feeds it with the blood of small game, rubbing the blood all over the crystal as soon as the animal has been killed. Twice a year it must have the blood of a deer or some other large animal. Should he forget to feed it at the proper time it would come out from its cave at night in a shape of fire and fly through the air to slake its thirst with the lifeblood of the conjurer or some one of his people. He may save himself from this danger by telling it, when he puts it away, that he will not need it again for a long time. It will then go quietly to sleep and feel no hunger until it is again brought out to be consulted. Then it must be fed again with blood before it is used.
    No white  man must ever see it and no person but the owner will venture near it for fear of sudden death. Even the conjurer who keeps it is afraid of it, and changes its hiding place every once in a while so that it can not learn the way out. When he dies it will be buried with him. Otherwise it will come out of its cave, like a blazing star, to search for his grave, night after night for seven years, when, if still not able to find him, it will go back to sleep forever where he has placed it.
    Whoever owns the Ulunsuti is sure of success in hunting, love, rain-making, and every other business, but its great use is in life prophecy. When it is consulted for this purpose the future is seen mirrored in the clear crystal as a tree is reflected in the quiet stream below, and the conjurer knows whether the sick man will recover, whether the warrior will return from battle, or whether the youth will live to be old.

WORLD: "HOW THE WORLD WAS MADE".
     This story may be of ancient origin, but it has obviously been altered after the teachings of the preachers and missionaries came among them. This becomes obvious when all the world was water, and different birds were sent out to alight or come back again....
    The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. When the world grows old and worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again.
     When all was water, the animals were above in Galunlati, beyond the arch; but it was very much crowded, and they were wanting more room. They wondered what was below the water, and at last Dayunisi, "Beaver's Grandchild" the little Water-beetle, offered to go and see if it could learn. It darted in every direction over the surface of the water, but could find no firm place to rest. Then it dived to the bottom and came up with some very soft mud, which began to grow and spread on every side until it became the island which we call the earth. It was afterward fastened to the sky with four cords, but no one remembers who did this.
    At first the earth was flat and very soft and wet. The animals were anxious to get down, and sent out different birds to see if it was yet dry, but they found no place to alight and came back again to Galunlati. At last it seemed to be time, and they sent out the Buzzard and told him to go and make ready for them. This was the Great Buzzard, the father of all the buzzards we see now. He flew all over the earth, low down near the ground, and it was still soft. When he reached the Cherokee country, he was very tired, and his wings began to flap and strike the ground, and wherever they struck the earth there was a valley, and where they turned up again there was a mountain. When the animals above saw this, they were afraid that the whole world would be mountains, so they called him back, but the Cherokee country remains full of mountains to this day.
    When the earth was dry and the animals came down, it was still dark, so they got the sun and set it in a track to go every day across the island from east to west, just overhead. It was too hot this way, and Tsiskagili, the Red Crawfish, had his shell scorched a bright red, so that his meat was spoiled; and the Cherokee do not eat it. The conjurers put the sun another hand-breadth higher in the air, but it was still too hot. They raised it another time, and another, until it was seven hand-breadths high and just under the sky arch. Then it was right, and they left it so. This is why the conjurers call the highest place Gulkwagine Digalunlatiyun, "the seventh height", because it is seven hand-breadths above the earth. Every day the sun goes along under this arch, returning at night on the upper side to the starting place.
    There is another world under this, and it is like ours in everything -- animals, plants, and people -- save that the seasons are different. The streams that come down from the mountains are the trails by which we reach this underworld, and the springs at their heads are the doorways by which we enter it, but to do this one must fast and go to water and have one of the underground people for a guide. We know that the seasons in the underworld are different from ours, because the water in the springs is always warmer in winter and cooler in summer than the outer air.
    When the animals and plants were first made -- we do not know by whom -- they were told to watch and keep awake for seven nights, just as young men now fast and keep awake when they pray to their medicine. They tried to do this, and nearly all were awake through the first night, but the next night several dropped off to sleep, and the third night, others were asleep, and then others, until, on the seventh night, of all the animals only the owl, the panther, and one or two more were still awake. To these were given the power to see and to go about in the dark, and to make prey of the birds and animals which must sleep at night. Of the trees only the cedar, the pine, the spruce, the holly, and the laurel were awake to the end, and to them it was given to be always green and to be greatest for medicine, but to the others it was said: "Because you have not endured to the end you shall lose your hair every winter".
 References:
Mooney, James: "Myths of the Cherokee", 19th Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology,  Wash,DC. 1900.
Mooney, James: "The Swimmer Manuscript: Cherokee Sacred Formulas and Medicinal
          Prescriptions". Revised, completed, and edited by Franz M. Olbrechts. Bulletin No. 99,   BAE, WashDC, 1932.
These have been reprinted together into one book, "Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees", Charles & Randy Elder Booksellers, Publisher; 2115 Ellston Place, Nashville, Tenn. 37203

    "Each town war chief was called "skayagustu" and the chiefs headed the men of their own companies. All were marshalled under the command of the chief warriors mentioned above. In each company the seven counselors of the town war chief followed next after him along with his second and his speaker. The first of his assistants and the doctors and cooks marched behind their respective companies, while the drummers marched in the center.
    "On the first day after assembling, some bathed in the river and underwent purification. In the evening, the war standard, a high pole painted red with a red cloth or skin ...on top, was erected and the war dance was celebrated during the night. The war dance consisted in each company following their leader in a circle counter-clockwise. A little before the dawn all went to the river and plunged in seven times. At daybreak the red priest appointed for the war took some of the sacred fire and fed it with some fresh wood, and, then, as the whole staff of the army watched, cast on it the deer's tongue to divine the events of the war. If the fire burned brightly about the sacrifice and consumed it, they were destined to conquer the enemy, but if the fire went out around the meat and did not consume it, this indicated that they were to be conquered. If the meat popped east success was assured, but if it popped west it meant defeat.
    "A little after sunrise the red war priest resorted to still further divination, this time with the beads. The priest raised his hands and commenced to pray. He prayed to the first heaven, the second heaven, and so on to the seventh, raising his hand higher each time. As he paused a moment in each heaven he held a bead between the thumb and forefinger of each hand. If they were to conquer the enemy, the bead in his right hand would seem to be alive and moving, but if they were to be conquered the bead in his left hand would manifest the most life.
    "Still further divinations were resorted to. The magic crystal was set in the sun on a red post and all were compelled to march before it. If it did not sparkle in the sunlight as a certain person passed it, that persons was thought destined to be killed and was sent home. Again, if they were to conquer the enemy, blood would flow from the  left side of the stone, and if they were to be conquered, blood would flow from the right side.
    "The red war priest made new fire with basswood and goldenrod. This fire was regarded as a guide and helper in the war. The red war priest called himself "the second to fire" thus making the fire the principal priest. The fire for the war was placed in a sacred ark for the war. The ark was a rectangular clay object about a foot long with a lid and was destined to hold only sacred fire. There were always two arks, one kept in the council house and the other used for war.
    "When provisions were all secured and equipment made ready, the warriors were called to order by the skatiloski, or "speaker". He made a speech with war club in hand encouraging the warriors and telling them not to fear. Even if the omens were bad, the war was to be undertaken nevertheless. Then came the command to march and the Great War Chief commenced the war whoop followed by all of the others.
    "The skatiloski directed the march and the encampments and the order of procedure in all details while thus on the march. Various taboos were imposed on the warriors. On the march they might not discuss any vain or trifling subject such as women. No intercourse with women was allowed throughout the course of the war. In crossing a brook or stream all must pass over before any could drink from the stream. If anyone accidentally broke a stick or twig while marching, he carried it with him until camp was made that night. During the whole expedition the warriors were required to bathe and plunge seven times at night and in the morning. If they encountered the enemy suddenly, all must await for the skatiloski to arrive. In starting to battle the warriors who passed a pile of stones added one to the pile in order to insure a safe return.

                                                           MILITARY TACTICS
    "The military tactics of the war were virtually decided by the red, or war, priest in all details. He was consulted as to when and where to attack the enemy and how many to kill. Whenever the war priest needed advice he set up his crystals, beads, ark, and other paraphanalia, just as he did in the council house before the army had started out, and prayed for instructions. The crystals or beads gave him advice on how to proceed. Just previous to a battle the priest would exhort the men urging them to be brave and asking any of faint heart of newly married to turn back of they wished.
    "At every encampment four scouts were sent out. The "Raven" or Great War Captain, went forward as a spy. He wore a raven skin and if he encountered the enemy he gave a raven call to sound the alarm. The "owl" went to the right as a spy, wearing the owl skin. He also gave the owl call if he encountered the enemy. To the left went the "wolf" wearing a wolfskin, and back along the trail they had marched went the "fox" wearing a foxskin. It was generally the Raven who watched the enemy and kept the skatiloski perfectly informed as to their movements. On meeting the enemy, the Raven blew the trumpet and then the whole army gave the war whoop and rushed forward to the attack. The Raven endeavored to reach and touch a house in the village of the enemy and the standard bearer rested his standard against it.
     "The general plan of battle was for warriors to run forward on the right and left in two wings so as to enclose the enemy while the warriors of the center marched directly forward. Sometimes an angle ambush was set for the enemy and a few men were sent forward in the center as a decoy. Various other stratagems were used. A warrior who had killed a person or who had touched a dead body or grave was unclean for 4 days. (Gilbert,  )
     "The whole object of a raid was to kill by surprise attack, and they were capable of great ingenuity in achieving this end. They often split up into several groups, each group traveling in single file, stepping in each others' tracks to make it appear that the tracks were made by a single person. They communicated with each other by imitating animal sounds, which they could closely mimic. The Cherokee war party sent out four scouts. In front went the Great Warrior, or "Raven", who imitated the sound of a raven if he caught sight of the enemy. To the right of the war party the scout was an "Owl", who imitated the sound of an owl if he saw the enemy; to the left a "Wolf", and a "Fox" brought up the rear. All of these men were known by these animal titles, and they were entitled to wear the skins of these animals around their necks. ....When a war party became convinced they were being followed, they fanned out in a semicircle and waited in ambush for their pursuers.
    "It was not easy for them to achieve surprise because... they always moved cautiously, especially when in the woods. For example, of three men were traveling together, they would always take care to sit in a triangle, so that each faced in a different direction, to guard against being surprised. When a war party was discovered by the enemy, the party often returned home without shedding blood, surprise being essential. But sometimes they shouted insults and threats at each other, bragging about the barbarities they had committed against each other. Then, if they became sufficiently angry, their Great Warriors blew their war whistles and they commenced fighting. If a man was killed, the attackers tried to get his scalp. They did this by cutting an incision around the head, usually with a small cane knife, and by placing their feet on the victim's neck, they were able to pull off the scalp. Later the scalp was tied to a small hoop, painted red, and preserved. They sometimes hung these scalp hoops from the ends of long poles." (Hudson, 250-251)
     "When warriors arrived home after an unsuccessful raid they came in quietly, but if they were successful they shouted war whoops which were said to have been audible for one mile or more. The medicine bundle was placed on pieces of wood at the foot of the war pole, opposite the door of the Great Warrior's winter house. The Great Warrior, as before, circled the house three times, and then they all entered in order to be purified, because the shedding of human blood was polluting, and they fasted for three days under the guidance of the Great Warrior. Each night, the women lined up at the entrance to the winter house in two rows facing each other and sang songs. The success of the raid was thought to depend on the purity of the Great Warrior in particular. If any men were lost, the raid was thought to have been a failure and the failure was blamed on the Great Warrior. If several men were lost, he might be stripped of his war whistle, his drum, and his war names, and demoted to the position of a mere boy without war honors. It was primarily this attitude that led to such caution on a raid. And because a war party that brought back two or three scalps was thought successful, they frequently returned home after killing just one or two or a few of the enemy. (Hudson, 251,2,3)
War Arms: "The warlike arms used by the Cherokees are guns, bows and arrows, darts, scalping-knives, and tommahawkes, which are hatchets; the hammer-part of which being made hollow, and a small hole running from thence along the shank, terminated by a small brass-tube for the mouth, makes a compleat pipe. There are various ways of making these, according to the country or fancy of the purchaser, being all made by the Europeans; some have a long spear at top, and some different conveniencies on each side. This is one of their most useful pieces of field-furniture, serving all the offices of hatchet, pipe, and sword; neither are the Inds. less expert at throwing it than using it near, but will kill at a considerable distance." (Timberlake, 1765, 77,78)
see: Weapons.
WAR PAINT: "Their Dress in Peace and War, is quite different... they buy Vermillion of the ..Traders, wherewith they paint their Faces all over red, and commonly make a Circle of Black about one Eye, and another Circle of White about the other, whilst others bedaub their Faces with Tobacco-Pipe Clay, Lampblack, black Lead, and divers other Colours, which they make with the several sorts of Minerals and Earths that they get in different Parts of the Country, where they hunt and travel. When these Creatures are thus painted, they make the most frightful Figures that can be imitated by Men, and seem more like Devils than Humane Creatures. You may be sure, that they are about some Mischief, when you see them thus painted; for in all the Hostilities which have ever been acted against the English at any time, in several of the Plantations of America, the Savages always appear'd in this Disguize, whereby they might never after be discover'd, or known by any of the Christians that should happen to see them after they had made their Escape; for it is impossible, ever to know an Ind. under these Colours, although he has been at your House a thousand times, and you know him, at other times, as well as you do any Person living. As for their Women, they never use any Paint on their Faces; neither do they ever carry them along with them into the Field, when they intend any Expedition; leaving them at home with the Old Men and Children". (Lawson, 202,203)
WARRIORS: "In distinguishing themselves warriors were afterward given a new name in the general council. "Killer" was the highest name, followed by 'raven', 'owl', 'wolf', and 'fox' in the order named. The great warrior was followed by the six next in dignity and then by seven who served as the immediate attendants. The age of warriors was 25 to 60 and those males who were under 25 were called "boys". When war officers were past age, others were appointed to take their place.
    "The time of purification on the return from war varied according to the bloodiness of the war. Its general length was from 4 days to 24. This purification... was done by the same priests who had consecrated the warriors at the beginning of the campaign. The wounded stayed in the council house for a longer separation than the others. They might dance with the others but must always carry a kind of staff by which they were distinguished. They, like the others, could not associate with their wives until the period of purification was ended. Any warrior who violated the rule against sexual intercourse during the war was believed to have been killed in battle." (Gilbert, 355)
    "Because of the strongly military outlook of the Cherokees, there were developed two classes of fighting men: (l) Warriors who had achieved various titles for acts of bravery such as man killer or raven, and (w) plebian fighters who were not distinguished." (Gilbert, 318)
     "....warriors traveled almost naked, dressed only in a breechcloth and moccasins. In aboriginal times a warrior carried with him a bow and arrows, a knife, and a war club stuck through his belt. Other than this, the warriors carried only a pack containing an old blanket, a small bag of parched corn meal, a wooden cup, perhaps some dried cornbread, and leather and cord to repair their moccasins. Before the gun was introduced, they used armor and shields made of woven cane and bison leather.
    "The warriors continued observing ritual precautions while on the move. The Great Warrior chose a particular warrior to serve as waiter, and he and the other men would eat or drink only when served by this man. The warriors would eat and drink only at certain specified times, and then sparingly. They observed strict rules of comportment. They would never lean against anything to rest when sitting or standing. Among the Cherokees, if a man snapped a twig while going through the woods, he had to pick it up and carry it with him until nightfall. They would sit only on fallen logs or on stones, and never directly on the earth. Similarly, the medicine bundle of holy objects carried by the Great Warrior was never placed directly on the earth, but on a pedestal made of stones or pieces of wood, and it was never touched except by the Great Warrior and his waiter. But the Great Warrior was more a leader than a commander; his men fought more or less as individuals." (Hudson, 248,249)
    In 1762, Lt. Henry Timberlake witnessed the return of a war party. "On the 10th of March, while we were again preparing for our departure, the Death Hallow was heard from the top of Tommotly town-house. This was to give notice of a party commanded by Willinawaw, who went to war against the Shawnese country some time after my arrival ... About eleven o'clock the Inds, about forty in number, appeared within sight of the town; as they approached, I observed four scalps, painted red on the flesh side, hanging on a pole, and carried in front of the line, by the second in command, while Willinawaw brought up the rear. When near the town-house, the whole marched round it three times, singing the war-song, and at intervals giving the Death Hallow; after which, sticking the pole just by the door, for the crowd to gaze on, they went in to relate in what manner they had gained them." (Timberlake, 112-113)
    "The prisoners of war are generally tortured by the women, at the party's return, to revenge the death of those that have perished by the wretch's countrymen". (Timberlake, 82)

Frog, Tree                  Hyla spp.                             dali'               below 4,000 feet, forests

Frog, Wood               Rana sylvatica                                          lower altitudes, forests

Salamander                Desmognathus m.                                     moist uplands, 1000 ft & up
     Appalachian           monticola

Salamander                Desmognathus o.                                      moist uplands, 1000 ft & up
     Blue Ridge             carolinensis

Salamander, Brook    Eurycea spp.                   duwe'ga (/)        varied

Salamander                Cryptobranchus               tsuwa                aquatic, below 2,500 ft.
     Hell-bender              alleganiensis

Salamander, Red        Plethodon cinerus            giga-tsuha'li       terretrial, woodlands
     backed                                                    (bloody mouthed)

Salamander, Spotted  Ambystoma maculatum                            low altitudes- Tennessee

Toads                        Bufo spp.                        wala'si               lower altitudes, forests

Lizard, Glass             Ophisauruus a.                                         lowlands, dry terrain
                                    longicaudus

Lizard, Southern        Sceloporus u.                  diya'hali (?)       dry oak-pine forests
                                    undulatus

Lizard, Skink             Eumeces fasciatus                                    open, sandy terrain

Snake, Copperhead   Agkistrodon contortrix    wa'dige-aska'li   up to 2,500 feet
                                     mokasen                       (brownhead)

Snake, Corn              Elaphe guttata                                           2,500 feet and below

Snake, Eastern           Thomnophis sortalis                                  up to 3,500 feet
    Garter

Snake, Hog-nosed     Heterodon platyrhinos      daliksta,            open areas, to 4,500 ft
     (Adder)                                                      kwandaya'hu
                                                                         (vomiter)

Snake, King               Lampropeltis spp.                                     1,000 and 2,000 ft

Snake, Mountain        Elaphe absoleta               gule'gi                 up to 4,500 feet, trees
     Black                                                         (climber)

Snake, Northern        Diadoplis                                                   open or dense areas, wide range
    Ring-neck                punctatus

Snake, Queen            Regina septemvillata                                   up to 2,500 ft, in or near water

Snake, Rattle             Crotalus horridus             utsa'nati               wooded, up to 6,600 ft.
                                                                     (he has a bell)

Snake, Rough            Opheodrys aestivus         salikwa'yi             below 3,000 ft,  major rivers
     Green

Snake, Water            Natrix sipedon                 kanegwa'ti           all watersheds, to 4,000 ft
    Moccasin

Snake, Worm           Carphophis amoena                                     lower elevations

Turtle, Box                Terrapene carolina           tukal'                   open woodlands, near water

Turtle, Map               Graptemys geographica                               backwaters of large rivers

Turtle, Musk             Sternothecus odoratus                                 any perennial stream

Turtle, Painted          Chrysemus picta                                           lowlands, quiet waters

Turtle, Snapping        Chelydra serpentina                                     lower altitudes, ponds, streams

Turtle, Soft-shelled    Tryonyx ferox                 ulana'wa                lowland streams, ponds

Bluebird, Eastern          Sialia sialis                          tsa'gwolade            oak, pine woodlands

Blue Jay                       Cyanocitta cristata              tsag ku                    woods, forested zone

Bobwhite (Quail,          Colinus virginianus          gugwe' amd gugway'    open areas, low to
        Partridge)                                                          (its call)                       high

Bunting                       Passerina cyanea               ali'tsanoska'              low to middle altitudes
                                                                        (broiling charcoal)

Cardinal (Redbird)      Richmondena cardinalis     tatsu' hwa                   below 3,500 feet

Chickadee                  Parus carolinensis              tsi'kilili                        low to middle altitudes

Chimney Swift           Chaetura pelagica              gastaya'                      hollow trees, forests
                                                                       (they are sharp)

Coot                           Fulica americana                                                 varied - up to 6,000 ft

Cowbird, Eastern        Molothrus ater                skwelista' sakonage'     lowlands
                                                                          (grackle bluish)

Creeper, Brown         Certhia familiaris                  ata'goluni                 swampy woods
                                    americana                    (tracking wood)

Crossbill, Red            Loxia curvirostra               a'yuga'lohi'                  coniferous forests
                                                                       (twisted mouth)

Crow (Blackbird)      Corvus brachyrynchos         kagu'                        below 3,000 ft

Cuckoo, Yellow-       Coccyzus americanus        djustig'iski'                  shaded woodlands
               billed

Dove, Eastern            Zenaidura m.                    gule'diska nihi'             lowlands, forests, and
    Mourning                   carolinensis               (it cries for acorns)              woodlands

Eagle, Bald               Haliaeetus leucocephalus     awa'hili                      wooded uplands,
                                                                                                                  mountains

Eagle, Golden           Aguila chrysaetos            (pretty feathered eagle)  wooded uplands,
                                                                                                                   mountains

Egret, American        Herodias egretta                 tsikwayi                      water, near bushes
  (White crane)                                                   tsawa'yi (male)                  and trees

Flicker, Southern      Colaptes auratus                une'gada                      low altitude forest
   (Yellowhammer)                                            (white dirt)                           openings

Flycather, Scissor-    Muscivora forficata         tsun'digwuntsu'gi            open country, shrubs
                 tailed                                                    (forked)

Flycatcher, Great      Myiarchus crinitus              gala'sgalu'                    open woodlands
    Crested                      boreus

Gallinule                   Gallinuia chloropus           diga'gwani'                     wide range, mostly
                                                                     (lane or crippled)                    uplands

Gnatcatcher,             Polioptila caerula                di'si                             woodlands
   Blue-Gray

Goldfinch, Eastern    Spinus tristis                        wad'aga'                     upper woodlands
  (Yellowbird, Flaxbird)                                  (he catches, grabs)

Goose, White-         Anser albifrons                  dagul'ku                        wet ground,
    fronted                                                                                                        bottomlands

Grackle                   Quiscalus quiscula             skwe'lista'                     pine forests

Grossbeak, Rose-    Hedymeles                      kaya'skalena'                  wooded areas
   Breasted                  ludoviciana                      (big beak)

Grouse, Ruffed         Bonasa umbellus         tlunti'sti & tlan-ta-tsi'           varied - mostly forests
   (Pheasant)                                                       (I hear)

Hawk, Broad-         Buteo platypterus               tawadi'                         varied - prefer higher
   winged (Pigeon Hawk)                                                                                altitudes

Hawk, Cooper's      Accipiter cooperii                                                  varied-higher altitudes

Hawk, Goshawk      Astur atricapillus          tla'nuwa'usdi                       varied- higheraltitudes
                                                                  (little tla'nuwa)

Hawk, Marsh          Circus cyaneus              gn'lonudzi'                        up to 6,000 ft,
                                                                                                                        woodlands

Hawk, Redtailed      Buteo jamaicensis         uwes'la'oski                       varied-higher altitudes
                                                                     (lovesick)

Hawk, Sharp-          Accipiter velox               da'nahiga'                        varied-higher altitudes
    skinned                                                     (long tail)                                   preferred

Hawk, Sparrow       Falco sparverius            tawadi'usdi'                       lower altitudes,
                                                                    (little hawk)                                 woodlands

Heron, Blue             Ardea herodias               ganutsi tali'                      streams below 2,000 ft
  (Crane)                                                   (feathers on head)

Hummingbird,          Archilochus                      wa'lahu'                        pines, oaks, dogwoods
   Ruby-throated         colubris                          (rolling)

Killdeer                   Charadrius vociferus        dj'ostowa'                        middle altitudes

Kingfisher, Belted    Megaceryle alcyon              tsu la'                         lower altitudes, streams

Kinglet, Golden-      Regulus satrapa                 atsila'ustili                      high-ranking forests
    Crowned                                                    (fire on head)

Mallard (Duck)        Anas platyrhynchos             kawa'na                     watercourses, low alts.

Martin (Eastern        Tyrannus                            tlu' tlu'                          open coves, cultivated
   Kingbird)                 tyrannus                        (big skunk)                            areas

Martin, Purple          Progne subis                     tsu' tsu'                          mountains

Meadowlark,           Sturnella magna                  nakwisi                       meadows, grassy fields
   Eastern                                                             (star)

Mockingbird,           Lanius ludovicianus          huhu (or) ska'da'giski       low alts to 2,000 ft
   Yellow                                                              (he imitates)

Nighthawk               Chordeiles minor               ka'lstu'ga                       open areas, mountains
   Eastern                                                           (bullbat)

Nuthatch                 Sitta canadensis                   tsulie'na                       to upper limits of oak
                                                                           (deaf)                              forests

Oriole, Baltimore     Icterus gabula                                                         below 3,500 feet

Oriole, Orchard       Icterus spurius                                                        open areas

Osprey (Fish           Pandion haliaetus                 kanu'djuwa                  below 2,500 feet,
    Hawk                                                        (lucky of fishing)                  forests

Owl, Barred           Strik varia                             u'guku'                   over 3,000 ft, woodlands
   (Hooting)                                                     (wize wizard))

Owl, Horned          Bubo virginianus                   tskili' (witch)                 lower woodlands

Owl, Screech         Otus asio                              wa'huhu'                       lower alts,woodlands

Peewee, Eastern     Contopus virens                  hanalu (lost)            dark wood, high tree area

Phoebe, Eastern     Sayornis phoebe                                                   low and middle altitudes

Pigeon,                   Ectopistes migratorius        wa ya' (or) ankuwa'yi      lowlands, open fields
   Passenger

Rail, Passenger       Railus elegans                                                           uplands to 4,000 ft

Raven                    Corvus corax                        ka'lanu                         heavily wooded mountains

Robin                     Turdus migratorius              tsiskwa'gwa                    low to high altitudes

Sandpiper               Actitis macularia                   kanastu'wa'                   up to 4,000 ft
                                                                (they put their legs in water)

Sapsucker,             Sphyrapicus                           dzuliana'                      deciduous woods,
  Yellow-bellied        varius                                     (deaf)                              trees

Siskin, Pine            Spinus pinus                          algiski (boiling)              open woodlands

Snipe, Common      Capella gallinago             daskai daiena he da'            low woodlands

Sora                      Porzana carolina                                                          uplands to 4,000 ft

Sparrow,               Spizella spp.                          tsiskwa'ya                      low to middle
    Common                                                     (real or principle)                  altitudes

Sparrow, Fox        Passerella iliaca                      waga'ada'                      woodlands

Sparrow, Slate-     Junco hyemalis                          tu ti'                            high altitude forests
   colored (Snowbird)  carolinensis

Sparrow, Song      Melospiza melodia                   ts'ikzo'                          low wetlands

Sparrow, Bank      Riparia ripama                        tso'yaga'                        mountains

Swallow, Barn       Hirundo erythrogaster         udi'gwan'zugi'                  mountains to 4,800 ft
                                                                  (notch, crotch, fork)

Swallow, Rough     Steigidopterys ruficollis     tso de kwa tlo tsi                mountains & balds
    winged                                                        (wings crossed)

Swallow, White      Zonotrichia albicollic          tjuniga' tagohi'                   woodlands, thickets
  throated                                                   (marked on each side)

Tanager, Scarlet     Prianga rubra                        tso'la                             1,500 to 5,000 ft

Teal                       Anas carolinensis                                                      water, below 3,000 ft

Thrasher, Brown    Toxostoma rufum                 wati'yala                          low range, thickets
                                                                         (imitator)
Thrush, Wood        Hylocichia mustelina                                                   forests to 5,000 ft

Titmouse, Tufted     Parus bicolor                    utsu'gi (or) u'stuti               forests to 5,000 ft

Turkey                   Meleagris gallopavo            kana'tsi kala gina         varied, woodland, fields

Vireo, Whiteyed     Vireo griseus                        dja'tesnali'                      lower elevations
                                                                       (stripe on eyes)

Vulture, Turkey       Cathartes aura                          su'li                            all altitudes
   (Buzzard)

Warbler, Black-      Mniotilta varia                   djuga'tsala'la                      low, dry woods
   and-White                                                   (striped on bird)

Warbler,                 Dendroica fusca                     ganag'i                          mountains
  Blackburnian                                         (falling down to the ground)

Warbler,               Dendroica pennstkvabuca      tyta' (bean)                   deciduous woodlands
   Chestnut-sided

Warbler, Hooded   Wilsonia citrina                      da'ktestali'                     to 2,500 ft
                                                                       (spot on his face)

Warbler, Oven-      Seiurus aurocapillus               tsu'tsiata'                       heavy, damp woods
   Bird                                                             (he has a camp)

Warbler, Redstart   Setophaga ruticilla                awaha' liyusti'                woodlands, brush
                                                                           (like an eagle)

Warbler, Worm-    Helmitheros vermivorus             k'ryugi'                      lowlands
   eating                                                                 (chipmunk)

Warbler, Yellow     Dendroica aestiva                     go'dada'                    woodland

Waxwing, Cedar     Bombycillia cedrorum              unayi' (sand)              high mountains

Whip-poor-will       Caprimulgus vociferous            waguli'                       below 3,000 ft

Woodcock,             Philohela minor                       gala'soyaha'                low, wet, woods
    American                                                   (bill dragging on ground)

Woodpecker,          Dendrocopos pubescens         tsu kwa na'tsi             lower altitudes,
    Downy                                                                  (scalped)                  hardwood forests

Woodpecker,          Drycopus pileatus                      kagutsa'                varied, wooded areas,
   Pileated                                                                                                   forests to 5,000 ft

Woodpecker,          Melanerpes                                                               lower altitudes,
   Red-Headed           erythrocephalus                                                           forests

Wren, Carolina        Thryothorus                              ali'tama'                    woodlands, varied
                                  ludovicianus                           (rainbird)

Wren, Eastern          Troglodytes                             ganu'la'tsi                   wooded areas
    (House)                   aedon                                     (ribs)

Wren, Winter           Troglodytes                              tsi tsi                         all altitudes
                                     troglodytes

Maize (Corn)            Zea mays                    selu                kernel               varied, moist or dry

Squash                     Cucurbitaceae            squasi              fruit                    fields
      Pumpkin            Cucurbita pepo

Squash                    Cucurbitaceae            galuna               fruit                    fields
      Bottle Gourd      Lagenaria vulgaria

Jerusalem                 Helianthus                                          tuber                  rich, damp woods
       Artichoke          tuberosus

Sunflower                Helianthus annus                                 seed                   moist soils

Tobacco, Wild        Nicotiana rustica        tsalu                   leaf                    old fields

Peas                        Pisum salivum            dayunasdi'i         pod                   fields

Sweet Potato           Ipomoea batatas        nu'na                 tuber                  meadows

Watermelon            Cucurbitaceae            gugisdi               fruit                    fields
                               (Citrullus vulgaris)

Catfish, Bullhead        Ictalurus metas                                                 slow-moving waters

Catfish, Channel         Ictalurus punctatus           tsustanu'yi               channels of larger streams

Crappie                     Pomoxis annularis                                             muddy, sluggish waters,
                                                                                                                large rivers

Crayfish                     Decapoda spp. (?)          tsistu'na (little rabbit)   ponds, streams

Darter                       Etheostoma spp.                                       varies - rapid to muddy water

Drumfish                   Apladinotus grunniens                                        large streams, bottoms

Garfish                     Lepisosteus spp.                                             brackish, sluggish streams

Minnow                   Notropis spp.                   atsadi-u'sdi                 small, clear streams

Mussel                     Quadrula spp.                  dayu'na                       small ponds, streams

Perch                       Percidae spp.                   atsu'la                         varied shallow, small

Periwinkles               Pleurocera canaliculatum                                     streams, ponds

Pike, American        Esox lucius                                                 shallow inlets, weedy bottoms

Pike, Wall-eyed       Stizostedion vitreum                                            clear, rocky bottoms
     (Perch)

Red Crawfish          Campostoma anomalum ?  tsiska'gili                     streams, ponds
   (Stone roller?)                                               (thunder's dog)

Silverside                Labidesthes sicculus                                        clear, lowland lakes, ponds

Snail, Large             Io turrita, Io spinosa                                            shallows, shoals, ponds

Snail, Small             Anculos praeros,                                          clear waters, ponds, shallows

Sucker, Common    Catostomus commersonii                                     varied

Sucker, Redhorse    Moxostoma aureoleum                                    clear, swift, bottom waters

Sunfish                    Lepomis gibbosus                                                clear, still, warm waters

Trout, Brook           Salmonidae spp.                 tsuna'gu                     cold, clear water

Alum, Wild         Geranium masculatum    andanka'la'gi'ski        fiber          rich woods
                                                               (it removes things
                                                                 from the gums)

Angelica            Angelica spp.                                                  root          rocky woods

Bloodroot          Sanguinaria canadensis                                    rootstalk   low woods

Bugle Weed       Lycopus virginicus         aniwani'ski                 root          moist woods
                                                                 (talkers)

Buckeye            Aesculus spp.                 usgua'da                    nut            rich woods

Campion            Juglans cinera                gan'dawa'ski                               woods

Catgut (Devil's   Tephrosia virginiana        distai'yi                      root           dry, sandy soils
    Shoestring)                                       (they are tough)

Cocklebur         Xanthium echinatum                                         leaves       river banks

Cohosh, Black   Cimicifuga  racemosa                                      root          rich woods, uplands
   (Bugbane)

Comfrey            Cynoglossum                 unistil'uisti                  leaves        woods, copses
                            virginianum               (they stick on)