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Source:
From
Myths of the Cherokee, James Mooney, 1900
Thunder lives in the west, or a
little to the south of west, near the place where the sun goes down behind
the water. In the old times he sometimes made a journey to the east, and
once after he had come back from one of these journeys a child was born in
the east who, the people said, was his son.
As the boy grew up it was found that he had scrofula sores all over his
body, so one day his mother said to him, "Your father, Thunder, is a great
doctor. He lives far in the west, but if you can find him he can cure
you."
So the boy set out to find his father and be cured. He traveled long
toward the west, asking of every one he met where Thunder lived, until at
last they began to tell him that it was only a little way ahead. He went
on and came to Ûñ'tiguhï', on Tennessee, where lived Ûñtsaiyï' "Brass."
Now a Ûñtsaiyï' was a great gambler, and made his living that way. It was
he who invented the gatayûstï game that we play with a stone wheel and a
stick.
He lived on the south side of the river, and everybody who came that way
he challenged to play against him. The large flat rock, with the lines and
grooves where they used to roll the wheel, is still there, with the wheels
themselves and the stick turned to stone. He won almost every time,
because he was so tricky, so that he had his house filled with all kinds
of fine things.
Sometimes he would lose, and then he would bet all that he had, even to
his own life, but the winner got nothing for his trouble, for Ûñtsaiyï'
knew how to take on different shapes, so that he always got away.
As soon as Ûñtsaiyï' saw him he asked him to stop and play a while, but
the boy said he was looking for his father, Thunder, and had no time to
wait. "Well," said Ûñtsaiyï', "he lives in the next house; you can hear
him grumbling over there all the time"--he meant the Thunder--"so we may
as well have a game or two before you go on."
The boy said he had nothing to bet. "That's all right," said the gambler,
"we'll play for your pretty spots." He said this to make the boy angry so
that he would play, but still the boy said he must go first and find his
father, and would come back afterwards.
He went on, and soon the news came to Thunder that a boy was looking for
him who claimed to be his son. Said Thunder, "I have traveled in many
lands and have many children. Bring him here and we shall soon know."
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So they brought in the boy, and Thunder showed him a seat and told
him to
sit down. Under the blanket on the seat were long, sharp thorns of the
honey locust, with the points all sticking up, but when the boy sat down
they did not hurt him, and then Thunder knew that it was his son. He asked
the boy why he had come. "I have sores all over my body, and my mother
told me you were my father and a great doctor, and if I came here you
would cure me. "Yes," said his father, "I am a great doctor, and I'll soon
fix you."
There was a large pot in the corner and he told his wife to fill it with
water and put it over the fire. When it was boiling, he put in some roots,
then took the boy and put him in with them. He let it boil a long time
until one would have thought that the flesh was boiled from the poor boy's
bones, and then told his wife to take the pot and throw it into the river,
boy and all. She did as she was told, and threw it into the water, and
ever since there is an eddy there that we call Ûñ'tiguhï',
"Pot-in-the-water."
A service tree and a calico bush grew on the bank above. A great cloud of
steam came up and made streaks and blotches on their bark, and it has been
so to this day. When the steam cleared away she looked over and saw the
boy clinging to the roots of the service tree where they hung down into
the water, but now his skin was all clean. She helped him up the bank, and
they went back to the house.
On the way she told him, "When we go in, your father will put a new dress
on you, but when he opens his box and tells you to pick out your ornaments
be sure to take them from the bottom. Then he will send for his other sons
to play ball against you. There is a honey-locust tree in front of the
house, and as soon as you begin to get tired strike at that and your
father will stop the play, because he does not want to lose the tree."
When they went into the house, the old man was pleased to see the boy
looking so clean, and said, "I knew I could soon cure those spots. Now we
must dress you."
He brought out a fine suit of buck-kin, with belt and headdress, and had
the boy put them on. Then he opened a box and said, "Now pick out your
necklace and bracelets."
The boy looked, and the box was full of all kinds of snakes gliding over
each other with their heads up. He was not afraid, but remembered what the
woman had told him, and plunged his hand to the bottom and drew out a
great rattlesnake and put it around his neck for a necklace. He put down
his hand again four times and drew up four copperheads and twisted them
around his wrists and ankles.
Then his father gave him a war club and said, "Now you must play a ball
game with your two elder brothers. They live beyond here in the Darkening
land, and l have sent for them" He said a ball game, but he meant that the
boy must fight for his life. The young men came, and they were both older
and stronger than the boil, but he was not afraid and fought against them.
The thunder rolled and the lightning flashed at every stroke, for they
were the young Thunders, and the boy himself was Lightning. At last he was
tired from defending himself alone against two, and pretended to aim a
blow at the honey-locust tree. Then his father stopped the fight, because
he was afraid the lightning would split the tree, and he saw that the boy
was brave and strong.
The boy told his father how Ûñtsaiyï' had dared him to play, and had even
offered to play for the spots on his skin. "Yes," said Thunder, "he is a
great gambler and makes his living that way, but I will see that you win."
He brought a small climbing gourd with a hole bored through the neck, and
tied it on the boy's wrist. Inside the gourd there was a string of beads,
and one end hung out from a hole in the top, but there was no end to the
string inside.
"Now," said his father, :go back the way you came, and as soon as he sees
you he will want to play for the beads. He is very hard to beat, but this
time he will lose every game. When he cries out for a drink, you will know
he is getting discouraged, and then strike the rock with your war club and
water will come, so that you can play on without stopping.
At last he will bet his life, and lose. Then send at once for your
brothers to kill him, or he will get away, he is so tricky."
The boy took the gourd and his war club and started east along the road by
which he had come. As soon as Ûñtsai'yï saw him he called to him, and when
he saw the gourd with the bead string hanging out he wanted to play for
it.
The boy drew out the string. but there seemed to be no end to it, and he
kept on pulling until enough had come out to make a circle all around the
playground. "I will play one game for this much against your stake," said
the boy, "and when that is over we can have another game."
They began the game with the wheel and stick and the boy won. Ûñtsai'yï
did not know what to think of it, but he put up another stake and called
for a second game. The boy won again, and so they played on until noon,
when Ûñtsai'yï had lost nearly everything he had and was about
discouraged.
It was very hot, and he said, "I am thirsty," and wanted to stop long
enough to get a drink.
"No," said the boy, and struck the rock with his club so that water came
out, and they had a drink. They played on until Ûñtsai'yï had lost all his
buckskins and beaded work, his eagle feathers and ornaments, and at last
offered to bet his wife.
They played and the boy won her. Then Ûñtsai'yï was desperate and offered
to stake his life. "If I win I kill you, but if you win you may kill me."
They played and the boy won.
"Let me go and tell my wife," said Ûñtsai'yï, "so that she will receive
her new husband, and then you may kill me." He went into the house, but it
had two doors, and although the boy waited long Ûñtsai'yï did not come
back. When at last he went to look for him he found that the gambler had
gone out the back way and was nearly out of sight going east.
The boy ran to his father's house and got his brothers to help him. They
brought their dog--the Horned Green Beetle--and hurried after the gambler.
He ran fast and was soon out of sight, and they followed as fast as they
could. After a while they met an old woman making pottery and asked her if
she had seen Ûñtsai'yï and she said she had not.
"He came this way," said the brothers.
"Then he must have passed in the night," said the old woman, "for I have
been here all day."
They were about to take another road when the Beetle, which had been
circling about in the air above the old woman, made a dart at her and
struck her on the forehead, and it rang like brass--ûñtsai'yï! Then they
knew it was Brass and sprang at him, but he jumped up in his right shape
and was off, running so fast that he was soon out of sight again. The
Beetle had struck so hard that some of the brass rubbed off, and we can
see it on the beetle's forehead yet.
They followed and came to an old man sitting by the trail, carving a stone
pipe. They asked him if he had seen Brass pass that way and he said no,
but again the Beetle--which could know Brass under any shape--struck him
on the forehead so that it rang like metal, and the gambler jumped up in
his right form and was off again before they could hold him.
He ran east until he came to the great water; then he ran north until he
came to the edge of the world, and had to turn again to the west. He took
every shape to throw them off the track, but the Green Beetle always knew
him, and the brothers pressed him so hard that at last he could go no more
and they caught him just as he reached the edge of the great water where
the sun goes down.
They tied his hands and feet with a grapevine and drove a long stake
through his breast, and planted it far out in the deep water. They set two
crows on the end of the pole to guard it and called the place Kâgûñ'yï,
"Crow place." But Brass never died, and cannot die until the end of the
world, but lies there always with his face up. Sometimes he struggles
under the water to get free, and sometimes the beavers, who are his
friends, come and gnaw at the grapevine to release him. Then the pole
shakes and the crows at the top cry Ka! Ka! Ka! and scare the beavers
away.
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