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In the days of many moons ago, two Choctaw hunters were encamped for the
night in the swamps of the bend of the Alabama river.... The two
hunters, having been unsuccessful in the chase of that and the preceding
day, found themselves on that night with nothing with which to satisfy
the cravings of hunger except a black hawk which they had shot with an
arrow.
Sad reflections filled their hearts as they thought of their sad
disappointments and of their suffering families at home. While the
gloomy future spread over them its dark pall of despondency, all serving
to render them unhappy indeed.
They cooked the hawk and sat down to partake of their poor and scanty
supper, when their attention was drawn from their gloomy forebodings by
the low but distinct tones, strange yet soft and plaintive as the
melancholy notes of the dove, but produced by what they were unable to
even conjecture.
At different intervals it broke the deep silence of the early night with
its seemingly muffled notes of woe; and as the nearly full orbed moon
slowly ascended the eastern sky the strange sounds became more frequent
and distinct.
With eyes dilated and fluttering heart they looked up and down the river
to learn whence the sounds proceeded, but no object except the sandy
shores glittering in the moonlight greeted their eyes, while the dark
waters of the river seemed alone to give response in murmuring tones to
the strange notes that continued to float upon the night air from a
direction they could not definitely locate; but happening to look behind
them in the direction opposite the moon they saw a woman of wonderful
beauty standing upon a mound a few rods distant.
Like an illuminated shadow, she had suddenly appeared out of the
moon-lighted forest. She was loosely clad in snow-white raiment, and
bore in the folds of her drapery a wreath of fragrant flowers. She
beckoned them to approach, while she seemed surrounded by a halo of
light that gave to her a supernatural appearance.
Their imagination now influenced them to believe her to be the Great
Spirit of their nation, and that the flowers she bore were
representatives of loved ones who had passed from earth to bloom in the
Spirit Land ...
The mystery was solved. At once they approached (the spot) where she
stood, and offered their assistance in any way they could be of service
to her. She replied she was very hungry, whereupon one of them ran and
brought the roasted hawk and handed it to her.
She accepted it with grateful thanks; but, after eating a small portion
of it, she handed the remainder back to them replying that she would
remember their kindness when she returned to her home in the happy
hunting grounds of her father, who was Shilup Chitoh Osh - The Great
Spirit of the Choctaws. She then told them that when the next mid-summer
moon should come they must meet her at the mound upon which she was then
standing.
She then bade them an affectionate adieu, and was at once borne away
upon a gentle breeze and, mysteriously as she came, so she disappeared.
The two hunters returned to their camp for the night and early next
morning sought their homes, but kept the strange incident to themselves,
a profound secret.
When the designated time rolled around the mid-summer full moon found
the two hunters at the foot of the mound but Ohoyo Chishba Osh was
nowhere to be seen. Then remembering she told them they must come to the
very spot where she was then standing, they at once ascended the mound
and found it covered with a strange plant, which yielded an excellent
food, which was ever afterwards cultivated by the Choctaws, and named by
them Tunchi (corn).
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