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Source: Myths and Tales of the
Southeastern Indians, By John R. Swanton, 1929
A Lion used to kill many people. In the same country lived n very poor
man with five sons. One time, having nothing to eat, he gave a knife to
each of his sons and told him to go out to earn wages.
The boys traveled on until they came to a place where five roads met.
They said to one another, "We will stick up our knives here and if anyone
takes them find out who it is."
So each stuck his knife up in one of the roads, and started on down the
same road. The smallest boy started off on the faintest trail, and
presently came to a beautiful house with a fence around it.
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An old woman came out of this house and said, "What are you doing_"
When she learned that he and his brothers had been sent out to work for
wages, she said, "I have no children. Come and live with me." So the boy
made his home with her.
All the time he was there he kept hearing guns discharged. Sometimes he
would hear one discharged early in the morning and sometimes it would be
late in the evening.
"Mother," he inquired, "why are those guns discharged_"
The woman answered, "There is a big Lion about catching people and they
are shooting at it."
"Mother, I believe I will go and see," he said, but she replied, "No; I
think you couldn't do anything. Lions kill people and this one would kill
such a little thing as you."
"Well, I want to see him very much," said the boy, and he kept teasing her
this way until at last she said, "You have wanted to go for so long that I
suppose you must, though I think you will never come back. I suppose you
are going to take your little dog along."
"I am going to kill that Lion," said the boy, but his foster mother
replied, "He has killed lots of better people than you and I suppose when
you start away from hero it will be the last of you."
The boy set out early next morning and before night came to the place
where the Lion lived. He was sitting in front of a rock house with rock
foundation and rock steps surrounded by a kind of fence.
"My little friend, what have you come for_" said the Lion. "Come in and
let us talk."
"That is precisely why I came," said the boy. The little dog lay down by
the door and his master and the Lion entered, the Lion saying as they did
so, "Come and have a look through my rooms."
So the Lion led him through two rooms in which were many interesting
things. In the third room the Lion had a great many guns and in the fourth
a lot of sabers. "What do you do with these_" asked the boy.
"They are to tickle a person's neck."
"Let me tickle your neck first," said the boy, "and then you can tickle
mine," but the Lion refused.
"Well," said the boy, "I will lie on my back and whistle four times and
after that, if you can tickle my neck, you may do so." Then the boy lay on
his back and emitted a long whistle. The second was still longer, and when
he was only halfway through the third in came the little dog, now grown to
the size of a lion, seized the Lion by the thigh and tore off his leg.
In consequence the Lion, who was about to tickle his guest with a saber,
lost his balance and fell over. The boy encouraged his dog still further
and he tore off the other hind leg of the Lion. "That is what I thought I
would do to you," said the boy.
"If you will keep him away from me and spare my life," said the Lion, "I
will give you something good."
The boy agreed and the Lion continued, "Under the place where I am lying
is a twenty-dollar gold piece. As long as you keep this you will have good
luck."
The boy hunted for this piece of money but after he had found it he set
his dog on the Lion again. The dog seized him by the throat and bit his
head off, but as soon as he let go the head rolled back and reunited with
the body.
After this had happened several times the boy got a saber, split the
Lion's jaw with it, and cut out his tongue. Then he did not revive again.
Afterwards the boy set his house on fire and the domestic cats which lived
with him and were his cooks (inhompita haya) ran off to the villages. Then
the boy himself set out to return to the house of the old woman, carrying
the gold piece and the Lion's tongue.
On his way back the boy came to a man hewing logs, and the man said, "You
passed here intending to visit the Lion. Did you see him_ Evidently you
did not or you would not have come back."
The boy answered that he had not only seen him but had killed him.
"What proof have you_" said the man. "Many people greater than you could
not kill him. You are just talking."
"That might have been so with other people, but I killed him."
"Then show me something to prove it."
Then the boy took the Lion's tongue out of a little bag and said, "Here it
is. Here is his tongue."
"Well!" replied the man, "I did not think that such a little thing as you
could have killed him, but you have done so. Let me have the tongue."
"Do you really want it_"
"Yes."
"Well, let me chop your finger off and I will give it to you."
The man agreed, and after the boy had out off the end of his finger he
took it back to his foster mother while the man carried the Lion's tongue
into the village.
When the old woman saw her foster child return she said, "Did you find the
Lion_"
"I found him and killed him and have come home."
"Son, better men than you have gone to kill him and never returned. What
proof have you that you did kill him_ Show me something."
So the boy showed her the man's finger and told her he had gotten it in
exchange for the tongue of the Lion. "What else have you by way of proof_"
she asked.
"Another sign he replied, "is a twenty-dollar gold piece."
He showed this to his mother also and she said, "You are in luck. Go east
and provide yourself with a good home."
The word was (or it was reported) that there was a man living in the east
who had a twenty-dollar gold piece which could talk.
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