Week 10 Reading Notes: Myths of the Cherokee, Part A
This week, I'm reading about myths from the Cherokee tribe. Here are my notes!
1: How the World Was Made
-the earth is suspended from wires at each cardinal point to the sky vault (Galunlati) above them; when the world ends, the wires will break and the earth will sink into the ocean
-the water-beetle volunteers to go down to earth to see if there is more room there so animals can live there instead of in the sky vault; all the animals decide to go down to earth and create everything about it (valleys, mountains, etc.)
2: The First Fire
-the world was cold so the Thunders from the sky vault sent fire down to a tree; a bunch of different animals try to go to the tree and bring the fire back but they couldn't; finally, a water spider volunteers, goes to the tree and brings back a coal, giving the animals fire
3: The Journey to The Sunrise
-a bunch of young men go to find the sun and see what the sun is like; on their journey east, the find a ton of different tribes that have different customs; they finally get to the edge of the sky vault where the sun lives, but they can't get inside so they decide to go home
4: Origin of the Pleiades and the Pine
-a group of boys liked to play a game where you would roll a stone and hit it with a stick all the time; this upset their mothers, so their mothers cooked them stones for dinner and told them to eat them; the boys got upset, thinking their mothers didn't want them, so they go to dance around the townhouse and go somewhere else; when their mothers find them, they had risen to the sky during their dance; one mother is able to bring her son down but the earth swallows him and he becomes a pine tree; the other boys became the Pleiades
5: The Moon and the Thunders
-some people say the sun is a young woman who lives in the east, and her brother, the moon, lives in the west; once a month, the sun meets up with her lover (who is only there for one night and she can't see his face because it's so dark); one night, she puts her hand in ash and rubs it on his face so she can recognize him in the light; the next day, she sees her brother, the moon, with ashy spots on his face; so now the moon tries to stay as far away from the sun as possible
-some people say the moon is up there because someone tried to cheat at a ball game
-some say eclipses are caused by a frog trying to swallow the moon
6: The Deluge
-a dog warns his person that he has to build a raft when it starts raining or else he'll drown; he does what the dog says, and a flood comes, and because he has a raft he and his family are saved while everyone else dies
7: How They Brought Back the Tobacco / Origin of Strawberries
-geese steal the tobacco plant from a town; a bunch of different animals volunteer to go get it back but many of them die; a hummingbird volunteers to go get it, and flies so swiftly that he's able to get the plant and bring it back
-a husband and wife fight, and so the wife decided to leave him and go to the east; the Sun takes pity on the husband and gives him strawberries to get his wife back
8: The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting
-a rabbit pretends to be an otter; an otter challenges the rabbit to go duck hunting with him and see if he can kill one; the rabbit catches one with a noose, but it gets away and the rabbit gets stuck in a tree; the rabbit gets out of the tree by tricking some children into cutting down the tree to let him out
9: How the Rabbit Stole the Otter's Coat
-the animals talk about who has the best coat, and they decide that the otter does; the rabbit decides to go find the otter one day; on their way back to the river, the rabbit convinces the otter to "take off his coat" just in case the sky starts raining fire and it gets wet if the otter has to jump in the river; the rabbit tricks the otter and steals his coat
10: Why the Possum's Tail is Bare
-a rabbit gets jealous of a possum's bushy tail, so he decides to trick him; the rabbit gets a barber to go to the possum's house the night before a dance and cut all the hair off the possum's tail; when the possum goes to the dance the next day to show off his tail, all the animals make fun of him because it doesn't have any fur on it
11: How the Terrapin Beat the Rabbit
-the rabbit and the terrapin decide to race one another and see who is the fastest; the terrapin knew he wasn't faster than the rabbit, so he goes to get his friends and positions them in different places along the race track so the rabbit would think it was losing (bc they all look alike); this makes the rabbit lose the race
12: Flint Visits the Rabbit
-the rabbit goes to visit Flint to kill him, because he's a hunter; rabbit invites him to have supper with him at his house, and flint goes with him; flint falls asleep after eating, and rabbit tries to kill him by hitting him with a mallet, but he explodes into a bunch of tiny flint pieces
13: Why the Deer's Teeth are Blunt
-the deer and the rabbit challenge one another to a race, and whoever wins gets horns; the animals find out that the rabbit had been planning to cheat in the race, so they give the horns to the deer (which is why deer have horns now)
-the rabbit is upset bc the deer got the horns; the rabbit bets the deer that he can't gnaw through a grapevine; the deer tries, but he can't because he has blunt teeth; the rabbit offers to sharpen them for him, but instead the rabbit files them down to the gums; the deer tries to eat the grapevine again but he can't because he barely has any teeth (this is why deer eat plants)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Myths of the Cherokee" by James Mooney. Source: Untextbook.
1: How the World Was Made
-the earth is suspended from wires at each cardinal point to the sky vault (Galunlati) above them; when the world ends, the wires will break and the earth will sink into the ocean
-the water-beetle volunteers to go down to earth to see if there is more room there so animals can live there instead of in the sky vault; all the animals decide to go down to earth and create everything about it (valleys, mountains, etc.)
2: The First Fire
-the world was cold so the Thunders from the sky vault sent fire down to a tree; a bunch of different animals try to go to the tree and bring the fire back but they couldn't; finally, a water spider volunteers, goes to the tree and brings back a coal, giving the animals fire
3: The Journey to The Sunrise
-a bunch of young men go to find the sun and see what the sun is like; on their journey east, the find a ton of different tribes that have different customs; they finally get to the edge of the sky vault where the sun lives, but they can't get inside so they decide to go home
4: Origin of the Pleiades and the Pine
-a group of boys liked to play a game where you would roll a stone and hit it with a stick all the time; this upset their mothers, so their mothers cooked them stones for dinner and told them to eat them; the boys got upset, thinking their mothers didn't want them, so they go to dance around the townhouse and go somewhere else; when their mothers find them, they had risen to the sky during their dance; one mother is able to bring her son down but the earth swallows him and he becomes a pine tree; the other boys became the Pleiades
5: The Moon and the Thunders
-some people say the sun is a young woman who lives in the east, and her brother, the moon, lives in the west; once a month, the sun meets up with her lover (who is only there for one night and she can't see his face because it's so dark); one night, she puts her hand in ash and rubs it on his face so she can recognize him in the light; the next day, she sees her brother, the moon, with ashy spots on his face; so now the moon tries to stay as far away from the sun as possible
-some people say the moon is up there because someone tried to cheat at a ball game
-some say eclipses are caused by a frog trying to swallow the moon
6: The Deluge
-a dog warns his person that he has to build a raft when it starts raining or else he'll drown; he does what the dog says, and a flood comes, and because he has a raft he and his family are saved while everyone else dies
7: How They Brought Back the Tobacco / Origin of Strawberries
-geese steal the tobacco plant from a town; a bunch of different animals volunteer to go get it back but many of them die; a hummingbird volunteers to go get it, and flies so swiftly that he's able to get the plant and bring it back
-a husband and wife fight, and so the wife decided to leave him and go to the east; the Sun takes pity on the husband and gives him strawberries to get his wife back
8: The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting
-a rabbit pretends to be an otter; an otter challenges the rabbit to go duck hunting with him and see if he can kill one; the rabbit catches one with a noose, but it gets away and the rabbit gets stuck in a tree; the rabbit gets out of the tree by tricking some children into cutting down the tree to let him out
9: How the Rabbit Stole the Otter's Coat
-the animals talk about who has the best coat, and they decide that the otter does; the rabbit decides to go find the otter one day; on their way back to the river, the rabbit convinces the otter to "take off his coat" just in case the sky starts raining fire and it gets wet if the otter has to jump in the river; the rabbit tricks the otter and steals his coat
10: Why the Possum's Tail is Bare
-a rabbit gets jealous of a possum's bushy tail, so he decides to trick him; the rabbit gets a barber to go to the possum's house the night before a dance and cut all the hair off the possum's tail; when the possum goes to the dance the next day to show off his tail, all the animals make fun of him because it doesn't have any fur on it
11: How the Terrapin Beat the Rabbit
-the rabbit and the terrapin decide to race one another and see who is the fastest; the terrapin knew he wasn't faster than the rabbit, so he goes to get his friends and positions them in different places along the race track so the rabbit would think it was losing (bc they all look alike); this makes the rabbit lose the race
12: Flint Visits the Rabbit
-the rabbit goes to visit Flint to kill him, because he's a hunter; rabbit invites him to have supper with him at his house, and flint goes with him; flint falls asleep after eating, and rabbit tries to kill him by hitting him with a mallet, but he explodes into a bunch of tiny flint pieces
13: Why the Deer's Teeth are Blunt
-the deer and the rabbit challenge one another to a race, and whoever wins gets horns; the animals find out that the rabbit had been planning to cheat in the race, so they give the horns to the deer (which is why deer have horns now)
-the rabbit is upset bc the deer got the horns; the rabbit bets the deer that he can't gnaw through a grapevine; the deer tries, but he can't because he has blunt teeth; the rabbit offers to sharpen them for him, but instead the rabbit files them down to the gums; the deer tries to eat the grapevine again but he can't because he barely has any teeth (this is why deer eat plants)
Sunrise. Source: Untextbook.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Myths of the Cherokee" by James Mooney. Source: Untextbook.
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