The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-13
FOLKLORE OF THE CHERoKEES
NEW SETTING FOR MANY FA-
MILIAR NURSERY STORIES.


TO Made During studies Among the
,heroLees for Fifteen YeRrs-Has
earned Their Primitive Religious
BeIiefs.
,,-.shineton Letter in the Pittsburg Dis
patch.
Yesterday 1 had an entertaining chat
-..., lanes Mooney of the bureau of eth
zoology. who has just returned from the
r.,.tern Cherokee reservation in Western
r-,rth Carolina Mr.. Mooney began to
s,Idv these curious people fifteen years
400 He has succeeded in securing their
sn,tre aboriginal ritual, embodying 600
,r,vers. sacred songs, love charms and
formulas for black art and manufacture
If medicine He says that no other SINH
lar objection of Indian material is any
u.b,re in existence. 1t is contained in a
number of strange books written entirely
i, ihe Cherokee alphabet, invented severn
~ years ago by Chief Sequoyah, after
a5om the giant trees of California We're
named.
These hieroglyphics resemble Russian
more than any other written language.
Some of the columes were written sixty
Years ago and contain secrets which the
chiefs and medicine men never imDart,
even to their children, and which no lay
man among them could read from the
written pages, because in their religious
writings these dignitaries of the tribes
employ a language different from that
use1 in ordinary conversation. Having
learned this sacred dialect, as well as
common Cherokee, Mr.. Mooney is able to
translate all of these rituals into English.
49, ..4s-.
religious beliefs, explaining the creation
and the occurrence of events, strangely
similar to many of the chief happenings
in the Old Testament.
Mr. Mooney briefly related to me the
story of the Cherokee Genesis" which
he lately translated from the original rec
ords:
In the beginning, according to this sa-
cred belief, the earth was fat as ii is
now. but was entirely covered by water
All of the animal tribes, as well as man,
were then living up above the arch of the
sky. and were possessed of a common Ian
guage, in which any one, might speak to
another. They debated as TO a future set
Element, and one day a little water beetle
descended to the watery EARTH dived be-
meath the surface, and brought UP earth
which spread until il became the vast ISL
and which is now the dry land. Seeing
this the animals sent down a buzZard that
he might investigate. Viewing him from
aloft they saw that as he sWooDed up
and down over the wet soil he made the
country very rugged. Displeased at this,
they called him back, but not before he
had formed the Southern Alleghanies, in
which the Cherokee people afterward liv-
ed
Movement of the sun.
The sky, on top of which the animals
were waiting, was an arch of solid stone.
The sun descended every morning. as
now, through a gateway, which opened
and closed like a pair of scissors in the
eastern side of the sky. After passing
over The earth during the day the sun
disappeared, as it still does, through an
other opening in the western side of the
sky arch. But the SUMS journey, in the
beginning, was very unsteady So the ami
mas, after descending to the earth sent
ndiclne man to make it go straight
across the sky. In his attempts to regu-
late the unsteady sun the medicine man
4 got 1t so near that 1t scorched all of those
below but finally placed it where if now
Is and where it causes no further trouble.
Some men travelled to the east to explore
4 Inc entrance through which the sun as
i eended every morning. One was caught
IN 1t as it closed and was killed, but the
others passed through and made won
certul explorations.
Nan became more and more aggressive
ana began to prey upon the other animals
Oh the earth, whereupon the latter held a
council 10 devise means for his destruc-
ton. They concocted the various human
diseases, and decided that whenever man
hlled an animal that animals tribe
should send a disease ghost after him
one that would punish him unless he
asked pardon, as the hunter must always
a. to-day before he can hunt with safety
Inc plants, however, remained friendly
10 man, and ever afterward have devised
remedies 10 counterfeit the disease ghosts
Of the animals
AT one time the people on the earth sent
snake to kill the daughter of the Sun.
one was taken off to the Land of Shades
Nnereupon her mother, the Sun, grieved
80 much that her flood of tears threaten
"a aeluge. The people of the earth Their
sent delegation to the Land of Shades
Ior the return of the SUMS daughter. They
Iound her, and were allowed to bear hel
away safely in box, but were cautioned
nol 10 open it until they had returned
nome. But after awhile their passenger
gesuh 10 beg for air, and as they opened
ole OoN to relieve her she took the form
u red bird and escaped. Had it moi
o1eH Tor this dlsobedience there would
nave been no death. As it is. those who
go 70 the Land of Shades must there re.
"aIn' never to return.
story of the DeIuge.
Il Ihe Cherokee accounts of the deluge
Oh a man who, long time ago, had
"s which went darby to the bank OF
W Ne nver and howled. Its master, the
.D o.l OF their strange mythology, became
rI7Iy al the dog and scolded him, where
UPON the beast spoke
oe'S soon said he, "there will It
uood' and the water will come so high
r pa' everyone will be drowned. But il
t 10y WEI make a raft to get upon wher
N, ram comes you can be saved" .
ri, I've man built the raft as directed pro
SUued 1t and placed his family upor
srIne rain came and the waters in
al e'Sed INTO great deluge, which drown.
ma every creature on earth except thi.
G, ana his family When after many
NJ me water had subsidized, and it haC
so., 'e safe TO leave the raft, the mar
s5. oahclng and shouting on the Other
n OF me river near where he saw great
r., "I human bones along the valley
pbl an was quiet. and he knew that The
s'S~ol the dead had been dancing.
ba' Mooney finds that the Cherokee
I n