Art, Prehistoric; Folk literature -- History and criticism
In the speech containing the migration legend of the Creek, the
head-chief Chekilli said: “The Cussetaws cannot yet leave their
red hearts, which are, however, white on one side and red on the
other”.[157]
[157] Albert S. Gatschet, A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians,
Philadelphia, 1884; p. 251.
James Mooney records the following formula for success in hunting.
obtained from the Cherokee.[158]
Give me the wind. Give me the breeze. Yu! O Great Terrestrial Hunter,
I come to the edge of your spittle where you repose. Let your stomach
cover itself; let it be covered with leaves. Let it cover itself at a
single bend, and may you never be satisfied.
And you, O Ancient Red, may you hover above my breast while I sleep.
Now let good (dreams?) develop; let my expressions be propitious. Ha!
Now let my little trails be directed, as they lie down in various
directions (?). Let the leaves be covered with the clotted blood, and
may it never cease to be so. You two shall bury it in your stomachs.
Yu.
[158] James Mooney, The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, Seventh
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 369.
In this formula the gods of the hunt, fire and water are called upon.
The Great Terrestrial Hunter is the river, its spittle the foam; the
blood-stained leaves on which the game has been killed are to cover
the surface of the water. The hunter asks that all the game may be
assembled at one bend of the river which is supposed to long for
evermore. In the second part, the Ancient Red is the fire. It hovers
over the breast because the hunter rubs his chest with ashes. The
blood-stained leaves are thrown into the fire and into the water which
is expressed by having them buried in the stomach.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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