Week 9 Reading Diary: Myths of the Cherokee Cont.

This is the second half of reading through Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).

Tobacco and Strawberries

 The story of tobacco really made me laugh because I interpreted it as a story where all the people and creatures were addicted to tobacco. The story began with one tobacco plant in all the land, and everyone needed tobacco to survive. Well eventually an evil goose stole the last tobacco plant. An elderly woman needed the tobacco plant to live, so all the creatures of the land attempted to retrieve the tobacco plant. However, each animal died in its attempt. Then came the hummingbird to the rescue. The tiny bird flew swiftly to the tobacco plant and returned it home. However, the old woman had fainted. Everyone thought she was dead until she took a sniff of the tobacco plant and jumped up yelling, "Tobacco!" I guess it really did save her life.

The story of strawberries was cute. A husband and wife were in an argument and set off into their separate ways. The husband regretted the fight and wanted to be united with his wife immediately, but she kept walking away from him. God felt pity for the husband and decided to help reunite the husband and wife. He laid out all sorts of fruits in front of the wife so that He could direct you towards her husband, but she ignored the fruits. Then God laid out patches of bright, red strawberries. They were the first strawberries on Earth. The wife was quickly entranced by the color and sweetness of the fruit. She picked them and her mind was flooded with sweet memories of her husband. She gathered a whole basket of strawberries and returned to her husband so that they can eat the fruit together.

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Strawberries. Source.

How the Deer got his Horns

This story wasn't too much of an attention grabber. The deer and a rabbit were in a competition to see who could run the fastest. The winner would wear the prized antlers. The rabbit, being known as a trickster, scavenge into the woods to become familiar with the path for tomorrow's race, but he was gone so long. The animals found out that the rabbit was making his own path by gnawing on the bushes, so the deer automatically won the antlers. To this day, male deer have antlers and rabbits gnaw on bushes.