river 405
XX. Petroglyphs at Track-rock gap, Georgia 4 IS
Figure 1. Feather wand of Eagle dance 2S2
2. Ancient Iroquois wampum 1 celts 354
9
MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
By James Mooney
I— INTRODUCTION
The myths given in this paper are part of a large body of material
collected among the Cherokee, chiefly in successive field seasons from
1887 to L890, inclusive, and comprising more or less extensive notes,
together with original Cherokee manuscripts, relating to the history,
archeology, geographic nomenclature, personal names, botany, medi-
cine, arts, home life, religion, songs, ceremonies, and language of the
tribe. It is intended that this material shall appear from time to
time in a series of papers which, when finally brought together, shall
constitute a monograph upon the Cherokee Indians. This paper may
be considered the first of the series, all that has hitherto appeared
being a shortpaper upon the sacred formulas of the tribe, published
in the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau in 1891 and containing a
synopsis of the Cherokee medico-religious theory, with twenty-eight
specimens selected from a body of about six hundred ritual formulas
written down in the Cherokee language and alphabet by former
doctors of the tribe and constituting altogether the largest body of
aboriginal American literature in existence.
Although the Cherokee arc probably the largest and most impor-
tant tribe in the Tinted States, having their own national government
and numbering at any time in their history from 20,000 to 25,000 per-
sons, almost nothing has yet been written of their history or general
ethnology, as compared with the literature of such northern tribes as
the Delawares, the Iroquois, or the Ojibwa. The difference is due to
historical reasons which need not