Reading Notes: Myths of the Cherokee Part B

Reading Notes: Myths of the Cherokee Part B by James Mooney

(Fruit bat: Image by Kdsphotos)

This section of the reading had more variety in comparison to the previous section. This section still included stories that focused on how certain animals came to be, or how they developed one of their physical traits. For example, the stories The Terrapin's Escape From The Wolves and The Ball Game of the Birds and Animals both do this. While I still enjoyed these stories, I most liked the stories that differed from these by explicitly mentioning the Cherokee or other tribes. The stories The Uktena and the Ulûñsû'tï and Âgän-uni'tsï's Search for the Uktena both have more of an explicit focus on the tribes while still telling a mythical story. The idea of the Ulûñsû'tî being this powerful object that the tribes used was quite interesting. The stories mention that white men should not ever see this object, so I think it would be interesting to see what happens if a white man did see it. The people who use it are even afraid of it, so it sounds like bad things would happen if outsiders saw the object or came into contact with it.