THE
TERRAPIN'S ESCAPE FROM THE WOLVES
The Possum and the Terrapin went out together to hunt
persimmons, and
found a tree full of ripe fruit. The Possum climbed it and
was throwing down
the persimmons to the Terrapin when a wolf came up and began
to snap at the persimmons as they fell, before the Terrapin could reach
them. The Possum waited his chance, and at last managed to throw down a
large one (some say a bone which he carried with him), so that it lodged in the
wolf's throat as he jumped up at it and choked him to death. "I'll
take his ears for hominy spoons," said the Terrapin, and cut off the wolf's
ears and started home with them, leaving the Possum still eating persimmons up
in the tree. After a while he came to a house and was invited to have some
kanahe'na gruel from the jar that is set always outside the door. He sat
down beside the jar and dipped up the gruel with one of the wolf's ears for a
spoon. The people noticed and wondered. When he was satisfied he
went on, but soon came to another house and was asked to have some more
kanahe'na. He dipped it up again with the wolf's ear and went on when he
had enough. Soon the news went around that the Terrapin had killed the
Wolf and was using his ears for spoons. All the Wolves got together and
followed the Terrapin's trail until they came up with him and made him
prisoner. Then they held a council to decide what to do with him, and
agreed to boil him in a clay pot. They brought in a pot, but the
Terrapin only laughed at it and said that if they put him into that thing he
would kick it all to pieces. They said they would burn him in the fire,
but the Terrapin laughed again and said he would put it out. Then they
decided to throw him into the deepest hole in the river and drown him. The
Terrapin begged and prayed them not to do that, but they paid no attention, and
dragged him over to the river and threw him in. That was just what the
Terrapin had been waiting for all the time, and he dived under the water and
came up on the other side and got away.
Some say that when he was thrown into the river he struck against a rock, which
broke his back in a dozen places. He sang a medicine song:
Gú'daye'wú, Gú'daye'wú,
I have sewed myself together, I have sewed myself together,
and
the pieces came together, but the scars remain on his shell to this day.
From
"James Mooney's History, Myths and Sacred Formulas of the
Cherokees"
Published
by Bright Mountain Books, Inc.