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Bear Legend
A Cherokee Folk Tale
In the long ago time, there was a Cherokee Clan
call the Ani-Tsa-gu-hi (Ahnee-Jah-goo-hee), and in one family of this clan was
a boy who used to leave home and be gone all day in the mountains. After a
while he went oftener and stayed longer, until at last he would not eat in the
house at all, but started off at daybreak and did not come back until night.
His parents scolded, but that did no good, and the boy still went every day
until they noticed that long brown hair was beginning to grow out all over his
body. Then they wondered and asked him why it was that he wanted to be so much
in the woods that he would not even eat at home. Said the boy, "I find plenty
to eat there, and it is better than the corn and beans we have in the
settlements, and pretty soon I am going into the woods to say all the time."
His parents were worried and begged him not leave them, but he said, "It is
better there than here, and you see I am beginning to be different already, so
that I can not live here any longer. If you will come with me, there is plenty
for all of us and you will never have to work for it; but if you want to come,
you must first fast seven days."
The father and mother
talked it over and then told the headmen of the clan. They held a council
about the matter and after everything had been said they decided: "Here we
must work hard and have not always enough. There he says is always plenty
without work. We will go with him." So they fasted seven days, and on the
seventh morning al the Ani-Tsa-gu-hi left the settlement and started for the
mountains as the boy led the way.
When the people of the
other towns heard of it they were very sorry and sent their headmen to
persuade the Ani Tsaguhi to stay at home and not go into the woods to live.
The messengers found them already on the way, and were surprised to notice
that their bodies were beginning to be covered with hair like that of animals,
because for seven days they had not taken human food and their nature was
changing. The Ani Tsaguhi would not come back, but said, "We are going where
there is always plenty to eat. Hereafter we shall be called Yonv(a) (bears),
and when you yourselves are hungry come into the woods and call us and we
shall shall come to give you our own flesh. You need not be afraid to kill us,
for we shall live always." Then they taught the messengers the songs with
which to call them and bear hunters have these songs still. When they had
finished the songs, the Ani Tsaguhi started on again and the messengers turned
back to the settlements, but after going a little way they looked back and saw
a drove of bears going into the woods.
Aho! We are all Related!
Music by
Elan Michaels
clipart by http://www.firstpeople.us
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