Cherokee Fables

Abstract

Now this little booklet has got to be rare! It is 3½ x 5 and 44 pages long. The first story here is of the terrapin and the rabbit. This clever telling involves a race where the terrapin gets an advantage: he has to run only 3/4 of what the rabbit must run. The course is set over four mountain ridges. Look-alike terrapins are stationed at each to be seen ahead of the rabbit and then to get over the ridge and hide in the grass. A terrapin chief is set at the finish-line to answer any questions if any of the animals suspected anything. There are a number of pourquoi stories here. At least some of the stories are tied together into a unified narrative: because of what happens in one, some other characters decide to do something in the next. The clever Terrapin is the central character here. In one of the episodes he has been caught and pleads, as in the B'rer Rabbit tales, not to be thrown into the water -- since that is, of course, exactly what he wants. A surprising story of a wedding race has the crane beating the handsome hummingbird because the former could fly all night. However, the bride refuses them both because the crane is ugly and the hummingbird puny. She dies unmarried. There is no use in trying to please a woman. The last story is The First Strawberries. The first man and his wife quarrel. She walks off. After some reflection, he misses her and starts after her. The Great Apportioner, the sun, takes pity on the man and starts growing things along her path, berries and then plums. Finally, when the sun creates strawberries and she is tired, she lingers, eats, and decides to wait for him. She finally even takes some berries and starts back to meet him. Good things sometimes come out of troubles; we would not have these lovely fruits if it were not for their quarrel. There is a misprint on 21: quitely for quietly.