The Ancient World (HUM 124 - UNC Asheville)/Texts/How the World Was Made by James Mooney

Summary

In the beginning, animals lived in "Galun'latim", heaven, but they were in search of more room to live because it had become too crowded. They wanted to know if they could live on the water bellow them so, they sent "Dayuni'si", a water-beetle, down to the water to explore and pull up mud from the seafloor to create land. Then the land was tied to "Galun'latim", or "the sky vault", with four invisible strings in each cardinal direction. When the animals decided they were ready to live on this new Earth they sent down "The Great Buzzard" and told him to make it livable. He had grown tired of flying so when he reached the Cherokee land he was flying low enough that his wings hit the ground creating mountains and valleys. The animals became nervous the whole world would be mountains so they called "The Great Buzzard" back up to "Galun'latim". It was dark when the animals came down to Earth so they took the sun and placed it on a path across the sky from East to West and continually moved it higher until it just below "the sky vault" as to not get burned. When plants and animals first arrived on Earth they were given a challenge, to stay awake for a whole week, and if they could complete the challenge they were given gifts. The animals became nocturnal and the plants became green all year round. Then two humans came to Earth, a brother and a sister. The sister was hit with a fish and told she must procreate, and in seven days she had a child.