- Snake Boy
- Boy who went bird hunting every day and brought birds back to grandmother
- Family was jealous
- of Grandma for getting birds brought to her? of Boy for grandmother's affections?
- Family treated boy so bad that he told grandma he would leave
- Left without eating breakfast and returned in the evening with a pair of deer horns
- Told grandma he had to be alone in the hothouse, so she left to go into the house with the others
- Grandma came back at daybreak and saw a massive snake with horns on its head with two human legs in place of a tail
- Boy told her to leave, and crawled out (long period of time) of the hothouse.
- Crawled through settlement leaving a trail until it reached the river and went in
- Grandmother grieved despite boy having told her not to grieve for him
- Family got upset, told her that if she thought so much of him she should go join him
- Grandmother follows trail and walks into river
- Once afterward, man sees her sitting on a rock in the river, but she jumps in the water as soon as she sees him
- Snake Man
- Two hunters under a taboo not to eat squirrel or turkey
- Go into woods, light a fire to prepare supper once evening comes
- One killed several squirrels during day and prepared to eat them
- Other warned him not to break taboo or he'd turn into a snake
- Hunter ignored warning and ate squirrels
- Later in the night, hunter was rolling around in agony with his lower body having turned into the body and tail of a water snake
- Other hunter could not help, and could only watch as first hunter slowly turned into a snake
- Snake hunter finished turning into snake and crawled into river
Bibliography: "The Snake Boy" and "The Snake Man" from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney. Web Source.
Image: Mississippi Green Water Snake by John Sullivan on Wikimedia Commons. Web Source.
No comments:
Post a Comment