Reading Notes: Myths of the Cherokee, Part B

Week 11

Although I didn't previously take notes on the rabbit stories, I still enjoyed reading them! I found the other stories to be quite obscure and strange and I liked that. Diving into Part B of these stories I found it to be nice reading about animals again! In Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney, I saw a lot of animals and ideas that pertained to different beliefs of all the kinds of creations on earth. In the story "The Terrapin's Escape from the Wolves" it was interesting to see a possum take on a wolf. The possum was much more clever and was able to attack the wolf. The other wolves found it so disappointing that the Terrapin was using this one wolf's ear as a spoon! That was such a crazy concept to me. I also liked that the wolves had a council meeting kind of thing where they would decide what to do to the Terrapin. He was still somewhat of a trickster where he ended up begging them to deliberately put him in a situation where he could still get away. I really liked that ending because I didn't hate the Terrapin and I kind of wanted him to get away. 

(Source: Cute Owl)

I love a marriage story! In "The Owl gets Married" little did I know this was not the owl story I was expecting. I liked it though because it made me want to keep reading. It was fun seeing a man transform into an owl and really only hunt enough for what an owl could eat. In a way he was not wrong when he told the old lady that he was a good hunter, because he was, but mostly only for him. The story made me dislike the wife because she just kind of ditched him whenever she found out. She didn't ask him why he was like that or if he could hunt normally, she just left him to be upset. To me I found it funny though because she was still married to him! 

In the story "The Uktena and the Ulûñsû'tï" it tied back to religious connections and the idea of creation. It starts off outlining how the sun is angry with the people and sends down disease but it's dressed as snakes. With that being said I loved the detail and description that went into what these snakes looked like. It also drew back to the number seven. It was interesting that there were so many rules that came with it such as feeding it blood such as a sacrifice. It also showed the disadvantage of using this kind of serpent. 

The next story that caught my attention was "The Snake Boy" and "The Snake Man" because it shows the transformation of the character into a snake body. This was seen as evil but I want to note how in both stories they share a commonality of another person experiencing the pain that comes with it. The story with the boy shows that his grandmother was extremely saddened by him going into the water that she followed him and it's insinuated that she died for him. In the snake man, the hunter was with a fellow hunter who saw him transform. They both go to the water which is weird because I'm not sure what that symbolizes. I found these stories to be interesting because of how abstract they are.