Native American Legends
Origin of the Pleiades and the Pine
A Cherokee Legend
Long ago, when the world was new, there were seven boys who used
to spend all their time down by the townhouse playing the gatayû'stï
game, rolling a stone wheel along the ground and sliding a curved
stick after it to strike it.
Their mothers scolded, but it did no good, so one day they collected
some gatayû'stï stones and boiled them in the pot with
the corn for dinner. When the boys came home hungry their mothers
dipped out the stones and said, "Since you like the gatayû'stï
better than the cornfield, take the stones now for your dinner."
The boys were very angry, and went down to the townhouse, saying,
"As our mothers treat us this way, let us go where we shall
never trouble them any more." They began a dance--some say
it was the Feather dance-and went round and round the townhouse,
praying to the spirits to help them.
At last their mothers were afraid something was wrong and went
out to look for them. They saw the boys still dancing around the
townhouse, and as they watched they noticed that their feet were
off the Earth, and that with every round they rose higher and higher
in the air.
They ran to get their children, but it was too late, for then,
were already above the roof of the townhouse--all but one, whose
mother managed to pull him down with the gatayû'stï pole,
but he struck the ground with such force that he sank into it and
the Earth closed over him.
The other six circled higher and higher until they went up to the
sky, where we see them now as the Pleiades, which the Cherokee still
call Ani'tsutsä (The Boys). The people grieved long after them,
but the mother whose boy had gone into the ground came every morning
and every evening to cry over the spot until the Earth was damp
with her tears.
At last a little green shoot sprouted up and grew day by day until
it became the tall tree that we call now the pine, and the pine
is of the same nature as the stars and holds in itself the same
bright light.
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