Sacred Texts Native American Southeast Index Previous Next
A young man wanted to marry a certain girl very much. One time when a party to which they belonged was out she was riding a pack horse and was lost along with the man. He told her that he wanted her and would take her to his camp, if she would marry him, which she consented to do. Later there was another hunt and the man went to the spot where he had first lain with the woman. He saw a very pretty plant growing there. He went back to his people and told them what he had seen. Then he showed the plant to them and told them how it had come about. They said, "We shall call it hitci, and when we smoke we shall call it the same as quum coimus (haisa)." This was the beginning of tobacco.