Sacred Texts Native American Southeast Index Previous Next
Lion used to live on this side of the ocean where he killed people and ate them. Therefore, the people got Rabbit to get him over to the other side. Rabbit went to meet Lion and said, "I know where you can find lots of people to eat. I eat them myself." "You poor little thing," said Lion, "what can you eat?" Rabbit said: "They
will come ashore in a boat from a vessel, and you can eat them, but first we will hang up long pieces of bark about the fire." So they went out and collected many pieces of dry bark which they hung up around the fire in order to be ready to cook the people whom they killed. By and by both went out after human flesh, and, when they came in, Lion said: "I have all I want. It doesn't look as if you had eaten anything good." "The only way to prove that," said Rabbit, "is to sit side by side with closed eyes and defecate. Whoever passes human bones has eaten human flesh." They did so, and Lion defecated human bones, while Rabbit passed only balls of grass, but before they opened their eyes again, he changed the places of the excrement. The Rabbit said: "You do not know where to go." After that Lion did not want to be with him any more, but Rabbit persuaded him to stay. That night they prepared to sleep on opposite sides of the fire. While they were preparing Rabbit said: "What do you say when you are asleep?" "I snore," said Lion. "What do you say?" "I say said Rabbit. After they had been lying down for a while, Lion began to snore, and Rabbit saw that he was fast asleep. Then he got up, set the dried barks on fire, and threw them down on top of Lion. Lion was so badly burned that he jumped into the ocean and swam away, and he did not stop swimming until he reached the other side, where he is to-day. (Told by Silas Jefferson.)