Sacred Texts Native American Southeast Index Previous Next
An Indian had four grown sisters and a fifth who was still crawling. They had but the one brother. Onetime the sisters said, "To-night let us lie with our brother." The little girl who was still crawling heard them. And when her brother came home she said to him, "They want to lie with you." Then he broke up a bottle and kept the small sharp pieces. At night, when he lay down he put them by his pillow. After all had gone to bed and had lain for a while, his oldest sister woke up and lay down with him. Then he took the broken pieces of bottle and stuck them into her so that the blood came out; she awoke with her face all bloody and went away. Another lay with him and he stuck the pieces into her under the ear. When the blood came out she awoke and started off. When another came and lay with him he stuck them into some part of her and she went back. All were treated in the same manner.
Then the brother disliked them. They had made him angry and when day came he tied up a small package and put it upon his back. "You can stay by yourselves," he said and set out. The one who was still crawling tried to follow him, so he took her up, placed her upon his pack, and started on. He went until he came to a bluff on the shore of a lake and threw her from it into the water. About four o'clock on the same day she came back out of the water. He had thought she would come crawling but she came out walking. When she reached him he took her and went on. Traveling along with her he made his camp close to a big sheet of water.
After he had made his camp there and some time had elapsed children were born to his sister in some strange way. One that she bore was a little Otter. Next she gave birth to a human baby. The third time she bore a little yellow Mouse. They continued to live in that place.
After that an old woman came to look at the sister and went away again. Certare cum ea volebat utra pilos genitales longiores haberet. Postquam Mus flavus adeo satis crevit vetulae ad domum mittebatur, vetulaeque pilos genitales longos detondebat, quoscum detondisset reportabat. Illa ergo mulier quae serpserat picem pineam inter vetulae crura ponendam curabat. Postridie mane ad mulierem vetula adibat. Vetula vestitum suum elevabat et videbatur vagina carere. Deinde mulier quae serpserat vestitum suum elevabat et pili sui adeo erant longi ut usque infra genua pertinerent.
After that the old woman said, "Let us race with each other." She said to the woman that had crawled, "I will not run down there close to the water. You run down there." She teased her until she agreed to race. The woman that had crawled ran along on the trail close to the water. When she was about halfway, something said, "Oho, go back!" and as if she were flying she fell upon the water and disappeared under it. And she did not come out again.
Next day the little Otter was sent to look under the water and he came back. After he had gotten back he said, "A tie-snake is holding her under water so that she can not come out." Then the human child cried until he was almost dead. He broke a bottle and gave the Otter the pieces, and next day he dived down again with them. The woman came up near a log lying on the water and sat there with the little Otter. The little Otter then took the pieces broken from the bottle and cut the snake in two. And his mother came out.
Then they said to the little Otter, "Your place shall be in the water." They said to the little yellow Mouse, "You shall live in hollow trees.
The human child, however, they took with them.