It is affirmed by Cherokee tradition, said my informant, that the water
once prevailed over the land, until every person
was drowned, but a single family. The coming
of this calamity was revealed by a dog to his
master. This dog was very pertinacious in visiting the banks of a river, for several days, where
he stood gazing at the water, and howling piteously. Being sharply spoken to, by his master,
and ordered home, he revealed to him the coming evil. He concluded his prediction by saying, that the escape of his master and family
from drowning, depended upon their throwing
him into the water; that to escape drowning
himself, he must make a boat, and put in it all
he wished to save; that it would then rain hard,
a long time, and a great overflowing of the land
would take place.
The dog then told his master to look for a sign of the truth of what he had said, to the back of his neck. On turning round, and doing so, the dog's neck was raw and bare, the bone and flesh appearing. By obeying this prediction, one man and his family were saved, and from these rescued persons, the earth, they believe, was again peopled.
The dog then told his master to look for a sign of the truth of what he had said, to the back of his neck. On turning round, and doing so, the dog's neck was raw and bare, the bone and flesh appearing. By obeying this prediction, one man and his family were saved, and from these rescued persons, the earth, they believe, was again peopled.
Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, Notes on the Iroquois, Albany: Erastus H. Pease & Co.,
1847, pp.358-359.
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