The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees Part 15

The pleasing stakes are there in the sixth heaven. The Chimney Swift has made himself one of them, that they may never be defeated. The pleasing stakes are in the seventh heaven. The Blue Dragon-fly has made himself one of them, that they may never be defeated.

As for the other admirers of the ball play, the Bear has just come and fastened him upon them, that they may never be happy. They have lost all strength. He has let the stakes slip from his grasp and there shall be nothing left for their share.

The examination is ended.

Listen! Now let me know that the twelve are mine, O White Dragon-fly.

Tell me that the share is to be mine--that the stakes are mine. As for the player there on the other side, he has been forced to let go his hold upon the stakes.

Now they are become exultant and happy. Y!

_Explanation._

This formula, from the Ay[n]ini ma.n.u.script is one of those used by the shaman in taking the ball players to water before the game.

The ceremony is performed in connection with red and black beads, as described in the formula just given for destroying life. The formulistic name given to the ball players signifies literally, admirers of the ball play. The Tlaniwa (saniwa in the Middle dialect) is the mythic great hawk, as large and powerful as the roc of Arabian tales. The shaman begins by declaring that it is his purpose to examine or inquire into the fate of the ball players, and then gives his attention by turns to his friends and their opponents, fixing his eyes upon the red bead while praying for his clients, and upon the black bead while speaking of their rivals. His friends he raises gradually to the seventh or highest _gal[n]lati_. This word literally signifies height, and is the name given to the abode of the G.o.ds dwelling above the earth, and is also used to mean heaven in the Cherokee bible translation. The opposing players, on the other hand, are put down under the earth, and are made to resemble animals slow and clumsy of movement, while on behalf of his friends the shaman invokes the aid of swift-flying birds, which, according to the Indian belief, never by any chance fail to secure their prey.

The birds invoked are the Henil or wood pewee (_Contopus virens_), the Tlaniwa or mythic hawk, the Gulisguli or great crested flycatcher (_Myiarchus crinitus_), the Tsts or martin (_Progne subis_), and the Anigstaya or chimney swift (_Chtura pelasgia_). In the idiom of the formulas it is said that these have just come and are sticking to them (the players), the same word (_dantsglaniga_) being used to express the devoted attention of a lover to his mistress. The Watatuga, a small species of dragon-fly, is also invoked, together with the bat, which, according to a Cherokee myth, once took sides with the birds in a great ball contest with the four-footed animals, and won the victory for the birds by reason of his superior skill in dodging. This myth explains also why birds, and no quadrupeds, are invoked by the shaman to the aid of his friends.

In accordance with the regular color symbolism the flycatcher, martin, and dragon-fly, like the bat and the tlaniwa, should be red, the color of success, instead of blue, evidently so written by mistake.

The white thread is frequently mentioned in the formulas, but in this instance the reference is not clear. The twelve refers to the number of runs made in the game.