Notes on the Iroquois, page 358, as having been obtained in 1846 from
the Cherokee chief, Stand Watie. It was obtained by the author in
nearly the same form in 1890 from James Wafford, of Indian Territory,
who had heard it from his grandmother nearly eighty years before. The
incident of the dancing skeletons is not given by Schoolcraft,
and seems to indicate a lost sequel to the story. Haywood (Nat. and
Aborig. Hist. Tenn., p. 161) mentions the Cherokee deluge myth and
conjectures that the petroglyphs at Track Rock gap in Georgia may
have some reference to it. The versions given by the missionaries
Buttrick and Washburn are simply the Bible narrative as told by the
Indians. Washburn's informant, however, accounted for the phenomenon
by an upheaval and tilting of the earth, so that the waters for a
time overflowed the inhabited parts (Reminiscences, pp. 196-197). In a
variant related by Hagar (MS Stellar Legends of the Cherokee) a star
with fiery tail falls from heaven and becomes a man with long hair,
who warns the people of the coming deluge.
It is not in place here to enter into a discussion of the meaning
and universality of the deluge myth, for an explanation of which the
reader is referred to Bouton's Bible Myths and Bible Folklore. [535]
Suffice it to say that such a myth appears to have existed with
every people and in every age. Among the American tribes with which
it was found Brinton enumerates the Athapascan, Algonquian, Iroquois,
Cherokee, Chickasaw, Caddo, Natchez, Dakota, Apache, Navaho, Mandan,
Pueblo, Aztec, Mixtec, Zapotec, Tlascalan, Michoacan, Toltec, Maya,
Quiche, Haitian, Darien, Popayan, Muysca, Quichua, Tupinamba, Achagua,
Auraucanian, "and doubtless others." [536] It is found also along
the Northwest coast, was known about Albemarle sound, and, as has
been said, was probably common to all the tribes.
In one Creek version the warning is given by wolves; in another by
cranes (see Bouton, cited above).