different form by John Ax and Swimmer (east) and was confirmed by
Wafford (west). Although among the Cherokee it has degenerated to
a mere humorous tale for the amusement of a winter evening, it was
originally a principal part of the great cosmogonic myth common to
probably all the Iroquoian and Algonquian tribes, and of which we find
traces also in the mythologies of the Aztec and the Maya. Among the
northern Algonquian tribes "the West was typified as a flint stone,
and the twin brother of Michabo, the Great Rabbit. The feud between
them was bitter, and the contest long and dreadful.... At last Michabo
mastered his fellow twin and broke him into pieces. He scattered the
fragments over the earth...." Among the Iroquoian tribes, cognate
with the Cherokee, the name is variously Tawiskaroñ, Tawiskara, and
sometimes Ohaa, all of which are names both for flint and for hail or
ice. Tawiskara is the evil-working god, in perpetual conflict with
his twin brother Yoskeha, the beneficent god, by whom he is finally
overpowered, when the blood that drops from his wounds is changed
into flint stones. Brinton sees in the Great Rabbit and the Flint
the opposing forces of day and night, light and darkness, locally
personified as East and West, while in the twin gods of the Iroquois
Hewitt sees the conflicting agents of heat and cold, summer and
winter. Both conceptions are identical in the final analysis. Hewitt
derives the Iroquois name from a root denoting "hail, ice, glass";
in Cherokee we have tawiskalûñ'i, tawi'skala, "flint," tawi'ska,
"smooth," une'stalûñ, "ice." (See Brinton, American Hero Myths,
pp. 48, 56, 61; Hewitt, The Cosmogonic Gods of the Iroquois, in
Proc. Am. Ass. Adv. Sci., XLIV, 1895.)
In one of the Cherokee sacred formulas collected by the author
occurs the expression: "The terrible Flint is coming. He has his
paths laid down in this direction. He is shaking the red switches
threateningly. Let us run toward the Sun land."
Siyu'--This word, abbreviated from âsiyu', "good," is the regular
Cherokee salutation. With probably all the tribes the common salutation
is simply the word "good," and in the sign language of the plains the
gesture conveying that meaning is used in the same way. The ordinary
good-bye is usually some equivalent of "I go now."