Long ago, when the world was new, there were seven boys who used to
spend all their time down by the townhouse playing the gatay没'sti game,
rolling a stone wheel along the ground and sliding a curved stick
after it to strike it. Their mothers scolded, but it did no good,
so one day they collected some gatay没'sti stones and boiled them in
the pot with the corn for dinner. When the boys came home hungry their
mothers dipped out the stones and said, "Since you like the gatay没'sti
better than the cornfield, take the stones now for your dinner."
The boys were very angry, and went down to the townhouse, saying,
"As our mothers treat us this way, let us go where we shall never
trouble them any more." They began a dance--some say it was the Feather
dance--and went round and round the townhouse, praying to the spirits
to help them. At last their mothers were afraid something was wrong
and went out to look for them. They saw the boys still dancing around
the townhouse, and as they watched they noticed that their feet were
off the earth, and that with every round they rose higher and higher
in the air. They ran to get their children, but it was too late,
for they were already above the roof of the townhouse--all but one,
whose mother managed to pull him down with the gatay没'sti pole,
but he struck the ground with such force that he sank into it and
the earth closed over him.
The other six circled higher and higher until they went up to the sky,
where we see them now as the Pleiades, which the Cherokee still call
Ani'tsutsa (The Boys). The people grieved long after them, but the
mother whose boy had gone into the ground came every morning and
every evening to cry over the spot until the earth was damp with
her tears. At last a little green shoot sprouted up and grew day by
day until it became the tall tree that we call now the pine, and the
pine is of the same nature as the stars and holds in itself the same
bright light.