HOW THE TERRAPIN BEAT THE RABBIT
The rabbit was a great runner, and
everybody knew it. No one thought the Terrapin anything but a slow
traveler, but he was a great warrior and very boastful, and the two were always
disputing about their speed. At last they agreed to decide the matter by a
race. They fixed the day and the starting place and arranged to run across
four mountain ridges, and the one who came in first
at the end was to be the
winner.
The rabbit felt so sure of it that
he said to the Terrapin, "You know you can't run. You can never win
the race, so I'll give you the first ridge and then you'll have only three to
cross while I go over four."
The Terrapin said that would be
all right, but that night when he went home to his family he sent for his
Terrapin friends and told them he wanted their help. He said he knew he
could not outrun the Rabbit, but he wanted to stop the Rabbit's boasting.
He explained his plan to his friends and they agreed to help him.
When the day came all the animals
were there to see the race. The Rabbit was with them, but the Terrapin was
gone ahead toward the first ridge, as they had arranged, and they could hardly
see him on account of the long grass. The word was given and the Rabbit
started off with long jumps up the mountain, expecting to win the race before
the Terrapin could get down the other side. But before he got up the
mountain he saw the Terrapin go over the ridge ahead of him. He ran on,
and when he reached the top he looked all around, but could not see the Terrapin
on account of the long grass. He kept on down the mountain and began to
climb the second ridge, but when he looked up again there was the Terrapin just
going over the top. Now he was surprised and made his longest jumps to
catch up, but when he got to the top there was the Terrapin away in front going
over the third ridge. The Rabbit was getting tired now and nearly out of
breath, but he kept on down the mountain and up the other ridge until he got to
the top just in time to see the Terrapin cross the fourth ridge and thus win the
race.
The Rabbit could not make another jump, but fell over on
the ground, crying mï, mï, mï, mï, as the Rabbit does ever since when he is
too tired to run any more. The race was given to the Terrapin and all the
animals wondered how he could win against the Rabbit, but he kept still and
never told. It was easy enough, however, because all the Terrapin's
friends looked just alike , and he had simply posted one near the top of each
ridge to wait until the Rabbit came in sight and then climb over and hide in the
long grass. When the Rabbit came on he could not find the Terrapin and so
thought the Terrapin was ahead, and if he had met one of the other terrapins he
would have thought it the same one because they looked so much alike. The
real Terrapin had posted himself on the fourth ridge, so as to come in at the
end of the race and be ready to answer questions if the animals suspected
anything.
Because the Rabbit had to lie down
and lose the race the conjurer now, when preparing his young men for the ball
play, boils a lot of rabbit hamstrings into a soup, and sends some one at night
to pour it across the path along which the other players are to come in the
morning, so that they may become tired in the same way and lose the game.
It is not always easy to do this, because the other party is expecting it and
has watchers ahead to prevent it.
From
"James Mooney's History, Myths and Sacred Formulas of the
Cherokees"
Published
by Bright Mountain Books, Inc.