THE DELUGE
A long time ago a man had a dog, which began to go down to the river every day
and look at the water and howl. At last the man was angry and scolded the dog,
which then spoke to him and said: “Very soon there is going to be a great freshet
and the water will come so high that everybody will be drowned; but if you will
make a raft to get upon when the rain comes you can be saved, but you must first
throw me into the water.” The man did not believe it, and the dog said, “If you
want a sign that I speak the truth, look at the back of my neck.” He looked and
saw that the dog’s neck had the skin worn off so that the bones stuck out.
Then he believed the dog, and began to build a raft. Soon the rain came and he
took his family, with plenty of provisions, and they all got upon it. It rained for a
long time, and the water rose until the mountains were covered and all the
people in the world were drowned. Then the rain stopped and the waters went
down again, until at last it was safe to come off the raft. Now there was no one
alive but the man and his family, but one day they heard a sound of dancing and
shouting on the other side of the ridge. The man climbed to the top and looked shouting on the other side of the ridge. The man climbed to the top and looked
over; everything was still, but all along the valley he saw great piles of bones of
the people who had been drowned, and then he knew that the ghosts had been
dancing.
Source:
Myths of the Cherokee James Mooney
