THE HUNTER AND SELU

THE HUNTER AND SELU

A hunter had been tramping over the mountains all day long without finding any
game and when the sun went down, he built a fire in a hollow stump, swallowed
a few mouthfuls of corn gruel and lay down to sleep, tired out and completely
discouraged. About the middle of the night he dreamed and seemed to hear the
sound of beautiful singing, which continued until near daybreak and then
appeared to die away into the upper air.
All next day he hunted with the same poor success, and at night made his lonely
camp again in the woods. He slept and the strange dream came to him again, but
so vividly that it seemed to him like an actual happening. Rousing himself before
daylight, he still heard the song, and feeling sure now that it was real, he went in
the direction of the sound and found that it came from a single green stalk of
corn (selu). The plant spoke to him, and told him to cut off some of its roots and
take them to his home in the settlement, and the next morning to chew them and
“go to water” before anyone else was awake, and then to go out again into the
woods, and he would kill many deer and from that time on would always be
successful in the hunt. The corn plant continued to talk, teaching him hunting
secrets and telling him always to be generous with the game he took, until it was
noon and the sun was high, when it suddenly took the form of a woman and rose
gracefully into the air and was gone from sight, leaving the hunter alone in the
woods.
He returned home and told his story, and all the people knew that he had seen
Selu, the wife of Kana′tĭ. He did as the spirit had directed, and from that time
was noted as the most successful of all the hunters in the settlement.

 

Source:
Myths of the Cherokee, James Mooney