THE HUNTER IN THE DĂKWĂ′
In the old days there was a great fish called the Dăkwă′, which lived in
Tennessee river where Toco creek comes in at Dăkwâ′ĭ, the “Dăkwă′ place,”
above the mouth of Tellico, and which was so large that it could easily swallow
a man. Once a canoe filled with warriors was crossing over from the town to the
other side of the river, when the Dăkwă′ suddenly rose up under the boat and
threw them all into the air. As they came down it swallowed one with a single
snap of its jaws and dived with him to the bottom of the river. As soon as the
hunter came to his senses he found that he had not been hurt, but it was so hot
and close inside the Dăkwă′ that he was nearly smothered. As he groped around
in the dark his hand struck a lot of mussel shells which the fish had swallowed,
and taking one of these for a knife he began to cut his way out, until soon the
fish grew uneasy at the scraping inside his stomach and came up to the top of the
water for air. He kept on cutting until the fish was in such pain that it swam this
way and that across the stream and thrashed the water into foam with its tail.
Finally the hole was so large that he could look out and saw that the Dăkwă′ was
now resting in shallow water near the shore. Reaching up he climbed out from
the side of the fish, moving very carefully so that the Dăkwă′ would not know it,
and then waded to shore and got back to the settlement, but the juices in the stomach of the great fish had scalded all the hair from his head and he was bald
ever after.
WAHNENAUHI VERSION
A boy was sent on an errand his father, and not wishing to go he ran away to
the river. After playing in the sand for a short time some boys of his
acquaintance came in a canoe and invited him to join them. Glad of the
opportunity to get away he went with them, but had no sooner got in than the
canoe began to tip and rock most unaccountably. The boys became very much
frightened, and in the confusion the bad boy fell into the water and was
immediately swallowed a large fish. After lying in its stomach for some time
he became very hungry, and on looking around he saw the fish’s liver hanging
over his head. Thinking it dried meat, he tried to cut off a piece with a mussel
shell he had been playing with and still held in his hand. The operation sickened
the fish and it vomited the boy.
Source:
Myths of the Cherokee, James Mooney
