BEAR
In the time long ago, there was a Cherokee Clan called the Ani-Tsa-gu-hi (Ahnee-Jah-goo-hee), and in one family of this clan was a boy who used to leave home and be gone all day in the mountains. After a while he went oftener and stayed longer, until at last he would not eat in the house at all, but started off at daybreak and did not come back until night. His parents scolded, but that did no good, and the boy still went every day until they noticed that long brown hair was beginning to grow out all over his body. Then they wondered and asked him why it was that he wanted to be so much in the woods that he would not even eat at home. Said the boy, "I find plenty to eat there, and it is better than the corn and beans we have in the settlements, and pretty soon I am going into the woods to stay all of the time." His parents were worried and begged him not to leave them, but he said,"It is better there than here, and you see I am beginning to be different already, so that I cannot live here any longer. If you will come with me, there is plenty for all of us and you will never have to work a day for it; but if you want to come, you must first fast for seven days.
The father and mother talked it over and then told the headman of the clan. They held council about the matter and after everything has been said they decided: "Here we must work hard and have not always enough. There he says is always plenty without work. We will go with him>" So they fasted seven days, and on the seventh morning all the Ani-Tsa-gu-hi left the settlement and started for the mountains as the boy led the way.
When the people of the other settlements heard of it they were sorry and sent their headmen to persuade the Ani-Tsa-gu-hi to stay home and not go into the woods to live. The messengers found them already on their way, and were surprised to notice that their bodies were beginning to be covered with hair like that of animals, because for seven days they had not taken human food and their nature was changing. The Ani Tsaguhi would not come back, but said, "We are going where there is plenty to eat. Hereafter we shall be called Yonv(a) (BEAR), and when you yourselves are hungry come into the woods and call us and we shall come to give you our own flesh. You need not be afraid to kill us, for we shall live always." Then they taught the messengers the songs with which to call them and bear hunters have these songs still. When they finished the songs, the Ani Tsaguhi started on again and the messengers turned back to the settlements, but after going a little way they looked back and saw a drove of bears going into the woods.
The people who hunt bears were told by the AniTsaguhi how to prepare the meat of the bear when they skinned it. They were told to take the hide of the bear and the bones and place them under a pile of leaves. The people could take the meat, but they must leave the hide and the bones buried. The people did this, and when they turned to say a final prayer, they saw a bear rise up out of the leaves and go back into the forest. They then knew that this was great magic, for they had the meat of the bear and the bear had regained his life to live again. The people who hunt remembered to sing the songs.
These are the songs the Cherokee sing to call the bears:
He-e! Ani' - Tsa'guhi, Ani' - Tsa'guhi, akwandu'li e'lanti'
ginun'ti;
He-e! Ani' - Tsa'guhi, Ani' - Tsa'guhi, akwandu'li e'lanti'
ginun'ti, YU'!
In English the words are:
He-e! The Ani' - Tsa'guhi, the Ani' - Tsa'guhi, I want to lay
them low on the ground;
He-e! The Ani' - Tsa'guhi, the Ani' - Tsa'guhi, I want to lay
them low on the ground, YU!
Aho!We are all Related!!
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