be time again, so they sent out
Buzzard; they told him to go and make ready for them. This was the
Great Buzzard, the father of all the buzzards we see now. He flew all
over the earth, low down near the ground, and it was still soft. When
he reached the Cherokee country, he was very tired; his wings began to
flap and strike the ground. Wherever they struck the earth there was a
valley; whenever the wings turned upwards again, there was a mountain.
When the animals above saw this, they were afraid that the whole world
would be mountains, so they called him back, but the Cherokee country
remains full of mountains to this day. [This was the original home, in
North Carolina.]

When the earth was dry and the animals came down, it was still dark.
Therefore they got the sun and set it in a track to go every day
across the island from east to west, just overhead. It was too hot
this way. Red Crawfish had his shell scorched a bright red, so that
his meat was spoiled. Therefore the Cherokees do not eat it.

Then the medicine men raised the sun a handsbreadth in the air, but it
was still too hot. They raised it another time; and then another time;
at last they had raised it seven handsbreadths so that it was just
under the sky arch. Then it was right and they left it so. That is why
the medicine men called the high place "the seventh height." Every day
the sun goes along under this arch on the under side; it returns at
night on the upper side of the arch to its starting place.

There is another world under this earth. It is like this one in every
way. The animals, the plants, and the people are the same, but the
seasons are different. The streams that come down from the mountains
are the trails by which we reach this underworld. The springs at their
head are the doorways by which we enter it. But in order to enter the
other world, one must fast and then go to the water, and have one of
the underground people for a guide. We know that the seasons in the
underground world are different, because the water in the spring is
always warmer in winter than the air in this world; and in summer the
water is cooler.

We do not know who made the first plants and animals. But when they
were first made, they were told to watch and keep awake for seven
nights. This is the way young men do now when they fast and pray to
their medicine. They tried to do this. The first night, nearly all the
animals stayed awake. The next night several of them d