Myths of the Cherokee · 43 of 220

Myth 24

THE RABBIT ESCAPES FROM THE WOLVES Some Wolves once caught the Rabbit and were going to eat him when he asked leave to show them a new dance he was practicing. They knew that the Rabbit was a great song leader, and they wanted to learn the latest dance, so they agreed and made a ring about him while he got ready. He patted his feet and began to dance around in a circle, singing: Tlâge′sitûñ′ găli′sgi′sidâ′hă— Ha′nia lĭl! lĭl! Ha′nia lĭl! lĭl! On the edge of the field I dance about— Ha′nia lĭl! lĭl! Ha′nia lĭl! lĭl! “Now,” said the Rabbit, “when I sing ‘on the edge of the field,’ I dance that way”—and he danced over in that direction—“and when I sing ‘ lĭl! lĭl! ’ you must all stamp your feet hard.” The Wolves thought it fine. He began another round singing the same song, and danced a little nearer to the field, while the Wolves all stamped their feet. He sang louder and louder and danced nearer and nearer to the field until at the fourth song, when the Wolves were stamping as hard as they could and thinking only of the song, he made one jump and was off through the long grass. They were after him at once, but he ran for a hollow stump and climbed up on the inside. When the the Wolves got there one of them put his head inside to look up, but the Rabbit spit into his eye, so that he had to pull his head out again. The others were afraid to try, and they went away, with the Rabbit still in the stump.

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Themes

Animismcosmology

The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.

The passage depicts a worldview where animals (Rabbit, Wolves) possess human-like intelligence, speech, and agency, embodying the core animistic principle that natural beings are populated by spirits or personalities.

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Trickster Mythologycosmology

The trickster archetype: a boundary-breaking figure — Loki, Unktomee the Spider, the Cherokee Rabbit, Hermes — whose deception, cunning, and rule-violation drive mythic change, often doubling as culture hero; sacred disorder as an engine of the cosmos.

The passage is a quintessential example of the Trickster archetype, where a smaller, weaker being (Rabbit) uses wit, deception, and performance to escape and defeat larger, stronger predators (Wolves).

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Shared concept: Trickster Mythology — The trickster archetype: a boundary-breaking figure — Loki, Unktomee the Spider, the Cherokee Rabbit, Hermes — whose deception, cunning, and rule-violation drive mythic change, often doubling as culture hero; sacred disorder as an engine of the cosmos. (derived)

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