Myths of the Cherokee · 137 of 220

Myth 87b

She went with him along the same trail to the water’s edge, and the water closed over her and he went back alone to Tĭkwăli′tsĭ.

When he came there his friends were surprised, because they thought he had wandered off and died in the woods.

They asked him where he had been, but he only pointed to his throat and said nothing, so they thought he was not yet well and let him alone until the seven days were past, when he began to talk again and told the whole story.

Historical Traditions

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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 the natural world (water, woods) and specific locations (Tĭkwăli′tsĭ) are active participants in human destiny, consistent with an animistic perspective of embodied divine agents.

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◆Psychopomp Journeycosmology

Guided passage of the soul through afterlife realms.

The narrative describes a journey to the water's edge where the companion is lost to the depths, implying a passage into an otherworldly realm or death.

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