Earth is
floating on the waters like a big island, hanging from four rawhide ropes fastened at the top of of the
Sacred four directions. The ropes are tied to the ceiling of the sky, which is made
of hard rock crystal. When the ropes break, this world  will come tumbling down, and all living
things wll fall with it and die. Then everything will be as if the earth had never
existed, for water will cover it. Maybe the white man will bring this about.
Well, in the
beginning also, water covered everything. Though living creatures existed, their
home was up there, above the rainbow , and it was crowded.
"We are all jammed together," the animals said.
"we need more room." Wondering what was under the water, they sent
Water Beetle to look around.
Water Beetle skimmed
over the surface but couldn't find any solid footing, so he dived to the bottom and
brought up a little dab of soft mud. Magically the mud spread out in the four
directions and became this island  we
are living on ...this earth. Someone Powerful then fastened it to the sky ceiling and
cords.
In the beginning
the earth was flat, soft and moist. all the animals were eager to live on it, and
they kept sending down birds  to see if the mud had dried and
hardened enough to take their weight. but the birds flew back and said there was no
spot they could perch on .
Then the animals
sent Grandfather Buzzard down. He flew very close and saw
that the earth was still soft, but when he glided low over what would become Cherokee
country , he found that the mud was getting harder. By that time Buzzard was getting
tired and dragging. When he flapped his wings down they made made a valley when they
touched the earth; when he swept them up they made a mountain .
The animals watching from above the rainbow said,
"If he keeps on, there will be only mountains," and they made him come back.
That's why we have so many mountains in Cherokee land.
At last the earth
was hard and dry enough, and the animals descended. They couldn't see very well
because they had no 
or  , and someone said.
"Lets grab the Sun from up there behind the rainbow!" Lets get him down
too!" Pulling Sun down, they told him. "Here's a road for you", and
showed him the way to go....from east to west.
Now they had
light, but it was much too hot, because Sun was too close to the earth. The crawfish had his back
sticking out of the stream, and sun burned it red. His meat was
spoiled forever and the people still won't eat crawfish.
Everyone asked
the sorcerers, the shaman to put Sun higher. they pushed him up as high as a man,
but it was still too hot. So they pushed him farther, but it wasn't far enough.
They tried four times and when they had Sun up to the height of four men, he was
just hot enough. Everyone was satisfied, so they left him there.
Before making
humans, Someone Powerful had created plants and animals and had
told them to stay awake and watch for seven days and seven nights. (this is just what the
young men do today when they fast and prepare for a ceremony.) but most of the plants and
animals couldn't manage it, some fell asleep after one day, some after two.
Among the trees and some  , only
cedar,pine,holly and laural were still awake on the eighth morning. someone Powerful
said to them: "Because you watched and kept awake as you have been told, you will not
lose your hair in the winter." So these plants stay green all the time.
After creating
the plants and animals, someone Powerful made man
and his sister . The man
poked her with a fish and told her to go give birth.
After seven days she had a baby and after seven more days she had another and every seven
days another came. The humans increased so quickly that Someone Powerful, thinking
there would soon be no more room on the earth, arranged things so that a woman could have
only one child every year. And that is how it is.
Now there is
still another world under the one we live on. You can reach it by going down a
spring, a water hole, but you need underworld people to be your scouts and guide you.
the world under our earth is exactly like ours, except that its winter down there
when its summer up here. We can see that easily, because spring water is warmer than
the air in winter and cooler than the air in summer.
Information on this
page was taken from "Cherokee by Blood" 
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