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SwANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL. LIFE 209
The mystery was solved. At once they approached [the spot] where she
stood, and offered their assistance in any way they could be of service to her.
She replied she was very hungry, whereupon one of them ran and brought the
roasted hawk and handed it to her. She accepted it with grateful thanks;
but, after eating a small portion of it, she handed the remainder back to
them replying that she would remember their kindness when she returned to
her home in the happy hunting grounds of her father, who was Shilup Chitoh
Osh—The Great Spirit of the Choctaws. She then told them that when
the next mid-summer moon should come they must meet her at the mound
upon which she was then standing. She then bade them an affectionate adieu,
and was at once borne away upon a gentle breeze and, mysteriously as she
came, so she disappeared. The two hunters returned to their camp for the
night and early nest morning sought their liomes, but kept the strange Incident
to themselves, a profound secret. When the designated time rolled around
the mid-summer full moon found the two hunters at the foot of the mound
but Ohoyo Chishba Osh was nowhere to be seen. Then remembering she
told them they must come to the very spot where she was then standing,
they at once ascended the mound and found it covered with a strange plant,
which yielded an excellent food, v»iiicli was ever afterwards cultivated by the
Choctaws, and named by them Tunchi (Corn.).*°
Lanman's version, from the same source as his legend of the flood,
runs thus:
It was in olden times, and two Choctaw hunters were spending the night
by their watch-fire in a bend of the river Alabama. The game and the
fish of their country were with every new moon becoming less abundant, and
all that they had to satisfy their hunger on the night in question, was the
tough flesh of a black hawk. They were very tired, and as they mused upon
their unfortunate condition, and thought of tlieir hungry children, they were
very unhappy, and talked despondingly. But they roasted the bird before
the fire, and proceeded to enjoy as comfortable a meal as they could. Hardly
had they commenced eating, however, before they were startled by a singular
noise, resembling the cooing of a dove. They jumped up and looked around
them to ascertain the cause. In one direction they saw nothing but the moon
just rising above the forest trees on the opposite side of the river. They
looked up and down the river, but could see nothing but the sandy shores
and the dark waters. They listened, and nothing could they hear but the
murmur of tbe flowing stream. They turned their faces in that direction
opposite the moon, and to their astonishment, they discovered standing upon
the summit of a grassy mound, the form of a beautiful woman. They hastened
to her side, when she told them that she was very hungry, whereupon they
ran after their roasted hawk, and gave it all into the hands of the strange
woman. She barely tasted of the proffered food, but told the hunters that
their kindness had preserved her from death, and that she would not forget
them when she returned to the happy grounds of her father, who was Hoshtal-li,
"" or Great Spirit of the Choctaws. She had one request to make, and
this was, that when the next moon of midsummer should arrive, they should
visit the spot where she then stood. A pleasant breeze swept among the
forest leaves, and the strange woman suddenly disappeared.
«> Cushman, Hist. Inds., pp. 276-278.
•*• Corn woman was therefore daughter of the solar or celestial deity. See pp. 194-197.