14. The Water Panther (Leopard)

14. THE WATER PANTHER (LEOPARD) ¹

A girl whose father and mother were dead lived at a certain place with some relatives. Every day she went for water to a spring, the trail to which ran through a deep hollow. One time, after she had

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grown up, a Water Panther (Oī-kātca) appeared to her there and she came to be with child by him. As she had been very carefully watched the people did not know what to make of this. Some said, "Let us kill her," but others replied, "No, it was probably nature."

Finally the woman gave birth to three Water Panthers, and then some of the people again said, "Let us kill them." "No," replied the others, "their mother is a human being," and after consultation they agreed to let them live.

The woman saw her Water Panther husband from time to time and she reported what had been done. She said she was very anxious because some of the people had threatened to kill her young ones. Then the Water Panther said, "Let the friends of the young ones separate from the others and live by themselves," so they moved off to another place. Afterwards the old town in which the enemies lived sank and the place turned into a great pool of water. The posts of the hot house continued to stand out above the water of the lake for some time afterwards. That town is thought to have been Coosa, although it is possible it may have been Fus-hatchee. It is called Kosa-talåksûmgi, "Sunk Coosa." The people who wanted the young Water Panthers killed were taken into the dwelling of the Water Panther farther beneath the waves; what became of the others is unknown.

Footnotes

21:1 See versions in my paper on Social Organization and Social Usages of the Indians of the Creek Confederacy (Forty-second Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 69-72). The water panther was identified by my informant with the leopard.