A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Two strangers with beautiful long hair attend dances at Sokwiyi. A young man seeks to marry one, and the sisters return after consulting their brother. They guide him away before dawn and warn him not to reveal what he sees. Creeks and deep river water become grassy paths when he follows them. In their cave beneath Tallulah Falls they remove and hang up the hair that first attracted him.
Thunder announces their brother’s approach. The would-be bride offers a turtle as a seat, but the man refuses to sit. The brother then proposes a journey to a council and provides an Uktena as a mount. A turtle becomes its saddle and living snakes are offered as arm ornaments. A separately noted colour variant gives the visitor a white serpent and the brother a red one. The household regards these things as ordinary furnishings; the visitor sees dangerous animals.
His repeated refusals anger the brother, whose flashing eyes and thunder render him unconscious. He awakens holding a laurel bush at the water’s edge, with the cave gone. Back home he finds that far more time has elapsed than he imagined. He breaks the warning by telling the story and dies seven days later. Mooney first heard it from John Ax and subsequently incorporated additions and variants from Swimmer and others; the printed tale is not an untouched transcript of one performance.
Origins & earliest records
Mooney’s inspected Myths of the Cherokee edition is dated 1902. The named contributor is preserved in the appended story notes; publication is not a date for the beginning of oral transmission.
Records & interpretation
Story 84, printed pp. 345–347; note 84 distinguishes John Ax, Swimmer and other contributors. The complete selected narrative and its contributor note support the episode; Mooney’s comparative theories are distinguished from the telling.
In the literature
“but in seven days he died”
Complete story84, printed pp.345–347; complete corresponding note pp.481–482
Two sisters bring a prospective husband through water experienced as grassy roads to a cave household. Their apparent hair is removable; their brother offers turtle furniture, an Uktena riding animal and living-snake bracelets. The warrior refuses, is struck senseless, and returns after an unexpectedly long absence. He reveals the encounter and dies seven days later. White versus red riding serpents are explicitly qualified as what some people say.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Myths of the Cherokee
Story 84, printed pp. 345–347; note 84 distinguishes John Ax, Swimmer and other contributors.
- 02
Myths of the Cherokee — THE MAN WHO MARRIED THE THUNDER’S SISTER
Selected1902 Washington Government Printing Office offprint of Myths of the Cherokee, Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology; title independently read. Historical English collector-mediated narratives.
Family, evolution & connections
The Thunder household’s three siblings — Mooney 84
Complete story 84, pp. 345–347, the cave household below Tallulah falls.
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- Explicit sibling household (parents unstated)
A sibling cluster records the explicitly identified two sisters and their brother; its heading represents a group, not a parent. No parent or individual personal name is supplied. Only the two sisters’ relative age is stated. The visitor’s prospective marriage remains incomplete; turtles and uktena mounts are excluded from genealogy.
Two sisters and their Thunder brother
The two women explicitly identify the arriving Thunder as their brother; the intended bride is identified as the younger sister. His permission for the proposed match does not become a completed marriage: the visitor rejects the household, returns home and dies after revealing it. Turtles and uktena mounts are not their relatives.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Myths of the Cherokee — THE MAN WHO MARRIED THE THUNDER’S SISTER
Selected1902 Washington Government Printing Office offprint of Myths of the Cherokee, Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology; title independently read. Historical English collector-mediated narratives.
- Two sisters bring a prospective husband through water experienced as grassy roads to a cave household. Their apparent hair is removable; their brother offers turtle furniture, an Uktena riding animal and living-snake bracelets. The warrior refuses, is struck senseless, and returns after an unexpectedly long absence. He reveals the encounter and dies seven days later. White versus red riding serpents are explicitly qualified as what some people say.
Complete story84, printed pp.345–347; complete corresponding note pp.481–482
No whole collection, independent oral recording, scientific verification or separate comparative work reviewed. Collector’s broad ethnographic and historical interpretations remain attributed, not asserted as universals.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textMooney 1902: story 84, printed pp. 345–347; note 84 distinguishes John Ax, Swimmer and other contributorsResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
