country; I want to take a look through the bushes where I am to run." The other animals thought this was only fair; so the Rabbit was allowed to go into the thicket. But he was gone so long that at last the animals suspected that he must be up to one of his many tricks. They sent a messenger to look for him; and there, in the very middle of the thicket he found the Rabbit gnawing down the bushes and pulling them away, until he had a road cleared nearly all the way to the further side.
The messenger turned around quietly and came back and told the other animals. When the Rabbit at last came out of the thicket, they accused him of cheating, but he denied it until they went into the thicket and saw for themselves the cleared road. They decided that such a trickster had no right to enter the race at all, so they gave the horns to the Deer, who was admitted to be the best runner; and he has worn them ever since. They told the Rabbit that, as he was so fond of cutting down bushes, he might do that for a living, and so he does to this day.
(From Myths of the Cherokee, by James Mooney.)
HOW THE WILDCAT GOT ITS SPOTS
ALONG time ago a Wildcat pursued a Rabbit, and was about to catch him when the Rabbit ran into a hollow tree. The Wildcat took a position in front of the entrance, and told the Rabbit that he would remain there until the Rabbit, from hunger, would be compelled to come out; that he need not think of escape. After a time the Rabbit said he would come out and let the Wildcat make a meal of him on one condition, and that was that the Wildcat should make a fire in front of the tree, saying that as soon as a bed of coals suf-
