How They Brought Back The Tobacco

(From Myths of the Cherokee, by James Mooney)

In the beginning of the world, when people and animals were all the same, there was only one tobacco plant, to which they
all came for their tobacco until the Dagūl'kū geese stole it and carried it far away to the south. The people were suffering
without it, and there was one old woman who grew so thin and weak that everybody said she would soon die unless she
could get tobacco to keep her alive.

Different animals offered to go for it, one after another, the larger ones first and then the smaller ones, but the Dagūl'kū
saw and killed every one before he could get to the plant. After the others the little Mole tried to reach it by going under
the ground, but the Dagūl'kū saw his trick and killed him as he came out.

At last the Hummingbird offered, but the others said he was entirely too small and might as well stay at home. He begged
them to let him try, so they showed him a plant in a field and told him to let them see how he would go about it. The next
moment he was gone and they saw him sitting on the plant, and then in a moment he was back again, but no one had seen
him going or coming, because he was so swift. "This is the way I'll do," said the Hummingbird, so they let him try.

He flew off to the east, and when he came in sight of the tobacco the Dagūl'kū were watching all about it, but they could
not see him because he was so small and flew so swiftly. He darted down on the plant - tsa! - and snatched off the top with
the leaves and seeds, and he was off again before the Dagūl'kū knew what had happened. Before he got home with the
tobacco the old woman had fainted and they thought she was dead, but he blew the smoke into her nostrils, and with a cry
of "Tsā'lū [Tobacco!]" she opened her eyes and was alive again.

Second Version

The people had tobacco in the beginning, but they used it all, and there was great suffering for want of it. There was one
old man so old that he had to be kept alive by smoking, and as his son did not want to see him die he decided to go himself
to try and get some more. The tobacco country was far in the south, with high mountains all around it, and the passes were
guarded, so that it was very hard to get into it, but the young man was a conjurer and was not afraid. He traveled
southward until he came to the mountains on the border of the tobacco country. Then he opened his medicine bag and took
out a hummingbird skin and put it over himself like a dress. Now he was a hummingbird and flew over the mountains to the
tobacco field and pulled some of the leaves and seed and put them into his medicine bag. He was so small and swift that
the guards, whoever they were, did not see him, and when he had taken as much as he could carry he flew back over the
mountains in the same way. Then he took off the hummingbird skin and put it into his medicine bag, and was a man again.
He started home, and on his way he came to a tree that had a hole in the trunk, like a door, near the first branches, and a
very pretty woman was looking out from it. He stopped and tried to climb the tree, but although he was a good climber he
found that he always slipped back. He put on a pair of medicine moccasins from his pouch, and then he could climb the
tree, but when he reached the first branches he looked up and the hole was still as far away as before. He climbed higher
and higher, but every time he looked up the hole seemed to be farther than before, until at last he was tired and came
down again. When he reached home he found his father very weak, but still alive, and one draw at the pipe made him
strong again. The people planted the seed and have had tobacco ever since.