NATIVE NASHVILLE - NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY & CULTURE - CHEROKEE STORIES - The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting

If you're like me, you've been up the last couple of nights trying to figure out what "duck caught in a noose" means. Well, this is a link to an old Cherokee myth that is apparently the source of the reference.


"While the Otter had been under the water Rabbit had peeled some bark from a sapling and made himself a noose. "Now," he said, "Just watch me;" and he dived in and swam a little way under the water until he was nearly choking and had to come up to the top to breathe. He went under again and came up again a little nearer to the ducks. He took another breath and dived under, and this time he came up among the ducks and threw the noose over the head of one and caught it. The duck struggled hard and finally spread its wings and flew up from the water with the Rabbit hanging on to the noose."