Research source

Bewildered--"Crazy persons were supposed to be possessed with the devil or afflicted with the Nanehi"…

Date of account: Material collected chiefly 1887-1890; published 1900
Source: Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology
Reference: Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology · selected passage 164
Rights: public_domain
Language: English with Cherokee names and material translated from oral testimony
Translation: Collected and edited by James Mooney
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Bewildered--"Crazy persons were supposed to be possessed with the devil or afflicted with the Nanehi" (Buttrick, Antiquities, p

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

Bewildered--"Crazy persons were supposed to be possessed with the devil or afflicted with the Nanehi" (Buttrick, Antiquities, p. 14). According to Hagar's informant: "The little people cause men to lose their minds and run away and wander in the forests. They wear very long hair, down to their heels" (MS Stellar Legends of the Cherokee). In Creek belief, according to the Tuggle manuscript, "Fairies or little people live in hollow trees and on rocky cliffs. They often decoy people from their homes and lose them in the woods. When a man's mind becomes bewildered--not crazy--this is caused by the little people."

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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