Ûñtsaiyi'

Also known as: Brass / Ûñtsai'yi · Role: Brass, the great gambler · First appears: Myth 59 · The Smaller Reptiles--Fishes and Insects · Part 2

In Myth 60 · Why the Bullfrog’s Head Is Striped, Ûñtsaiyi' grew angry after Bullfrog ridiculed him and challenged him to a wheel-and-stick game, with the loser to be scratched on the forehead. Ûñtsaiyi' won and scratched yellow stripes onto Bullfrog’s head.

In Myth 63 · Ûñtsaiyi', the Gambler · Part 2, the boy won game after game, taking nearly everything Ûñtsaiyi' owned by noon, then winning his wife and a wager for Ûñtsaiyi'’s life. Ûñtsaiyi' escaped through the back door, but the boy and his brothers, with the Horned Green Beetle, caught him at the edge of the great water where the sun goes down. They bound him and staked him in deep water, where he remained unable to die.

Relationship record

Myth 60 · Why the Bullfrog's Head Is Striped

• rivals with Bullfrog “Brass won, as he always did, and the yellow stripes on the Bullfrog's head show where the gambler's fingers scratched him.”
• enemies with Bullfrog “According to one version the Bullfrog was always ridiculing the great gambler Ûñtsai'yi, ‘Brass,’ until the latter at last got angry and dared the Bullfrog to play the gatayû'sti (wheel-and-stick) game with him, whichever lost to be scratched on his forehead.”

Myth 63 · Ûñtsaiyi', the Gambler · Part 2

• rivals with the boy (Myth 63) “They began the game with the wheel and stick and the boy won.”
• married with the wife of Ûñtsaiyi' “At last offered to bet his wife.”
• enemies with the Horned Green Beetle “Then they knew it was Brass and sprang at him, but he jumped up in his right shape and was off, running so fast that he was soon out of sight again.”

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Extracted from the original text of Myths of the Cherokee. Made with Rho MD.