cedar tree (blood, myths)

[t3gah]

Cedar

With the Cherokee as with many other tribes, the Cedar tree is held sacred above all other trees. Small green trigs are thrown upon the fire as incense in certain ceremonies to counteract malevolent ghosts that cannot endure the smell. The wood is considered too sacred to be used as fuel. According to one of the Cherokee myths, the color red originally comes from the blood of a wicked magician, whose head was severed and hung a top a tall cedar. According to the myth, a malevolent magician disturbed the daily course of the sun until at last two brave warriors sought him out and killed him in his cave. They cut off his head, and brought it home to show the people, but it continued to live. To make it die they were advised to hang it in the topmost branches of a tree. They tried tree after tree, but each morning they found it alive and at the bottom of the tree and still alive. At last they tied it in a cedar, and the head remained there until it died, while the blood slowly trickled down the trunk giving the wood its red color. From that time the cedar was known as the "medicine tree."

"History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees" by James Mooney
(http://www.powersource.com/talkingleaf/)