Between December 1908 and April, 1909, David I. Bushnell, Jr. spoke with Choctaw who lived near Bayou Lacomb in Louisiana. He stated the following regarding eclipses: “The Choctaw say that since the sun works every day he becomes dirty and smoked from the great fire within. It is necessary therefore for him to rest and clean himself, after dong which he shines the brighter. During the eclipse he is removing the accumulated dirt. [A similar explanation applies to a lunar eclipses]” (17-18). The moon was considered female and sometimes referred to as “tekchi hvshi—the wife of the sun” (Cushman 249).
H B. Cushman (1899), who wrote about Choctaw living in Mississippi, stated, “The ancient Choctaws believed an eclipse was caused by a little black squirrel, which had resolved to devour the sun, and which could only be saved from the little gormandizer by frightening him away by a great noise, to which I have, more than once, been an eye witness, and to the modus operandi adopted to give him a scare; and also testify from experience as to the virtues of the music; at least the sun came out all right” (256).