Chapter I: Front Matter

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:

Words that were printed in italics are marked with _ _. Printing and spelling errors have been corrected. A list of these corrections can be found at the end of the document.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION----BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

MYTHS

OF

THE IROQUOIS.

BY

ERMINNIE A. SMITH.

CONTENTS.

Page.
CHAPTER I.--GODS AND OTHER SUPERNATURAL BEINGS 51
Hi-nuⁿ destroying the giant animals 54
A Seneca legend of Hi-nuⁿ and Niagara 54
The Thunderers 55
Echo God 58
Extermination of the Stone Giants 59
The North Wind 59
Great Head 59
Cusick's story of the dispersion of the Great Heads 62
The Stone Giant's wife 62
The Stone Giant's challenge 63
Hiawatha and the Iroquois wampum 64

CHAPTER II.--PIGMIES 65
The warrior saved by pigmies 65
The pigmies and the greedy hunters 66
The pigmy's mission 67

CHAPTER III.--PRACTICE OF SORCERY 68
The origin of witches and witch charms 69
Origin of the Seneca medicine 70
A "true" witch story 71
A case of witchcraft 72
An incantation to bring rain 72
A cure for all bodily injuries 73
A witch in the shape of a dog 73
A man who assumed the shape of a hog 73
Witch transformations 74
A superstition about flies 74

CHAPTER IV.--MYTHOLOGIC EXPLANATION OF PHENOMENA 75
Origin of the human race 76
Formation of the Turtle Clan 77
How the bear lost his tail 77
Origin of medicine 78
Origin of wampum 78
Origin of tobacco 79
Origin of plumage 79
Why the chipmunk has the black stripe on his back 80
Origin of the constellations 80
The Pole Star 81