Chapter XXXI: Part 2: also consists of Seneca legends and myths, which are (26)

One night this man had a dream, in which his Dream Spirit said to him, “Something is going to happen to the people of the village, so you must notify them to move away within ten days.” In the morning he went to the center of the village, and having gathered the people together, told them his dream. Some of them believed and some did not. Five days later, all those who had believed his dream joined those who had not believed and paid no further heed to the warning.

On the fifth night the man dreamed again. This time his Dream Spirit said to him: “We know that all the people do not believe you. Now save yourself. Start within three days, taking your bow and all your arrows with you. About halfway up the high hill east of the village you will find a large hollow rock; enter this cavern, and you will find a subterranean passage running toward the village. Look through this passage, and you will see all that is going on in the village. The people will be destroyed. At midday of the tenth day a great cry will be raised by the people, such a cry as you have never heard. When it begins to die away you must commence to shoot through the passage, for the monster that destroys the village will track you to this place. You will save your life if you shoot all your arrows before the monster reaches the underground passage. When your arrows are gone, come out of your hiding place and go to the place where the monster has fallen. Then take a small piece of its skin together with the hair (which is very long) from the back of its head; this will be of use to you, for it has great orenda (magical power). This monster is called Dagwanoenyent. You must wind the hair around your body next to your skin and declare at the same time that there is nothing that you can not do. At night when it is too dark for you to be seen, go northward a short distance, and you will find a tree upturned by the roots. Go around the roots—you must not be frightened, for I will give you something which will be of great service to you.”

The morning after this dream the man seemed very gloomy and unhappy. When the time came, taking his bow and bundle of arrows, he started; going eastward, he soon began to climb the mountain (he did not take his family, for all believed not in his dream). Just as the sun set he came to a large rock, in the opposite side of which he found an opening. Entering here, he kept on until, as he thought, he arrived directly under the center of the rock; there he found a room high enough for him to stand in. (There was stone all around, but the bottom was earth.) He now remembered the subterranean passage, and looking around, he found it; then he lay down to sleep. The next morning when he went out there was a deer standing close by, which he killed and skinned. Having roasted some of the venison, he ate it for breakfast.

Then the man went on top of the rock, which he found large and level. The tenth day, as he sat on the rock he heard a great noise coming from the south, but he could see nothing. After a while the sound seemed to approach the village, whereupon he saw something that looked like smoke. He saw, too, that the trees in a very wide area were uprooted and were falling toward the village. As the terrible noise neared the village, he went under the rock, where he took position opposite the underground passage. As he looked through it the village seemed to him to be right at hand. In a short time he heard a terrible outcry, which was the screaming of the people in distress. He could see that the huts were hurled up into the air and torn to pieces. He could also see the Monster eating the people. When all the rest were eaten, it missed one, and laughing, said, “The world is not large enough for him to hide in.” Then the man saw that the trees bent toward the east, and from this he knew the Monster was on his track. Stringing his bow, he began to shoot through the underground passage as rapidly as possible. When but few of his arrows remained the noise seemed to be rapidly approaching. Finally, when only two arrows were left, he saw a great Black Monster [389] approaching. Thereupon he shot the last arrow. At that instant the roar and noise ceased, and the Monster fell; he heard it say, “It is dismal (awendonyat); you have killed me.” The man said, “I will go and see this creature.” On going to the place where the head lay, and examining it, he discovered that every arrow he had shot was in the head. As he stood there, thinking, he said, “I must do as I was commanded,” so he took part of the scalp from the crown of the head, with the long hair hanging to it. This he tied around his body, saying, “You must always help me and not let me be overpowered by anything.” He then climbed the remainder of the hill, reaching the top quickly, for he could now go very fast. On looking around, he found a place to build a brush hut and began work. In a short time he had completed the hut. Then he said, “I must have plenty of meat,” and going out, he saw deer, bear, and all other kinds of game in great numbers. Having killed what he wanted, he skinned the deer and the bears. In doing this, he merely took hold of the skin of the head and pulled it off. After he had skinned the animals, he put up hurdles in brush arbors, on which he placed the meat to dry.

It was still the day on which he killed Dagwanoenyent. When it began to get so dark that he could not distinguish objects, he started, as his dream had said, toward the north. He had not gone far when he came to a fallen tree with the roots turned up. On starting to go around this, when halfway around, he saw Gaasyendietʻha, which had its great mouth open and seemed very angry. When the Gaasyendietʻha saw that the man was not frightened, it began to laugh; then, changing itself to a man (human being), it said: “You must take one of my teeth out. This will be of great use to you, for it will enable you to change yourself into any form you wish.” The man took out one of the double teeth, the one farthest back in the jaw. At this Gaasyendietʻha said: “You shall live. You shall have full magical power in your possession, but you and I must always counsel with each other, especially if you are in trouble; now we must part.” Immediately Gaasyendietʻha, resuming his natural form, flew off through the air.

Going back to his hut, the man made up his mind that this should be his home hereafter. He remained in the hut one year; at the end of that time, getting lonely, he thought of the people, and said to himself: “I will go and see whether I can find anybody.” As he started he turned himself into a Gadjidas [390] and flew toward the southwest. He did not know how far he might go before finding people, but, as he soared high, he kept looking down on the earth. After a time he saw something directly to the west which made him think people were living there, so he came lower and lower. When near the ground he saw a village and said: “Well, I shall eat up all the people that live here, but if I find a good-looking woman, I shall take her home.” Then he turned himself into a Ganiagwaihegowa, and, beginning at the first house, he ate all the people. When he thought he had eaten everybody and had seen no woman that suited him, he saw away off on one side of the town a little hut from which smoke came out. Going there, he found an old man and a woman with several children, all of whom he ate. Then saying, “I have finished,” he changed himself into a man. He stood around a while and then, seeing a little trail, followed it. He had not gone far when he met a woman who was very handsome and whom he liked at once. As they talked together he asked: “Where do you live?” “Oh! right over here at that lodge,” she replied. He said, “You would better go home with me, for there is no one living there; all the people are dead.” “I must see first,” she answered. They then went back to the village. She led him to the last hut, in which he had found the old man and woman with the children. She was their daughter. Finding only the blood on the ground, she began to cry. He laid his hand on the top of her head, and as he touched her she instantly became senseless; whereupon he shook her, causing her to become a small gnat. Changing himself into a hen hawk and putting the gnat (ogenhwan) under his wing, he flew off in the direction of his home. In a short time he was there, and, changing himself into a man again, he took the woman from under his wing and shook her back into her natural form and size. Then he said: “This is our home; you must stay here and take care of the meat and the lodge.” She obeyed, while every day he went off to hunt.

One night some time afterward, as they sat in the hut the man heard a noise outside, as though some one were coming on a run. Suddenly the door opened and a man came in. They greeted one another. “I have come again,” said the man. “I find that you have made yourself into two persons now. I am here to warn you. A great monster has become very envious of you and has said, ‘There is a man over yonder who has become magically very powerful, and I have determined to try to overpower him and to eat him.’ Tomorrow at noon this monster will come. You must go eastward until you reach a large hill of stones, half as high as the highest mountain, not far from here. The place will be your only refuge when this monster attacks you. Get up on these rocks, and when it approaches you, you must jump from one rock to another. It will jump after you, but when it fails to reach you and falls, you may feel safe. We will then take care of it. This is what I had to tell you, so now I shall go.” The man and his wife went to sleep. The next morning the woman, noticing that her husband was gloomy, said, “What is the matter?” “Nothing, except I am thinking of what will become of me today at noon.” (She had neither seen nor heard the strange man who had spoken to her husband, although she was present. They two were so powerful in orenda that only they heard what was said.) The husband, walking up and down, seemed to be very uneasy.

As it neared noon, leaving his wife, the man started for the rocks. Seating himself on the top of the highest rock, he waited. Just at midday he heard a great noise, a distant howl; then he heard another nearer; then a third howl, just at the rocks. Now by way of defiance he gave a whoop, calling out, “I am the strongest of the strong. Nothing can overpower me.” The source of the sound was a bear, the oldest and strongest of the great bears. As it came up, it leaped on the rocks where the man stood, whereupon he jumped on the next rock, with the monster close behind him. In this way they kept leaping from one rock to another, being ever about the same distance apart, until the man began to feel tired and faint, and as he looked ahead the next rock seemed farther off than any of the others had been. Making a greater exertion, he just reached it. The bear was close behind him, but as it sprang, it fell short, just striking its jaws on the edge of the rock. The man looked over the edge of the rock and then jumped to the ground. As he struck the ground, looking behind him, he saw the rock from which he had leaped turn over and fall on the monster, killing it. “That is what I said; there is nothing that can overpower me,” the young man thought. He then went back to his hut very happy. His wife asked what had happened to him. “I have killed a monster bear that came to destroy me,” he replied.

Now all went on as usual. One day after the man returned from hunting, as he and his wife sat by the fire they heard a man approaching the hut, and they kept listening until he came to the door. When the man opened the door, there stood his friend. For the first time now the woman saw him. They greeted each other. The guest said: “The time has come when your life is again in danger, but I will try to save you and your wife. I will tell you what to do. Rub your hands on your wife’s head and she will turn to Osʻhada;[391] then you must tell it to follow you wherever you go. It will not be well for you to stay here; you must go away, but remain here as long as you can after your wife has gone. She must start immediately after you change her into Osʻhada, and when you have given up all hope of being able to stay, then flee directly toward the south. Tomorrow morning as soon as you get up, you must do as I have told you. I shall go now and we shall meet again.”

Thereupon the visitor started off. The man and wife began to talk. They did not know what to do. In the morning the man rubbed her head, saying, “Let my wife become Osʻhada.” At once she became Osʻhada and rested on his hand, while with the other hand he rubbed it off in the direction it was to go. Then piling up all his meat, he said in a loud voice, “I give this meat to you, all flesh-eating animals that live in the woods.” He now went toward the southeast from his lodge to a very large elm tree, which was smooth up to a great height, where branches formed a crotch. Climbing the tree, he sat in this crotch. Soon he noticed that he felt faint and very weak at intervals, and he thought that there must be near him something mysterious. He looked around everywhere, but saw nothing. Taking out the tooth Gaasyendietʻha had given him, he dampened it with spittle; then having rubbed his finger over the tooth, he passed it over his eyes, saying, “Now I can see everything that is going on, even down in the ground.” On looking into the ground, he saw, deep down, a tree and on the tree a great monster. He sat still, watching it as it slowly climbed the tree. As it came near the top, the faint feeling grew stronger on the man. He saw that the animal was a Djainosgowa,[392] the greatest of the Djainos family of monsters. This Djainosgowa had determined to overpower the orenda of the man. It came up out of the ground and up into the heart of the tree on which the man was sitting. As it came nearer and nearer, the man leaped to another tree. At that instant the Djainosgowa, coming out at the place where the man had been sitting, said, “Guhge sedjinoⁿ (You are indeed somewhat of a man, but I am determined to overpower you in orenda).” Thereupon the Djainosgowa leaped toward the man, but the man jumped to another tree, and then from tree to tree, the Djainosgowa following. There was a great rock at the brink of the hill to which the man ran; from this he leaped through the air across the great valley to a mountain far away. Thence he ran directly southward, right along the top of the mountain, descending on the other side to another very wide valley. He ran across this valley and had begun to ascend the mountain on the other side when he heard the monster in close pursuit. It continued to run all night. In the morning he came to an opening, on the other side of the valley. It was nearly dark, but the man continued to run all night. In the morning he came to an opening, on the farther side of which he could discern a hill and smoke arising. As he came to the foot of the mountain, he stopped, and turning around, he saw that the monster Djainosgowa had gotten to the opening. Raising its paw, it struck the man’s footprint on the trail. Instantly the man fell to the ground. As he fell, his friend appeared and said: “Get up; you cannot live if you fall this way.” So saying, he pushed him into a run, telling him to hurry. The man then felt stronger and again ran fast from valley to valley, with the Djainosgowa always about the same distance behind. All at once the man fell again. Immediately his friend was there, and put him on his feet, saying, “Keep up your courage,” at the same time pushing him into a run. Again he felt stronger and ran fast. He ran all night. It was a very dark night and he struck a great maple tree, going straight through it; this happened many times during the night, whenever he hit a tree.

For eight days and nights the monster chased him. When it discovered that the man went through trees it threw its power ahead of him, making the trees so hard that the man could no longer go through them. On the ninth night the monster commanded a terrible rainstorm to come and the night to be so dark that the man could not see where he was going, but the man ran on until midnight without hitting a tree. Just at midnight he struck a tree and was thrown far back. At that moment his friend was there, who said, “Do all you can; exert yourself”; and taking hold of his hand he led him. The two went and traveled a great deal faster than the man had gone alone, unaided by his friend, Gaasyendietʻha, the Meteor. The two ran together until daylight, when the friend left and the man went on alone. This was the tenth day and he began to be very tired and faint, but still the monster was approaching and its strokes on his tracks were frequent, so that the man fell often. The chances seemed against his escape. Night came and the Djainosgowa made it terribly dark. Running against a tree, the man bounded far back, but fortunately the Djainosgowa was so near that he fell behind it. The Djainosgowa, having likewise struck the tree, was also thrown back. At once the man was up and running forward again. The Djainosgowa was just upon him and was reaching out to grasp him when the man fell, as it seemed to him, into a hole in the ground. He thought, “Well, I am near my end. When I strike I shall be dashed to pieces.” He kept falling, and as he fell he grew sleepy. Looking up he saw the monster coming down the side of the hole, winding round and round. Thereupon the man went to sleep. After a long time he woke and was still falling, and the monster was still pursuing him. At last the man landed on his feet. He seemed to have come out of the hole, and on looking around he saw a beautiful country. Saying to himself, “My friend told me to go toward the south,” he ran in that direction. As he went on rapidly he saw the Djainosgowa coming toward him very fast, and thought, “Now I shall die.” As it came near the monster turned itself into a man. The runner, closing his eyes, kept on thinking, “I will not be looking at him when he reaches me.” He ran until he thought it was a long time to wait to be seized; then he opened his eyes and looked around, but he could not see the Djainosgowa, but still he kept on running.

Soon the man came to a lodge, which he entered, finding within an old man, who, looking up, exclaimed: “Oh, my grandson! I am glad you have come. I have been waiting for you a long time. You are bringing with you what I have wanted to eat for a long time. So go back there and stay. The Djainosgowa and I will fight alone. We will see whether it is as powerful as it thinks it is.” Soon the noise of the monster’s approach could be heard. Coming to the lodge, it asked, “Where is the man I have been chasing?” The old man said, “Here I am.” “No; you are not the man,” Djainosgowa replied. “I am; but if you think it is some one else, you shall not find out until you overpower me,” retorted the old man. The Djainosgowa said, “Come outside; there is not room in here.” “Very well,” replied the old man, and, arising, he went out. Then they began to fight. Whenever the animal bit the old man, tearing open the flesh, it immediately came together and healed. The old man tore off the forelegs of the Djainosgowa. They fought until the Djainosgowa was torn to pieces and the old man convinced himself that the pieces were not alive. Then he hung up the meat in the lodge and said to his grandson: “Come out! I have killed the monster you were afraid of. I am very thankful, for I have been wishing for this kind of meat for a long time.” The old man boiled the meat in a large kettle, not leaving a particle. In a small kettle he cooked bear’s meat for his grandson. As the meat was boiling, he put corn into the pounder and with only a few strokes it became corn meal; then having made bread, he began to eat. He was constantly giving thanks for the meat he was eating. At last, when he had eaten every bit of the great Djainosgowa he said: “I thank you, my grandson, for this will last me for a great many tens of years. You must stay with me until you are rested and cured, for you have been infected by the orenda (magic power) of this great monster.”

One day the old man said, “I want you to see what I have planted.” A short distance from the lodge they came to a field where something was growing. The old man said, “This is called onĕñoñ.” There were great tall cornstalks with ears of corn on them as long as the man was tall and kernels as large as a man’s head. The field extended farther than the eye could see. The old man said, “Let us go on the other side.” There the young man saw another field, where all varieties of corn were growing. Going on, they came to a third field, whereupon the old man said, “These are squashes.” They were very large and in great variety. Passing the squash field, they went to the old man’s lodge.

The next day, after he had rested, the grandson, having bade the old man good-by, went on. He traveled many days and finally came to a large opening, where there was a village. After thinking a while, he went to the lodge of the chief, who received him well. The chief’s daughter, looking at him, asked, “Have you ever heard of a man sending his wife off in the form of Osʻhada, a vapor?” He thought and thought this over; he had entirely forgotten about it. After a good while, remembering the past, he said, “Yes; I myself did that.” “I thought I recognized you. I am your wife,” declared the woman. They were glad to be together again.

104. DAGWANOENYENTGOWA SʻHAGODIGENDJI [393] AND YENONSGWA

Dagwanoenyentgowa Sʻhagodigendji, the eldest woman of her people, lived in the woods with two grandchildren, a boy and a girl.

One day, when the old woman had gone on a journey, a Yenonsgwa came to the lodge. Picking up the younger child, after speaking kindly to her and saying that she was a pretty little thing, the Yenonsgwa swallowed her. Then she began to talk to the boy, telling him how well he looked, but did not kill him. Sitting on the bed, she told the boy that if he would get on her back she would take him out to look for his grandmother. Accordingly he climbed on her back; but soon becoming frightened, he grasped her so tightly that he became fastened to it, so he could not get off, although he tried hard to do so. The Yenonsgwa started off, but went in a direction different from that where his grandmother was. The boy told her so, but she said: “Oh! we shall soon come to the place where she is.” The Yenonsgwa woman went very far into the woods, and the boy began to cry for his grandmother; he cried so hard that Yenonsgwa told him to get off her back. She did not like to hear him cry, and, moreover, she wanted to eat him. But he did not get off, for he could not do so. Yenonsgwa could neither get her hands around to pull him off, nor could she turn her head to bite him; she could not get at him in any way. Knowing this, the boy clung to the middle of her back, for he knew also that she would eat him if he slipped down. They traveled thus for many days.

When the grandmother returned home she found that the boy and girl were not in the lodge, and she became very uneasy. She searched everywhere, but found no traces of either. After a while, finding the tracks of the Yenonsgwa around the lodge, she guessed what the trouble was. The old woman followed the trail of the Yenonsgwa, saying that she was bound to get her grandchildren back.

Yenonsgwa tried to get the boy off, even rubbing him against a hickory tree, but the boy said: “Oh! I like that. Rub harder.” At this she stopped rubbing and went on. The grandmother, in the form of a whirlwind, followed her, and Yenonsgwa told the boy that his grandmother was following as a whirlwind, and would strike and kill both. The boy was silent. Then looking around for a refuge, Yenonsgwa found a hiding place in a deep ravine. There she dug a hole, into which she went and covered herself with the earth which slipped down from above. Now Yenonsgwa heard Dagwanoenyentgowa coming, and said to the boy: “You can hear your grandmother coming if you listen.” Then the Dagwanoenyentgowa rushed over the place where they lay. The boy shouted to his grandmother, who heard him. Changing her course, she came back straight to the spot where they were, blowing the earth off the hiding place, so that Yenonsgwa was visible on the surface of the ground. When the grandmother asked the boy whether he was there, he answered: “Yes.” The Yenonsgwa, however, lay still, whispering to the boy: “Be quiet! Your grandmother will see us.” The grandmother then called to the boy by name: “Dagwanoenyentgowa, get off Yenonsgwa’s back.” Having done so, he went a short distance from her inside the cavern. Then the old woman, his grandmother, hurled great stones at Yenonsgwa, rending all her clothes of rock and killing her. Thereupon the old woman took her grandson with her toward home. On the road she said: “Never allow yourself to be treated in this way again. Never let anyone maltreat you. You can master all those people if you only use your orenda (magic power), for you are a Dagwanoenyentgowa like myself.” The old woman remained at home a few days with her grandson.

Meanwhile some of the Yenonsgwa’s people found her trail, which they followed until they came to the place where her clothes were rent and scattered, and she lay dead. When they asked, the spirit of the Yenonsgwa told them that the old woman had killed her and had rent her coating of stone. The men of the Yenonsgwa’s people now resolved to collect a large company of their people to kill the old woman, Dagwanoenyentgowa.

While they were preparing for this, the old woman, while she was out on one of her journeys, found out their plans. When she heard the news of the intended attack she said to her grandson, “We must get your sister out of the belly of the Yenonsgwa, for she is sitting within, crying for me all the time.” So they set out from home, and when they reached the place where Yenonsgwa lay dead the old woman, having built a little fire, began to burn tobacco on it for her granddaughter, saying, “This is what we like; this is what we like.” She burned perhaps half a pouch full and kept pushing the smoke toward the Yenonsgwa’s body, saying, “This is what we like. Do you come out of Yenonsgwa’s body.” Still no sign of the granddaughter; she did not come out of Yenonsgwa’s body. At last the old woman said: “We must have more help. You have a great many relatives—uncles, aunts, and cousins. We must call them here.” So saying, the old woman, the Dagwanoenyentgowa, called them loudly. They came one by one. There was a great number of them. They broke up and removed all the clothing of the Yenonsgwa, which they threw away, leaving the body naked. Then the old woman built a fire at Yenonsgwa’s head, on which she burned tobacco. All the Dagwanoenyentgowa walked around the fire, each throwing tobacco into it, saying, “This is what we like; this is what we like.” After each one of them had gone around once and had thrown tobacco into the fire once, the young girl started up in Yenonsgwa’s body, panting for breath. Soon she arose, and walking out, said, “How long have I been here?” The people gave her tobacco to smoke. She inhaled it until she gained her full strength. Then all went home—the old woman with her two grandchildren to her lodge, and the other Dagwanoenyents each to his own place.

After they had been home a while a Yenonsgwa came to the old woman’s lodge, who talked pleasantly and inquired how they were. Finding out that they were only three in number, the Yenonsgwa went back, thinking it would be a small task to kill them. After the Yenonsgwa had gone away the old woman said, “We are in trouble now. There is a great number of these Yenonsgwa people leagued together against us. They are assembled somewhere around here. When this struggle commences we do not know whether or not we shall be able to come home here again.” As soon as she had finished talking with her grandchildren the old woman went out and called loud and long, “Dagwanoenyentgowa! Dagwanoenyentgowa! Dagwanoenyentgowa!” The girl did not know what that meant, so she asked her grandmother, who told her, “I am calling your relatives to help us. You are a Dagwanoenyentgowa, too.” They came one by one. When all had come they numbered 60, besides the old woman and her grandchildren. Dagwanoenyentgowa Sʻhagodigendji said that each one must have a round stone to strike with, just heavy enough to handle well. They had barely gotten the stones when the Yenonsgwa began to appear, thousands and thousands in number. The Dagwanoenyentgowa were frightened when they saw them, but the old woman who led them said, “We must separate and attack them singly. You must keep the stones in your hands. Be firm and have the faith that you will kill with one blow each one you hit and you will do so.” [394] Then the Dagwanoenyentgowas ran off in different directions, with the Yenonsgwa chasing them. Whenever they had the chance the Dagwanoenyentgowa struck and killed a Yenonsgwa, and so they kept retreating and killing the Yenonsgwa for a long distance. The old woman told all her people to go up a high mountain on the south ahead of them and to continue fighting as they went, saying, “When we all reach the top we will go down a little on the other side, and the Yenonsgwa will come to the top, and we shall then strike them. One part of us will strike them from the east and the other from the west side, and we will get behind them and drive them into the great ravine on the south side of the mountain, where a river runs, and they will all perish there.” On coming to the mountain top, where there was a large space, and looking around the Yenonsgwa saw nothing of the Dagwanoenyentgowa. They looked on every side, but could see no one, whereupon they thought that the Dagwanoenyentgowas had gone for good. They had not stood there long, however, when they heard the sound of wind below them on the mountain on both sides of them. The sound grew louder and louder, and presently the Dagwanoenyentgowa struck them on both sides, and uniting in their rear struck them there also. So terrible were the attack and the power of the Dagwanoenyentgowa that they tore all the trees out by their roots and swept the earth from the top of the mountain, hurling the trees and earth into the ravine and river below. The dead Yenonsgwas were piled up on one another like rocks in the river bed and along its banks. The Dagwanoenyentgowa were now dancing on the mountain top, when the old woman said, “We have hurled the Yenonsgwa down there now and we would better finish them. Let half of you go along the ridge running south from this mountain east of the river and the other half on the western ridge and blow all the trees and stones and earth into the great ravine.” They did so, and when they came together they had stripped the mountain spurs naked. The river forced everything to the end of the ravine, piling up the débris in a great dam, so that the river became a lake on the south side of the mountain, which is called Hadiqsadon Genonsgwa ganyudae.395

105. THE TWELVE BROTHERS AND THEIR UNCLE, DAGWANOENYENT

Once there lived 12 brothers who were great hunters, and who dwelt very happily together. Everyone knew that they excelled in whatever they undertook, for they had great magical powers and were honest.

Every morning the brothers would start off in different directions to hunt, and would return in the evening. The eldest brother seemed to understand best the women, who went around the world to destroy men, so he always avoided them. One day, however, while he was hunting he saw a red-headed woodpecker drumming on the trees, making a great noise. As he watched the bird, it went around the tree and then flew to another tree and around that. Finally it flew to the ground, and, behold! a beautiful young woman took the place of the bird. She said to the hunter, “Are you not ashamed to point an arrow at a woman? Come and talk to me.” Thereupon he went up to her—this was the last thing he remembered. She took him to a high rock where stood another woman, who said “Let his bones come to the ground,” and his body fell, becoming a heap of bones. Great piles of human bones lay around this rock, for many men had been decoyed to the place by the first woman and destroyed by the other.

Night came, and as the eldest brother did not return, the remaining 11 said that some evil had befallen him, and that he would never return. As predicted, he never came home; his mat remained vacant, and they left everything as it was and mourned him as dead.

After a long time another brother was missing one evening and he, too, never returned. Later it was learned that while walking along in the woods he came upon two women, who with their wiles put him to sleep. One of them said: “Let us put him into the ground until mold appears all over him—he shall be alive—and let him remain there until his uncle finds out where he is and rescues him.”

Now, the 10 remaining brothers were greatly alarmed, and they told their youngest brother, whom they loved very dearly, that “he must stay at home and not go roaming about the forest, for he was young and did not know the world as well as they did.”

Again many moons passed, and then one night the third brother was missing. The others knew he must be dead, or he would not have failed to return when night came. Now, three mats were vacant, and the remaining brothers were almost heartbroken.

Time went on, and one brother after another had disappeared, until only two were left—the second and the youngest, and there were 10 empty places. Then the elder said to his younger brother: “You must not go out of doors. You must stay close at home, where no harm can come to you, for you are all I have to depend on when I grow old.” “But,” said the younger, “it may be that our brothers are still alive and are being kept captive and tormented by the spell of some magic power. I wish to go in search of them.” “No; you can not,” replied the elder; “you are still young. But we have a great uncle, who knows everything. He is a terrible man; no one can go near him. He could bring our brothers back, if we could get to him, but the trouble is he would not know that we are his nephews, so we would be destroyed. He is Dagwanoenyent. He lives on a rock. His long hair sweeps the ground, so that all around the rock it is as smooth as ice; and he has enormous eyes.” [396] “I must go to see this uncle,” said the younger, “and find out where our brothers are.” “You will travel the wide world over and never find them unless he tells you,” came the reply.

“What does he live on?” asked the younger. “He gnaws the bark of hickory trees,” answered the elder. “That is an easy living. I will get plenty of it,” said the younger, and having cut down the largest hickory trees he could find, he took off great blocks of bark for his uncle to eat. Then he made himself six arrows, each arrow being a great tree. He would lift the tree out of the ground by the roots. “I want you to be small,” and made an arrow of it; the blunt end of the arrow was the butt near the roots. The elder brother did not know that these arrows were large trees. He was afraid to have his brother go and put but little faith in his success. While the younger brother was making his arrows he practiced running. One day while so engaged he thought he heard a groan under his feet, as it were, and going back and forth he found the exact place whence it seemed to come. It was as though he ran over a man and each time hurt him fearfully; so digging down into the ground, he found a living man, whose features were perfect but whose face was covered with thick mold. He took him home to his elder brother, saying, “We have plenty of bear’s oil, and you can anoint him until he regains his natural skin.” The newly found man could neither see nor hear.

The elder brother told the younger to run toward the north. The next morning the latter started, having cautioned the elder to stay in the lodge while he was gone, as he would bring his uncle home with him. He ran for several days until he came near the place which his brother had described. Possessing magical power over a mole, he said to it, “You must carry me under the ground so that the leaves shall not rustle. When we are very near my uncle, Dagwanoenyent,[397] let me out.” Thereupon he entered the mole, which ran on until they were near the Great Head, when he looked out. He was almost afraid to come forth, so terrible was this enormous object, but he sprang out of the mole with his arrow drawn, crying as he did so, “Uncle, I have come after you!” Away sped the arrow! As it whizzed through the air it grew to the size of a large tree. When it hit the Great Head above the eyes, with a loud laugh the latter, rolling off the rocks, swept along in the air, making a broad track of fallen trees as it passed through the forest like an immense cloud. The young man kept ahead by running with lightning speed. As the Great Head was nearly on him, he turned and shot another arrow, which drove it back some distance, and again he got ahead. This act he repeated whenever he was in danger of being overtaken, otherwise he would have been killed by the big trees that fell in the track of the Great Head. So on he ran for his life, and as his last arrow was spent, he reached home. Each time the rebound of the Great Head decreased, so it gained on him continually.

While the pursued and the pursuer were still a long way off, the elder brother began to hear a frightful roar and to feel a great wind rising. Thereupon, saying, “My uncle is coming,” he opened the skin doors (there was one at each end of the lodge) and put great pounders on them, and made a big fire. When the younger brother reached the lodge he took up the pounder, and as the Great Head came down to the threshold and rolled in, both brothers began pounding it and kept on doing so until it rolled almost to the end of the lodge and became silent. At this the young man said: “I brought you here, uncle; now, you must stay with us and tell us where our brothers are.” “I can not stay,” replied the Head, “but I will help you, and your brothers will come back.”

By this time the elder brother, having rubbed nearly all the mold from the man’s face, found he was his brother. The Great Head blew on the body, whereupon the man became well and sound again. Now there were three brothers. At night the Great Head would remain outside the lodge, gnawing the hickory bark provided for it. After a time it said, “I can not remain and must be going home, but I will take you to the spot where your brothers are”; so they started off together. The Great Head would make long leaps, springing high from the ground. It conducted the young man to the woman on the rock. As they passed the first woman the Great Head said, “We shall have to kill this woman.” She tried to make the Great Head laugh, but it would not, saying, “Oh, woman! Come down and be bones.” Enraged at these words, she tried to spit at the Great Head, which repeated the words. The third time, both women rolled off, and as they fell their bones made a noise like the pouring out of many shells, and the Great Head said, “Scatter the bones.” So the young man, gathering them up by handfuls, threw them in every direction, commanding them to become such and such birds; and they became birds—horned owls, hawks, crows, and woodpeckers—which disappeared in the air. “Now,” said the Great Head, “you must work hard. Fit all these other bones together nicely, giving to each body its own bones by putting together as many bodies as you can. While you are doing this, I will go off a long distance and then come back straight over this forest. When I approach you will hear the roar of the wind, and thereupon you must cry out to these bones, ‘Arise, or the trees will fall on you.’ They will obey you. I will pass over them and go to my home; if you want me again, you may come for me.” The young man went to work with great haste and laid together many skeletons. Nearly all the bones were arranged when he heard the deep roar of the wind and knew thereby the Great Head was coming. Then he called out, “Arise, you bones, or the trees will fall on you,” [398] and as the Great Head swept with an awful noise over the skeletons, all sprang to their feet. The bones of two skeletons were interchanged. One who from the shape of his foot had gone by the name of Sharp-pointed Moccasins had but one of his own feet, while the second man had the other, so both were cripples. One of these men had been enticed from a great distance; he was a man-eater and wished to commence a meal at once, but the young man killed him with a single blow of his club. Among those now restored to life were the nine missing brothers. Each man found whatever he had brought with him and all separated; those who did not know where their homes were went with the brothers. Thus, again, after many years the 12 brothers were united.

106. ONGWE IAS [399] AND HIS BROTHER, DAGWANOENYENT

There was a man who had three nephews, and all lived in a lodge which was divided into two parts by a partition. The old man lived in one part and the young men in the other. There was no door between the two rooms; they could talk only through the partition. The old man, however, was an Ongwe Ias; he was a brother of the Dagwanoenyent who chased the panther and her cubs.

When the old man went hunting he always started on a run, and one could hear the sound of his going. The young men used to go hunting, too. Whenever the old man came home they could hear him throw down a person’s body and cut it up; then they could hear him eating. Afterward he would ask the boys whether they had all returned from hunting, whereupon they would say, “Yes.”

One morning after the old man had gone off the youngest of the three started by himself. At a short distance from the lodge lay a big tree, over which moss had grown everywhere. When he put his knee on this tree to get over it he saw a man who had grown to the tree. The man said: “I am glad you have come; I am tormented here. I think you would better take me to your lodge. I will be a brother to you and stay with you as long as you live.” “I do not think this would be well,” replied the young man, “for our uncle is a man-eater; but I will go home and talk with my two brothers, and tomorrow I will let you know our decision.” That night when the old man got home he asked whether all had gotten back. “Yes,” they answered. Then the youngest said to his uncle: “We have found a man who wants to come here to be our brother and live with us. You must not touch him.” The old man agreed not to injure him, saying, “I will give him a name; he shall be called The-Found-One.” [400] They brought the man in. When he had recovered his health he was a swifter runner than the old man-eater.

One morning all started off to hunt, the three brothers and The-Found-One. In the afternoon the old man came back home and stayed in his part of the lodge. At night he asked, “Are you all here?” One answered, “No; our eldest brother has not come.” The old man was astonished, and told the second brother that he must start early the next morning and follow his brother’s tracks.

In the morning the second brother started on the run to look for his elder brother. After a while he came to a clearing, in the middle of which sat an old woman; his brother’s tracks went straight toward her. He made up his mind to inquire of the woman about him. Going straight up to her, he asked, but she gave no answer. Then she struck him and straightway he turned into bones. Now, two of the brothers were gone. When night came and the uncle reached home, he asked the lone brother whether all had returned. The youngest said, “No,” whereupon the uncle said, “You must follow them and see what has happened.”

So the youngest went out the next morning, and soon reached the opening or clearing, where he saw the gray-haired woman. It came into his mind that she was the cause of the trouble; so taking a start he ran and then jumped on her back, asking “Have you seen my brothers?” Having said this, he jumped off. After trying in every way to hit him, at last the woman just touched him and thereupon the three brothers were gone; he, too, then becoming merely bones, like the other two.

At night when the old uncle returned he asked the fourth person, The-Found-One, “Have your brothers come back?” “No,” was the answer. At this the old man, astonished, said, “When you rise in the morning get crotched sticks and make a platform on them; put as many stones as possible on the platform, and then start in search of your uncle. You can not help finding him. When you see him you must shoot him in the forehead; then he will follow in the direction from which the arrow comes.” The next morning, having made a platform, the man put on it as many big stones as possible. After doing this, he started in the direction the old man had pointed out. During the forenoon he heard a big noise, and when he came out into a broad opening, or clearing, he saw his uncle, Dagwanoenyent, on a great rock which he was eating, biting off large pieces. On seeing him, The-Found-One shot an arrow at his forehead, saying at the same time, “I have come for you, uncle.” His uncle, the Great Head, followed him, and he shot another arrow. The Great Head always followed the course of the arrow. After shooting twice The-Found-One was back at the lodge, where he called to the old man-eater, “Uncle, I have come.”

Very soon they heard the noise of a great wind, and Dagwanoenyent came, and standing on the platform, began to eat stones;[401] the sound of his craunching could be heard a long way. The man-eater spoke to his brother Dagwanoenyent, saying: “I sent after you, and you have come. The three brothers have gone and have not come back. Now I am going for them, and if I do not return, you will come after me.” The next morning The-Found-One was alone. Dagwanoenyent came, and standing on the platform, ate a stone, and called out, “Have they returned?” “No,” was the reply.

“Well, I am going after my brother; he ought not to eat men, if he too gets lost.” With these words, Dagwanoenyent flew up high in the air. The old woman knew he was coming, so shading her eyes with her hand, she kept watch; presently she saw him approaching. Flying down where she was, he bit at her, but she had disappeared; then he bit gravel. On flying up he could see nothing. At last he hid behind a cloud and watched until he saw her; thereupon, plunging down, he bit deep into the ground, this time killing the old woman and letting out her blood. Then he said to himself, “My brother should not eat people, if he is such a coward that he can not kill an old woman.”