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

The wise men, prophets, and priests of tribal men painted these tales with the glamour and witchery of poetry. Myths are the poetic judgments of tribal men about the phenomena of life and the outside world and embody the philosophy of these men about the problems and mysteries of the universe around them and in their own lives. So, in order to understand these narratives, it is necessary to study them with the deepest sympathy. But our sympathy with the viewpoint of the myth narratives of tribal men should not veil the realities of science from our minds.

Piloted by science in seeking to know the truth about the universe, scholars do not expect to discover it in the myth-lore or the folk-lore of tribal men. To study the birth and the growth of opinions forms one of the most instructive chapters in the science of mind or psychology.

The Seneca name Sʻhagodiioweʹʻgōwā or Sʻhagodiioweʹqgōwā designates one of the famous “man-beings” who are of the lineage of the “first people.” Some unknowing Indian interpreters render this term erroneously by the English words “false face,” which is a translation which effectually conceals the literal meaning of the expression, which is freely “The Great Ones Who Defend Them.” But as an appellative the term is also applied to a single one of these fictitious beings. The plural concept is evidently a late development, and probably arose after the establishment of societies whose members, when ceremonially attired, must for one thing wear a wooden mask having as its essential mark a wry mouth. So it is clear that the expression “false face” applies to the members of such societies and not at all to the man-beings so impersonated. The Iroquoian myth of Creation knows only one man-being, who assumed the duty of protecting mankind from pestilence and disease. He was the God of the Air or the Wind, sometimes appearing as the Whirlwind. Ceremonially he is addressed as Sʻhedwásōʹdăʻ or as Etʻhiʻsōʹdăʻ, both meaning “He Who Is Our Grandfather.”

It would seem that the pluralizing of the concept has resulted in a marked forgetting of the original objective reality represented in the concept, which in turn detracts from the high esteem in which the original Wind God was held. The Onondaga name of this personage is Haduʹʼiʼ; the Mohawk, Akoñʹwărăʼ. Both these names have arisen from something peculiar to members of the so-called “False Face Societies,” the first meaning, from the common postures assumed by the members, “hunch-backed,” and the second, “mask,” from the wooden mask worn by the members of the society when in session. So the expression of the evil side of the manifestations of the Power of the Wind or Air, Pestilence, Disease, and Death may safely be predicated of this member of the “first people.”

A god or deity exerts or maintains its influence over the mind and heart of man because it is something more than a mere creature of the human brain. The god exercises certain attributes, peculiarities and forces which place him outside the sphere of human knowledge and experience and competence into a class by himself; he embodies in himself, according to belief, the power to function as a process or force of the universe plus the attributed human faculties and aspect.

Some of the French writers among the early explorers in North America refer to a native belief in “the ancients of animals,” which, it was stated, were regarded as the type and the progenitors of each particular species of animal. But this statement gives only a glimpse of a larger faith. These so-called “ancients of animals” were indeed only a part of the great company of “the ancients,” “the ancestors,” or “the first people,” each being a personified element or process of life or of outside nature, who became by fated metamorphosis the reputed progenitors of all faunal and floral life on the earth.

But an interpretative understanding of the Genesis myth of the American Indians shows that these “ancients,” these primal “ancestors,” were regarded as “human beings,” as belonging to that class of animate beings to which the Indian himself belonged. Yet, these “ancients” were the “gods,” “the beings,” or “the existences,” of anthropic form, character, and volition, whose metamorphosis later produced, according to the Indian philosophy, the present order of things on earth. So, the “first beings,” conceived as “human beings,” were indeed the gods—the personified agents of the powers, processes, and phenomena of nature.

It is this principle of transformation, or metamorphosis, that in part explains why there are represented largely “anthropic gods” with “animal masks” in Central America, Mexico, India, China, Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria, and not many true “animal gods” with “human masks.”

But in some places there arose confusion between these poetic creations of a childlike faith and the lineal ancestors of men. When pride of birth and of position dominated the minds of aristocratic men they sought to trace their pedigree to the gods, and so they blindly claimed descent from these primal gods, who, in their anthropic aspect, were mere fictions of the mind, and so in time and in some lands this process resulted in what is usually called “ancestor worship.” This is, therefore, never a primitive faith, but only a decadent culture.

All early men of inchoate mentation, of self-centered thinking, shared their needs and afflictions, their woes and ambitions, their sufferings and aspirations, and their joys and blessings with their gods, feeling that their gods who bore their own likeness by the unconscious imputation of human nature to them were endowed with the attributes, whims, virtues, and frailties of human nature. They believed that their gods must be men—man-beings, men like themselves—else these deities could not foresee and understand their necessities and so could not sympathize with men everywhere. Hence an Iroquois, thinking and speaking of their deities only in terms of human speech and thought, designates a god or other spirit of his faith by the word denoting man, human being, or mankind.

Of the gods and deities of Iroquois myths the editor has written:

Like most American Indian mythologies, the Iroquoian deals with
three great mythic cosmical periods. In the first dwelt a race of
gigantic anthropic beings—man-beings, let them be called, because
though they were reputed to have been larger, purer, wiser, more
ancient, and possessed of more potent orenda (q. v.), than man, and
having superior ability to perform the great elemental functions
characterizing definitely the things represented by them, they
nevertheless had the form, mien, and mind of man, their creator;
for unconsciously did man create the gods, the great primal beings
of cosmic time—the controllers or directors, or impersonations, of
the bodies and phenomena of nature—in his own image. To these
man-beings, therefore, were imputed the thought, manners, customs,
habits, and social organization of their creators; notwithstanding
this, man regarded them as uncreated, eternal, and immortal; for by
a curious paradox, man, mistaking his own mental fictions, his
metaphors, for realities, explained his own existence, wisdom, and
activities as the divine product of the creations of his own
inchoate mind. The dwelling-place of the first great primal beings,
characterized by flora and fauna respectively identical with the
plant and animal life appearing later on the earth, was conceived
to have been the upper surface of the visible sky, which was
regarded as a solid plain. Here lived the first beings in peace and
contentment for a very long period of time: no one knows or ever
knew the length of this first cosmic period of tranquil existence.
But there came a time when an event occurred which resulted in a
metamorphosis in the state and aspect of celestial and earthly
things; in fact, the seeming had to become or to assume the real,
and so came to pass the cataclysmic change of things of the first
period into that now seen on the earth and in the sky, and the
close of this period was the dawn of the gods of this mythology.
[27]

So the character and the nature of the deities and spirits of the faith of the Iroquois peoples were a direct reflex of those attributes of the people themselves. It may be inferred in general that the more primitive and cultureless the people are the more crude, the more barbaric and savage will be their conceptions of their gods and the nature and functions of these naïve creations, but, conversely, it is only with the possession of a higher degree of intelligence that come nobler, more refined, grander, and more spiritual ideas of their gods. This admits of no exception.

Whatever, therefore, the final terms are in which men at any time and place define their deities, the premises of their reasoning about them is always quite the same—namely, to define the unknown man in terms of the known men themselves—but this known quantity, man, is variable and inconstant, changing with time and place. All powers and functions and attributes of mind and body, inherent in man and distinctive of him—no matter whether beneficent or evil—men imputed to their gods in more or less idealized form.

Guided by inchoate reasoning, the crude thinking of unscientific minds, all early men, responsive to external stimuli and the internal yearning for truth, ascribed to their gods and spirits not only all human functions and attributes measurably idealized, but also all their arts and social and religious institutions were likewise attributed, probably quite unconsciously, to their gods and deities. These anthropic features and activities and anthropopathic mind were not ascribed, of course, to other men, but rather to the so-called “first people”—the personified, animated and humanized phenomena and processes of nature, of the environments of their experience. Thus, the social and institutional organization of the gods becomes a somewhat idealized epitome or reflex of the human society as it existed and exists among the people in whose minds these divine organizations had their origin. By so doing men painted, either consciously or unconsciously, in their religious activities and in their god-lore a faithful picture of the earliest culture and civilization of their own ethnic progenitors.

Hence, when authentic historical records are wanting the student may by close and sympathetic analysis and interpretation of the myths and the religion of a people acquire a fairly accurate knowledge of the history and culture of such a people. In this manner, indeed, the gods verily become the revealers of all history and the teachers of the arts and crafts and industries and the true founders of the institutions—human and divine—to that people. In this interaction of the human mind with the forces and phenomena of life and environing nature lies the true source of inspiration and prophecy. The history of the gods is the history of man. Because the gods, in general, symbolize universal processes in life and nature they and their attributes and functions in time become more or less highly idealized creations of the conscious, the subconscious, and the superconscious thinking of men.

The lesson of these myths and legends is that man is other than the material world; that while he is in it he is not of it; that while he feels nature’s elemental activities impelling him and impinging on his senses, his apprehensive yearning heart sees the beckoning finger of a higher and nobler destiny.

All bodies of myths agree perfectly on one fundamental principle, transformation, through which all things on this earth have become what they are.

This principle of metamorphosis indicates the mental process by which these things were represented as becoming what they seemed to be—animated things, subjectively endowed with human form, thought, and volition, to explain the phenomena of life and surrounding nature.

I desire to record here my grateful acknowledgment of the assistance rendered by Mr. F. W. Hodge, ethnologist in charge of the Bureau of American Ethnology, in the form of valuable suggestions in connection with the work and in other ways. I wish also to express my appreciation of the courtesy of Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., of Boston, in giving the bureau permission to use freely the material contained in the instructive “Introductions” written by the late Jeremiah Curtin for his interesting books, published by that company under the titles: “Myths and Folk-Tales of the Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars”; “Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland”; “Hero-Tales of Ireland”; and “Creation Myths of Primitive America.”

PHONETIC KEY

a as in father ā preceding sound, prolonged ă as in what ä as in hat ǟ next preceding sound, prolonged â as in all ai as in aisle au as ou in out c as sh in shall ç as th in wealth d pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the upper teeth, as in enunciating English th in with; the only sound of d employed in writing native words e as in they ĕ as in met f as in waif g as in gig h as in hot i as in pique ī next preceding sound, prolonged ĭ as in pit k as in kick n as in run ñ as ng in ring o as in note q as ch in German ich r slightly trilled; this is its only sound s as in sop t pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the upper teeth, as in enunciating the English th in with; this is its only sound u as in rule ŭ as in rut w as in wit y as in ye dj as j in judge hw as wh in what tc as ch in church ⁿ marks nasalized vowels, thus eⁿ, oⁿ, aiⁿ, ĕⁿ, äⁿ, âⁿ ʻ indicates an aspiration or soft emission of breath ʼ marks the glottal stop, äʼ, ĕⁿʼ tʻh In this combination t and h are separately uttered, as th in the English words hothouse, foothold.

MATERIAL COLLECTED BY JEREMIAH CURTIN

FICTION

1. THE SISTER AND HER SIX ELDER BROTHERS

Once there was a lodge, which extended east and west, with two doors, one at each end. The fire burned in the middle of the lodge, which was occupied by a sister and her six elder brothers. Three of the brothers used the eastern doorway, and the other three the western doorway, for entering and leaving the lodge, while the sister made use of both doorways.

The eldest brother said, “What would you say, my brothers and sister, if I should take a wife?” “We do not know,” they replied; “perhaps nothing, if she does not abuse us.” So he went to bring the young woman. He addressed her old mother, saying, “Are you willing that thy daughter and I should marry?” She replied, “Certainly, if you will not ill-treat her, but have pity on her.” Then the young man went to his home, where he said, “She will come.”

Now, the mother made marriage-bread for the occasion. When it was ready the maiden, bearing the bread on her back by means of the forehead strap, started for the place where abode the six brothers and their sister. They received her bread and ate it with a relish.

Then the elder brother said to his wife: “Now, I will tell you. In this room you must never cross to the other side of the fire; and when you desire to go out of doors you must invariably leave by this eastern doorway. But when you desire to enter the lodge you must enter at the other side, through the western doorway.”

Then it came to pass that the brothers began to hunt, as was their custom.

Some time after this event the bride said, “Oh, pshaw! What the man [her husband] thinks is indeed of small account,” and went directly through the lodge to the western doorway, the thing which she had been forbidden to do.

Now, her husband, the eldest brother, was hunting, and he came to a deep gully over which a log extended. In crossing on this log he fell off in such a way that his body was caught so that his head hung down into the gully.

When night came on his brothers began to fear, saying, “Oh, why does not our elder brother return! Let us go seek him.” So they prepared torches and started. Following his tracks, in time they arrived at the place where the body of their elder brother was hanging. It was found that he was barely alive. After carefully extricating him from the perilous situation they carried him home, where they properly cared for him, giving him food and drink and dressing his wounds.

The next morning the younger brothers said one to the other, “The woman who is dwelling here has abused us in this matter; therefore let her return to her home.” Overhearing this speech, the young woman replied, “It is well. Now, I shall go home.” And, arising in her place, she departed.

The fifth brother started in pursuit of her; and as he was about to grasp her, she let her skin robe fly back in such a manner that it took out the eyes of her pursuer. When the other brothers became aware of this misfortune which had befallen him, they were very angry and started in pursuit of the young woman. Just as they were about to grasp her, again she let her skin robe fly back so that it took out the eyes of all the pursuing brothers. Then, indeed, they were very miserable.

And now all the work about the lodge fell to the lot of the little girl, the young sister of these blind brothers. These ate whatever their young sister, all alone, was able to get for them—weeds and roots of various kinds. She was in the habit of running around out of doors.

One day when she had gone for water she saw some boys coming, paddling in a canoe and making a great noise as they drew near, laughing and shouting. When they arrived where she was they exclaimed, “Come hither. Get aboard and let us have some fun.” But she replied, “No; it will not be possible for me to do so. I will not do so, because I am taking care of my elder brothers. They would become too miserable should I leave them.” But they persisted, saying, “Now, anyway, for a short distance you can leap into this canoe.” She finally decided to comply with their request, and saying, “Indeed, yes!” she got aboard the canoe at once. Then they started back, and when they arrived at a bend of the river the little girl said, “Now I will get out of the canoe.” But her captors, saying, “Come still a short distance farther,” started on.

Matters continued in this wise until they had gone a long distance. Then the little girl began to weep. Looking back, she saw a man ugly beyond measure, being very filthy in body and exceedingly fat, with a very broad face and an enormous stomach. Then the little girl looked to the bow of the canoe to see the man who had been sitting there, but he was gone; and she wept aloud. The canoe went directly toward the middle of the lake. While paddling along they saw an island on which stood a lodge. On landing, the ugly man said: “Let us enter the place where thy grandmother has her lodge. And, moreover, you must continue to reside here. There lives here, too, another girl, who will be your companion. You two may play together.” The little girl entered this lodge, and the old woman said, “I am thankful that my granddaughter has arrived.”

Some time after this event the little girl who was already in the lodge said to the newcomer: “Do you know what will happen to us in this place? We two shall die here, for they will kill us both and devour our bodies.” So the little girl who had just arrived began to think much about her situation.

After a while the little girl who was first at the lodge said to the newcomer: “Now, verily, they are about to kill one of us. It is not certain which it will be—whether you or I. Tomorrow will decide. The one to be killed will be ordered to bring water, and will be killed here.” So when night came the newcomer could not sleep; she was thinking during the entire night.

When day began to dawn the son of Dagwanoenyent [1] [28] looked down at her through the smoke-hole, and said to her: “It is I who will aid you. When you go after water you must look for three white chert stones as large as you can hold in your hands, and you must take a doll with you. When you dip up the water you must set up the doll nearby. Then your grandmother will think that it is you standing there when she shall go there to strike you with her club. Now, do not fail to do all these things as I have directed you.”

In the morning the old woman raised her voice, saying to the little newcomer, “Hurry! Arise and draw water.” Then the old woman set the kettle over the fire. The girl went to the spring and began to draw water. While she was drawing water she carried the three white chert stones and placed them side by side in the designated place and set up the doll there, too. She did all that she had been directed to do by the son of Dagwanoenyent. She was surprised to see a canoe make a landing there; in it was a young man. Placing the stones in the canoe, she got aboard, as requested by the young man. Then the canoe started off.

When the canoe was being paddled far from the island the old woman exclaimed, “Go-o-o-oh! My grandchild has been gone a long time,” and, calling loudly for her, she went out to search for her. She ran around over the entire island looking for her, but was not able to find her. Then it was that she saw the doll standing near the spring; on striking it a blow with her club she discovered that she had been tricked. Thereupon she said, “She is somewhat of a witch. Verily, the son of Dagwanoenyent has stolen her away from me; and he is a very ugly and filthy man.”

Now she went to the lodge to procure her fishhook and then to the bank of the lake at the canoe landing. After unwinding the fishline she cast it after the fleeing canoe; the hook caught on the canoe and she began to pull on the line. So, while the two were paddling they felt the canoe going backward. The young man said, “Do you overturn the canoe for there is where the hook has caught on it.” So the young woman overturned the canoe and, seizing one of the white chert stones, she struck the hook, and while the old woman was pulling on the line it gave way. Then the old woman said, “Oh, it is sorrowful! The son of Dagwanoenyent and the young woman I shall soon punish for this.”

Then the old woman made another fishhook and it caught on the fleeing canoe, and again the young man and the young woman felt the canoe going backward. Again the youth said, “Turn the canoe over again and you will find the fishhook.” So she did this, and taking one of the white chert stones, she struck and again broke the old woman’s fishhook. Once more the canoe went forward, and the old woman pulled on the line, which suddenly gave way, whereupon she said derisively, “Yeʹʼhe![2] Nevertheless I shall kill you both.”

Then she made another fishhook and, going to the shore of the lake, she cast the line again toward the canoe, to which it became fast. Again the young man said to his young companion, “Overturn the canoe and there you will find the fishhook.” This she did quickly and, seizing a white chert stone, struck the fishhook a blow which broke it. This was the last of the three stones which the young man had told her to bring with her. They had now arrived at a point near the mainland.

The old woman now resorted to drinking up [3] the water of the lake, and as she drew in the water the canoe started back toward her. When they drew near the young man, the son of Dagwanoenyent, seizing a knife, ripped the old woman’s body in two and she died. Then the two turned their canoe around and soon reached the mainland.

They went together to the place where stood the lodge of the young man’s mother, who was an elderly woman of the Dagwanoenyent people. Near the lodge stood a large hollow stump, in which the young man concealed his wife for the time being, and then he alone went to the home of his mother. When he entered the lodge his mother’s pets, some wolves, began to howl. The young man reprimanded them, saying, “Djisʹnen! [Oh, stop it!] you miserable dogs,” and, seizing a club, he struck them several blows, whereupon they fled under the old woman’s couch. The old woman said, “They smell you, verily, for you smell like a human being.” The young man replied, “Oh, pshaw! You know, indeed, that I have been in places where human beings live;” he continued, saying, “I am not certain what your mind would think if I should marry a woman, a person of the human race.” The old woman said, “Aha! Certainly, I suppose. Where is she now?” The young man replied, “Over yonder, a short distance.” Then the old woman said, “It is well. In what place is she?” She went out of doors and her son pointed, saying, “Yonder, in that stump.” Going to the place, the old woman took her daughter-in-law out of the stump, and they two went into the lodge of the Dagwanoenyent woman, and then the wolves began to bark (howl). The young man scolded them, saying, “it is disagreeable. You wretched dogs! you wolves!” Thereupon these domestic animals ceased and went under the bed.

Some time after this the young woman proved to be pregnant, and in the fullness of time she gave birth to male twins. It was not long before the twins were quite large.

Then the old woman, their grandmother, said, “Let there be made for them sticks—lacrosse sticks for playing ball.” This was done and they began to play ball. Again their grandmother said, “Perhaps it is time that there should be made also bows and arrows;” and she added, “Now, you two must continue to shoot at this thing,” and she gave them a raccoon’s foot, taken from the bundle which she kept hidden away. And the two did shoot at it in great glee, and this continued for some time.

Then the old woman, their grandmother, said to them, “Do not ever go toward the north. It will be dangerous for you.” But one of the boys said, “Let us go there.” So they went there. Now in that northern place there stood a very large and tall pine tree; in its top rested the nest of a Dagwanoenyent, who was an old man. As soon as the two boys arrived directly under the nest the old man shouted, “Yeʹʼhe! I have detected you two, my grandchildren.” Then this disobedient little boy in reply said, “So be it. What then shall happen?” Now it is reported that this old Dagwanoenyent answered, “Would you two be willing that it should rain, and that the raindrops should be mixed with spears (darts).” “Certainly,” replied this boy, and immediately he with his twin brother crawled far under a rock lying not far away, where they concealed themselves.

Verily, it did rain and the raindrops were mingled with darts. As soon as this rainstorm ceased each of the boys picked up a spear, and then they started for the home of their grandmother, where they soon arrived. The boy said, “He shall suffer for this.” His grandmother saw the spear or dart that he had. The boy continued, “Tomorrow, he himself in his turn shall suffer for this. I in my turn shall detect this, my grandfather.”

Next morning, when daylight came the boys started. When they had arrived near the tree the boy requested a mole to assist him, and it complied with his request. The two boys entered its body and it carried them unobserved to the place where stood the tree. Then the boy came forth and, leaping up, shouted, “Yeʹʼhe! Grandfather, I have detected you, Yeʹʼhe!” The old man asked, “What shall it be that shall happen?” The boy said in reply, “Would you be willing that it do so (it is hard to tell what you would think about it, should it rain fire).” The old man said, “Ho! Certainly, I can do nothing about it. Come then, so be it.” And the boy shouted, saying, “Let it rain fire,” and at once it began to rain fire.

Then the boy hid himself with his brother under the rock. In a very short time the body of the old man took fire and the dead Dagwanoenyent fell down there. Then the boy and his twin brother went home again to their grandmother. Now the younger of the twins began to relate what had taken place on their journey. He said that his elder brother, the other twin, had killed Dagwanoenyent. The old woman said, “Now he was, indeed, my elder brother”; and she wept and kept saying, “You two have killed my elder brother.”

After a while, as the twins were again going from place to place to play, they saw a cave which seemed to be a lodge. At once one of the boys said to his brother, “Let us enter it.” On going in they were surprised to find a number of persons who were all blind, and in very wretched condition, for indeed they were scarcely alive. The elder twin asked the inmates of the cave, “What great calamity has taken place that you are all blind?” One of them answered, “It is a fact that our eyes have been taken from us by those false women who are making a robe spangled with human eyes, and furthermore Shagowenotha has robbed us of our sister younger than we are.” The elder twin then asked the blind people, “In what direction do the eye-robe-making women live?” His uncle (his mother’s brother) replied, “Directly thither, toward the north.” The boy said, “I shall make the attempt to go to get them.”

So they two, the twins, started. In time they arrived at the lodge of the women who were making a robe of human eyes; and one of the twins said, “I shall go there.” When they reached the place where these women obtained their water, he transformed himself, becoming a very small, young, blue duck. When the youngest of these sisters, the makers of the robe of human eyes, came to draw water she of course saw this pretended duck and chased it around, but failed in her attempt to catch it. Thereupon the water became turbid and she wholly lost sight of the duck. The young water girl started back to the lodge. Having arrived there, she related what she had seen, saying, “Verily, indeed, I think there must be something hidden here (in my body). I do not know what it is that stirs about inside.” The eldest of the sisters asked her, “How long has it been so?” The youngest sister answered, “Just now.” So the eldest sister examined her, and then said, “Indeed, you are pregnant, it would seem.” In a very short time she began to have labor pains, and it became evident that she would give birth to a child. She did give birth to a male child, a fine boy, and all the sisters were pleased.

Then, it is said, the new-born infant began to cry, and to quiet him they showed him various things. They kept this up during the night, so they did not get any sleep. In the early morning all fell asleep from weariness. The infant, however, was covered with the unfinished robe of human eyes. Just as soon as all were asleep the pretended infant quickly rose, and, taking the robe of human eyes, he started away. He soon arrived where he had left his twin brother to await his coming. Then he said, “Come; let us start.”

When they arrived at the place where the lodge of their uncles stood they at once began to put the eyes back into the heads of their owners. Everyone first made a selection from those on the robe of human eyes of the eyes which were his. They were able to put eyes back into the heads of all the blind uncles. Whereupon the latter were able to recognize one another—their nephews and their brother-in-law, the son of Dagwanoenyent, and also their sister.

After this they began to hunt, and they dwelt there together. They were happy and contented. And finally, it is said, they became rabbits.[4]

2. THE CHILD AND HIS UNCLE

Once there was a child who was left alone in a lodge in a forest; he was enjoying himself by playing around the lodge. At last he was surprised to hear what seemed to him the voice of a man, which said: “Is there no tobacco? Is there no tobacco? I should like to smoke again.” Then the child said to himself: “It would seem, indeed, that there is some one around here saying, ‘Tobacco. Give me tobacco, for I want to smoke again.’ Yet I have always thought that I am alone here. In any event, I shall look around from place to place. It seems that there is another story (loft) in this lodge, and that it is from that place that this man is speaking.” But, forgetting his resolution to look for the man, he continued to play until nightfall.

The next morning, while he was again playing around the lodge, he was once more surprised to hear the man saying, “Is there no tobacco? I should like to smoke again.” Then the boy said, “Oh, pshaw! I forgot this thing, but I think that I shall search this place tomorrow to learn what this talking may mean.”

So the next morning he looked around in many places. Finding the loft in the lodge, he climbed up into it, and while he was searching the place he was surprised to find a man lying down who was so lean that he appeared to be merely dried bones covered with skin. The boy said to him, “What is it that you want?” And the skeletonlike man replied, “The only thing I desire is tobacco, for I want to smoke again.” The boy, answering, said, “Where is it that tobacco may be found in abundance?” The man replied: “It is to be found in a certain place which is, beyond measure, one of forbidding difficulties and frightful aspect; and I know that in that place dwell Seven Sisters and an old woman, their mother and tutor. These people are immune from the effects of normal orenda or magic power; and it is these people who have the tobacco.” After a pause he added: “Along the way through which the path thither goes are obstructions of the most appalling character. In the first place, there stands a Tree, a Pine Tree, whose leaves drop on the intruder, piercing his body and causing him to die. Some distance beyond this point are two living things, which are called Osigwaon; that is, two huge Rattlesnakes, which occupy each side of the path, and which bite with deadly effect any intruder. Still farther beyond stands a great rock, through an opening in which passes the path, and there stand two great living things, two Sʻhagodiyoweqgowa, which also have the power to kill any intruder who may succeed in reaching this point. Farther on flows a river, on the other side of which stand two Blue Herons, whose duty it is to give an alarm by loud cries to the Seven Sisters and their mother on the approach of any intruder; and these, on hearing the alarm, issue from their lodge in great fury, carrying their war clubs, with which they quickly dispatch the unwelcome intruder. Still farther on toward the lodge stands a tree, on which hangs the dried skin of a human being, which, on the approach of an intruder, sings, thereby giving the inmates of the lodge warning of the approach of any person whatsoever, and these at once issue from their home, bearing their war clubs, to kill the unwelcome guest.” After a long pause the man of skin and bones continued: “This is the number of the things which have the power to kill persons along the pathway to the place where the tobacco is to be found.” [5]

Then the boy replied: “That is all right, for it will not prevent me from going after the tobacco, and then you shall be able to smoke. At all events, I will go after the tobacco; I will start tomorrow.” Early the next morning he started on his perilous journey toward the place where the tobacco could be found.

In time he arrived at the place where the first obstacle barred his way, the Pine Tree having the magic power (orenda); this he found had been transformed into a hickory tree. After looking at it for some time, he finally rushed past it just as it was, although he boastingly exclaimed, “It shall not fall on me.” And truly when he had got beyond the tree he stopped and found that not a thing had touched him.

Continuing his course, finally he came to the spot where the two Rattlesnakes stood guard over the pathway. Going into the bushes which surrounded the path, to hunt for two chipmunks, he killed two. Returning to the two Rattlesnakes, he gave a chipmunk to each, saying, “You must not in any manner enchant me. I recompense you with these chipmunks for the favor I ask of you.” Seizing the proffered chipmunks, the Rattlesnakes began to swallow them.

Starting onward again in his journey, the boy continued his course until startled by seeing the two Sʻhagodiyoweqgowa standing in the narrow opening of the great rock. Going into the forest, he procured some lichens, which he cut up. Making his way to the place where the two Sʻhagodiyoweqgowa were standing, he said to them, “Do not enchant me; for this favor I will recompense you with this tobacco,” and, casting it to them, they received it, and he passed them and kept on his journey.

He had gone a long distance when he came to the place at which the two Blue Herons were on guard on the farther bank of the river, at the end of the log-crossing. Immediately he went along the river a short distance and then began fishing; soon he took two fish. Returning to the spot where the two Herons were, he said to them, “You must not give the alarm, for I will recompense you with these fish for the favor which I ask of you”; he gave each a fish and then passed on.

Not far from there he came to the tree on which the entire dried skin of a woman hung. For a moment he stood there and then he said, “Come hither, thou mole; I am hungry (wearied).” Then the mole came forth from out of the ground and the boy said to it, “I am entering your body and I want you to go along beneath the surface of the ground and come out directly under the place where that woman’s skin hangs yonder.” So he entered the body of the mole, which went along at once under the surface of the ground. When it reached the place where stood the tree it came out directly under the woman’s skin. Then the boy came out of the body of the mole and, addressing the dried skin of the woman, said, “You must not tell that I am here. Do me this favor and I will recompense you with wampum.” Then he went into the forest and peeled off some slippery elm bark, which he formed into cylinders resembling wampum; placing these in his pouch he returned to the spot where the woman’s dried skin hung. When he arrived there he said to the dried skin, “Now, I am bringing you a wampum belt,” [6] and he attached the belt to the tree beside which she then stood, as he had requested her to descend from her usual position.

Again entering the mole, the boy went to the lodge, into which he went without anyone knowing of his presence; no one of the Seven Sisters nor their Mother knew of his entrance into their lodge. There he found a kettle of hominy seasoned with the flesh of the bear (gannyaʹgwai-geon owa ne shaʹgat), which he began to eat. But he was surprised to hear a voice coming out of the fire say, Odegwiyo hodekhoni. Then the old woman said, “This is certainly provoking: it is perhaps true that Odegwiyo has indeed come into the lodge.” At once she got her war club, with which she furiously struck the burning fire a blow, saying that it was probable Odegwiyo was concealed therein, as the voice issued from the fire. Just then the boy was greatly surprised to hear outside of the lodge the voice of the dried woman’s skin singing, “I have detected (out-eyed) Odegwiyo.”

The old woman shouted to her daughters, “Have courage, my children, and do your duty,” and then she derisively added, “Odegwiyo, you indeed have courage,” signifying her contempt for the orenda, or magic power, of the boy. Her children rushed out of the lodge, each one carrying her war club, and they sought for the boy outside of the lodge, but could find no trace of him. When they had about given up trying to find him, the dried-skin figure of the woman again began to sing, “Verily, I have told a falsehood”; and the old woman answered, “Forsooth, this is discouraging,” and struck the dried skin of the woman a terrible blow. The empty skin flew away, alighting on the top of another and larger tree.

In the meantime the boy got possession of the tobacco and at once went out of the lodge, carrying it in a band which he had around his neck. He had not gone far when the old woman said, “I have been saying this for a long time. Now, Odegwiyo is yonder indeed carrying away the tobacco.” They pursued him for some distance, but as he had outwitted them and had shown them that he possessed as powerful orenda as they had, if not greater, they soon gave up the chase. [Text incomplete.]

3. DJOGEON (DWARF-MAN) AND HIS UNCLE

Djogeon lived in the woods with his uncle. When the boy was old enough to learn, his uncle taught him how to shoot; for this purpose he took him out to hunt. When the uncle grew too old to hunt the nephew then went alone.

About noon one day while following an elk, a woman sitting on a log at the edge of an opening in the forest called to Djogeon, saying, “Come here and rest: I know you are tired.” At first he paid no attention to her, but after she had called to him the third time he went to her and sat by her side. She talked to him, and before he realized it she had his head in her lap and had begun searching therein for vermin.

He soon fell asleep, and when she was satisfied that he was sleeping soundly she put him into a basket which she placed on her back and started off with great speed, traveling until the sun had almost set. Then stopping, she put her basket down and roused the young man, asking him, “Do you know this place?” “Oh, yes,” said he, “my uncle and I used to hunt here. I know the place very well.” They spent the night there.

The next morning she searched again in his head until he fell asleep; then putting him into the basket again, she hurried on as before until late in the afternoon. She stopped at a lake and, putting the basket down, she again awakened the young man, asking him, “Do you know this lake?” “Yes; I have fished here many times with my uncle,” replied the young man. Then, taking out of her basket a canoe no larger than a walnut, she struck it with her hand repeatedly until it became large enough to hold both. Then they both boarded it and paddled across the lake. “We will now go home,” said she. “I have a mother and three sisters; all the latter are married and live in the same lodge. We will go to them,” she declared.

Djogeon and his companion traveled on until they reached her mother’s lodge. When they stood at the door her mother saw the stranger with her daughter and cried out, “Welcome, son-in-law. I am glad you have come.” Djogeon became the young woman’s husband, and they lived happily until one night the old woman had a frightful dream, rolling out of her couch and over the floor to the edge of the fire. Then her son-in-law jumped up and asked his mother-in-law, “What is the matter? Are you dreaming, mother-in-law?” She paid no attention to him but rolled about, muttering to herself. Then he said, “I will make her listen,” and, taking the pestle for pounding corn, he hit her a heavy blow on the head. She started up, saying, “Oh! I have had such a bad dream. I dreamed that my son-in-law would kill the Ganiagwaihegowa.” “Oh,” said he, “I will attend to that in the morning. Now go to sleep, mother-in-law.” The next morning the old woman told her son-in-law he must kill the bear and bring it back quickly. So he sought and killed the bear without much trouble and brought it home.

The next night she dreamed that he must make a great feast for the Dagwanoenyent,[7] and that he must invite them all to a feast and provide so much food that they would not be able to eat it all. The next day he hunted and killed a great many elk, deer, and bear. There was an abundance of food, the lodge being full of meat, and still there was more. Then he went out and called all the Dagwanoenyent to come to a great feast prepared for them to eat their fill. They answered him, all agreeing to be at the feast. Soon they began to appear, one after another; they came in such numbers that the shelves, the floor, and the seats were filled with them. They began to eat, and ate with a terrible appetite. The old woman went around urging them, saying, “Eat, eat your fill. I want all to have plenty to eat in my lodge.” They ate, and the old woman still urged them, hoping that the supply would run short and her son-in-law would be killed. The son-in-law, with his wife, her three sisters, and their husbands went out to have more food brought in case of need. At last the Dagwanoenyent ate until their jaws could move no longer and their tongues refused to stir. They said, “We have had enough. Mother, mother, enough.” When he heard these words the young son-in-law motioned to the walls and roof, saying, “I want the roof and walls of this lodge to become flint.” The old woman and the Dagwanoenyent, seeing that they were caught, flew around in every direction. The old woman begged for mercy. “Mother-in-law, you had no mercy on me, so I will not let you out,” answered Djogeon. Then he said, “I want this house to become red hot.” As it grew hot the Dagwanoenyent flew about with terrible speed, knocking around the walls and making such a noise as had never been heard in the world before. At last all was still in the lodge.

Then the nephew with his wife and her three sisters and their husbands set out for the lodge of Djogeon’s uncle. They went by the road over which he and his wife had come. When they reached the lake it was covered with thin ice, which could barely hold up a small bird. The young man took eight puffballs from an oak tree and, making himself and his friends small, each one entered a ball; and when the eight balls stood side by side on the ice by the edge of the lake, he said, “Let the west wind blow,” and the west wind obeyed, sweeping them over the lake to the other side. Then they came out of the balls and, resuming their natural size, continued their way until they reached the lodge of Djogeon’s uncle.

4. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A GREAT SERPENT

A woman and her only daughter lived together in a fine bark lodge on the outskirts of a village. The daughter was attractive in form and feature, but haughty and proud in her bearing. Many young warriors had made proposals of marriage to her through her mother. Her customary reply was, “That man is not as fine looking and handsome as I want a man to be.” Her mother, however, remonstrated with her often on her too haughty manner and selfish pride, but she disdainfully disregarded her mother’s advice.

One day the mother and daughter started off into the forest to gather wood. When they were far from home darkness came upon them, which was so intense that the mother said to her daughter, “I think we may as well gather bark to make a temporary shelter and wood to make a fire, so that we can remain overnight in this place.” So they constructed a temporary lodge and kindled a cheerful fire, and made the necessary preparations to stay there overnight. After preparing and eating their evening meal they sat down on opposite sides of the fire to rest and converse together.

Suddenly, while the mother was dozing, a man came and stood beside the girl. When she looked up at him she was amazed and charmed by his great beauty of face and form. He wore a wampum sash around his body and a fine headdress with black eagle plumes waving over it. His entire person seemed to shine with paint and oil. Without ceremony he informed the young woman that he had come to marry her and that he would await her answer. Answering him, the young woman said, “I will first tell my mother what you have said, and when I get her reply I will talk to you again.” The strange man stood near the fire while waiting for an answer from the two women.

The young woman told her mother what he had said to her, and her mother answered, “You must do as you yourself like. You have already refused a great many men without good cause, so far as I know. Now, therefore, it is for you to decide what you must do in this case. You must please yourself.” With this equivocal response the girl went back to the man and gave him her mother’s answer, adding, “I have decided to become your wife. You may follow me to my mother”; then she took her seat at his side. When they had been to talk to the mother they returned to the fireside. He seemed to the mother also a very handsome man; so she agreed to the marriage and the two became husband and wife.

Then the young man said to his young wife, “I want you to accompany me to my own lodge tonight.” Then removing the beautiful wampum sash, he gave it to her for her mother, saying, “This shall be a sign for your mother that we are married.” The mother received it and hung it up, for she was much pleased with it. Then the man and his wife started off toward his lodge. As they traveled on the wife could see in the distance a large clearing, at one end of which she saw a lodge which her husband pointed out to her as his. They went into it, and the people within seemed to be delighted to see her; so she sat down in her husband’s seat. They passed that night and the next day together. On the second day the young husband said, “I am going out to hunt.”

He went out. When he closed the door the young woman heard a very strange noise; she did not know what to think of it. Then all became still. In the evening she heard sounds of the same kind. Then the door was flung aside and a tremendous serpent, with his tongue darting from his mouth, entered the lodge and placed his head in the lap of the young woman, asking her to hunt in it for vermin. She found in his head a large number of bloodsuckers, angleworms, and other noisome insects.[8] She killed all she found, whereupon then the serpent slowly withdrew from the lodge and disappeared.