Chapter XXIII: Introduction (13)

Grasping a stone axe he ran out in search of the strange deer. At length he espied it back of the lodge, peering in at his father. Creeping up with stealth the son struck the strange animal a crushing blow between the shoulders, the hatchet sank deep and the forequarters of the deer dropped to the earth without a sound. Quickly snatching the skin he wrapped it around the hind quarters and led them struggling into the lodge.

“Well father here is the deer of which I told you! Let us skin him and see what is inside! Unwrapping the skin he revealed the captive, who, nearly smothered, was too feeble to further resist. Hahyennoweh flung him into a corner and began to ply him with questions. “How many of you are there in the swamp? Why came you to kill my people? Where is your party hidden? What chief sent you? Who is your leader? Are any other tribesmen with you?” These and other questions he asked him. Bidding the captive lead the way Hahyennoweh advanced toward the enemy’s camp and reached it about midnight. He lashed the captive to a tree and stopped his mouth. The sleeping warriors were not aware of danger and never moved as they slept. Lifting high his hatchet Hahyennoweh struck the sleepers. Forty-two times he struck and each time killed an enemy and the captive bound against the tree saw it all. “Ha’´dĕgaiiwio‘!” he exclaimed as the last sleeper was struck and then turning to the terrified man bound to the tree he said “Iīs newa, now you!” He lifted his tomahawk but paused as he was about to strike then lifting it again let it fall with a blow the shook the tree. But it had not touched the man, the blow was not aimed at him, but instead it cut the thongs and set the captive free. “Now go with all your speed and tell your tribe not to send war parties against us again for we have strong medicine and cannot be harmed.” The captive thought so.

That night as the son sat at the fire in the lodge with his father stretching the scalps on hoops he told the story of his great race but not in a boastful way. His great deeds had made it necessary for him to boast no longer, for if he should men would laugh and say, “Hoh, you did better than that once!” So never after did he boast but took a good woman who had asked him to marry her.

In after years he told the story of the race again, that the tribe might not forget it, but his grandchildren were unbelieving. “Show us the spot and the bones and then we will glory in our grandfather,” they said laughing. So, undaunted, the old man whose name was changed to Nia’´gwahēgowa, (Mighty Magical Bear), in recognition of his great race, took his grandchildren on the journey and showed them the place where the beast had fallen. They dug into the soft soil and found the huge bones and the jaw where he had broken out the tusk.

The Indian story teller adds: “White man find bones right where the Nia’´gwahē fell long after, to this day. Put them in big musees, so story real true I guess!”

59. THE BOY AND THE NIA’´GWAHE.

The Five Nations had waged a war with the Snake People who lived in caves (the Cherokee). The Five Nations became exhausted. Both began to see that the cause was not worth such a loss of life, and so a treaty of peace was made. Each party promised to send warriors, women and families to settle with the other, and thus, by mutual adoptions and inter-marriage weave a bond of friendship.

The day arrived for the mutual emigrations, and patiently the Five Nations awaited the coming of their visitors, but none came, nor could news be obtained of their own party. A messenger was dispatched but he never returned. More were sent but, likewise, they never came back to report. At last the chiefs called a council to devise means to get to the land of their former enemies and learn how the party and the messengers had fared. A new messenger was chosen from the bravest of the warriors and a short distance behind a watcher followed. For two days all was well, but on the third the watcher looking ahead on the trail saw the messenger crawling laboriously along. Running toward him he found him wounded, stripped of all clothing and bleeding from tusk wounds and heavy bruises.

Niā’´gwahē!” whispered the man hoarsely, and fell dead.

The runner dashed down the trail crying, “Gowĕ´! Gowĕ´!”

A council was hastily called and the fate of the messenger discussed.

“Agē! So it is Niā’´gwahē who has been destroying our people and not our allies,” said the chief. “Truly now, some one must be found who is able and willing to destroy the evil. A brave one must he be for he will battle with the most powerful of all beast magic. He who grasps this white wampum belt shall be the chosen man and he shall have the belt ‘on his body’.”

The chief circled the council, holding the belt before every man but no one moved or lifted a hand.

“What!” said the chief, “are real men cowards! Has no one a heart and mind and arm strong enough to take this belt!”

Standing in the doorway of the council house was a boy, awkward in figure and uneven of feature. His parents were dead and his home was with his grandparents. He was accounted of a lowly family and as of foolish mind. The chief wished to make a laugh to break the seriousness of the situation and so called out, “Why not try Tedo‘!” The chief did not smile although the entire assembly laughed, but holding the beautiful belt out to the boy said, “Are you Oñgwĕhoweh?”

The boy grasped the belt and threw it over his shoulder.

“Do you know what you have done?” asked the chief solemnly.

The boy nodded his head and clasping the wampum ran from the council to his grandmother’s lodge.

“Oh grandmother!” he cried, “I have taken the belt to kill the nīa’´gwahē, he who blocks trail to our new ‘friend’.”

“What, you!” exclaimed the grandmother. “Why you are nothing but a ragged simpleton!”

“Well hurry then, and prepare my owĭs´hä,” said the boy, “for I am to kill nīa’´gwahē and need food for my journey.”

The old woman pounded the parched corn and mixed it with maple sugar.

“Now be off,” she said, “you and your dog!”

The boy started down the path talking to his dog. “I will not yield, I will demand yielding,” he said. “I will not be pursued, I will pursue, I will not see failure, I will succeed.”

For two days he journeyed down the trail that led to the allies’ country. At dawn on the third day there was a wild trampling in the forest and from the thicket rushed the nī’´gwahē. The dog rushed forward with a yelp but the great beast merely opened his jaws and drew in a breath and with it the dog flew down his throat.

Picking up a stump, the boy dashed forward, yelling, “I am after you, you cannot escape me!”

Now it happens that these words are the very ones used by a nīa’´gwahē when it pursues its prey, and such a charm have these words, that, as the beast repeats them, animals and men become weak and fall down as victims of the creature’s cunning. When this nīa’´gwahē heard its own cry flung back in its face, it was surprised. Its own words were turned into its own ears. Then the great beast turned and fled.

“Ha, ha!” laughed the boy, “you cannot escape me!”

All day the nīa’´gwahē fled from the boy who pursued it crying shriller and sharper, “I am after you, you cannot escape me!”

The sun began to set and the boy sat down on a log to eat his owĭs´hä with a little water, but when he opened his pouch he found his food a mass of wriggling maggots.

“Agē!” he exclaimed, “this does not discourage me,” and leaping from his seat, he took up the chase again, following closely upon the heels of the nīa’´gwahē. “Oho’!” he cried, “You are the one for whom I am looking! Very soon I will kill you.”

The sun went under the hills and the black night came.

“Agē, I am tired now, nīa’´gwahē, and must rest,” he said, “but I will kill you as soon as I get time.”

The beast trembled and ran on a short distance in the vain hope of escape but returning put his nose to the boy’s ear.

“Kwē!” he whispered, “Are you asleep?”

“No, not yet,” replied the boy with a yawn.

“Well then,” continued the beast, “I wish to tell you that I know I am defeated, but oh spare me, I beg of you, spare me! Have mercy and do not kill and I will flee from the land of men and hide in the icy north, never more to disturb or devour men.”

“Ho ho! this is your trick,” laughed the boy, with a sneer. “No mercy for you, you deserve only death. Hold up your foot and show me the spot!”

“Oh no, no, no,” begged the nīa’´gwahē plaintively. “Let me live and as a pledge of my truthfulness I will give you my teeth.”

The boy debated with himself and then asked, “What profit are teeth?”

“My teeth are my magic,” answered the creature, “and my magic is his who holds my teeth.”

“Well now,” said the boy slowly, “if your teeth will bring fortune to men I will accept them, but if ever you visit again the haunts of men, remember that I am the mightiest of wizards!”

With many groans the beast shed his teeth, crying, “All my magic strength and power are his who holds these teeth.”

The boy threw them in his pouch and bade the monster depart forever. The boy rested for some time and then ran with all speed to the land of the allies. He called a council and told his story.

“We thought your nation had destroyed our people whom we sent to you,” said the chief of the allies at the close of the boy’s speech.

“We also thought the same of you,” answered the boy.

The boy departed for his own village and held a great council, telling all he had seen, heard and done. The people were astonished beyond measure and cried, “Oh, tell us how you became powerful! What are your charm medicines?”

“This,” said the boy, “I grasped the white belt, I went and would not be pursued, neither would I fear.”

“But all thought you a fool,” said the people.

“Perhaps I am,” answered the boy, “if silence and observation mean I am only dull. But I only thought I would hold my mouth until my ears filled up.”

Then all the people shouted and called him a great chief.

Thus were the nations saved, so was the trail established and so was the nīa’´gwahē slain.

Now this is true and medicine men (Hotci´no’gä) have the teeth to this day and use them for magic.

X.
TRADITIONS

EMILY TALLCHIEF.

An informant on traditions and a leader among the Christian Seneca.
Mrs. Tallchief was the great grand-daughter of the famous Chief
Cornplanter. She was a member of the Wolf Clan.

_Photo by E. C. Winnegar._
]

SENECA BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT.

It will be remembered that one of the first major tests of the authority of the State of New York over the Seneca Indians occurred in 1821 when Thomas Jemmy, a Buffalo Creek Indian, was indicted in a state court for the murder of a witch. Jemmy had been chosen executioner of the witch, after the order of tribal law, but his action aroused the attention of the neighboring whites who took court action against him.

Jemmy was defended by Red Jacket whose speech in defense of the accused man is a classic of Indian oratory. The trial resulted in the claim that state courts had no jurisdiction over the internal affairs of Indian tribes, and Jemmy was acquitted.

This incident serves to call attention to the very general belief of the Seneca Indians in witchcraft. Indeed not only did the Indians believe in it, but many of the neighboring whites. There are many white rural communities today where belief in witches is current, and one has only to visit the rural settlements about Reading, Pa., or read the accounts of investigations reported in the _Journal of American Folk Lore_, to find how prevalent among the whites of today is the belief in witches.

Red Jacket was somewhat familiar with history. In his defense he said, “Go to Salem, and there find a record of hundreds persecuted and scores slain for the same crime that has brought down the arm of vengeance upon the (guilty) woman.... What crime has this man committed more than the rulers of your own people, in carrying out in a summary way the laws of his people and your people, and the laws of his God and your God...?”

This belief in witches and sorcerers has not been entirely eradicated among the state Indians to this day. All the older Indians have witch stories to tell, and some of them have had personal experience with witchcraft. It is not considered good form to talk about witches, for if one reveals too much knowledge he is apt, himself, to be accused of the evil art. It matters not whether the Indian is a christian or non-christian as far as witchcraft is concerned. Both christians and followers of Handsome Lake express a belief in it.

It is customary for the Indians to call all manner of sorcerers, “witches.” Both sexes are implied, and it is to be doubted that an Indian would recognize the term wizard, though for the sake of consistent English I have employed the term throughout this work. To the Seneca all “otgont” charm holders are witches and capable of witchcraft. An Indian will seldom mention anything about witches to white people for fear of ridicule, but they admit that some white people know much about the sinister art. The Tonawanda Indians, for example, know of a white doctor who is capable of diagnosing the symptoms of witch poisoning, and he has a great reputation for curing bewitched patients.

An understanding of the Seneca belief in witchcraft is essential for an understanding of Seneca folk-lore, and not only folk-lore but the psychology of the group.

Certainly, all through the folk-lore of the Seneca, one will find a steady belief in the ability of “powered” persons to transform themselves into any sort of creature desired, particularly the form of some chosen animal. One of the most common methods is to have a collection of animal pelts into which the person may enter and assume the character of the beast, but retaining human intelligence. Most frequently in modern times the witch is reputed to be able to become an owl, a dog or a big snake.

To guard against witches many Indians buy witch powder from witch doctors. By using this properly the witch is kept away from the person and his household.

In case of uncertainty the witch doctor goes into a trance and prescribes the proper remedy. Sometimes a person is bewitched by a spirit or by a charm that he has failed to pacify. The charm then causes bad dreams, wounds, broken bones and even death in the family unless satisfied by the proper ceremony.

60. CONTENTS OF A CHARM HOLDER’S BUNDLE.

Edward Cornplanter stated that a complete bundle of charms (godä’ĕsniyus´ta’kwa), should contain the following articles: (a) Scales of the great horned serpent or some of its blood; (b) round white stone given possessor by a pygmy; (c) claws of the death panther or fire beast; (d) feathers of dewat´yowais, or exploding bird; (e) castor of white beaver; (f) otnä´yont, or sharp bone; (g) gane´ont-wŭt, or corn bug; (h) small mummified hand; (i) hair of dagwanoeient, or flying head of the wind; (j) bones or bone powder of the Nigä’´wahē or monster bear; (k) small flute or whistle from an eagles’ wing bone; (1) anti-witch powder; (m) bag of sacred tobacco; (n) claws or teeth of various wild animals; (o) a small mortar and pestle; (p) a small war club; (q) a small bow and arrow; (r) miniature bowls and spoons of wood; (s) a small wooden doll; (t) clairvoyant eye oil. These objects are called otcină‘ke^n’´dă’.

Individuals also had other charms, as different kinds of stones or wooden tablets that they scraped into a powder as “medicine.”

By consulting his bundle a charm holder could tell how to overcome a sorcerer’s influence, or determine what spirit had been offended and needed propitiation.

Each bundle was “sung for” in an appropriate ceremony of the charm holders’ society.

61. CONTENTS OF A WITCH BUNDLE.[53]

In a witch bundle found in an abandoned house of an old witch, the following articles were found:

1 bundle containing miniature weapons and utensils.

1 bundle containing dolls made of some soft brown wood.

1 package of small sacks from animal hearts.

1 ball of fine cord or thread.

1 box of dried snake blood.

1 bottle of eye oil.

1 package of hair of different shades.

1 bundle containing packages of various powders.

1 box containing a collection of various greases.

1 package containing smaller parcels of nail parings.

1 package of many wrappings containing a smaller inner package, with wet blood, and containing a small sharp bone.

1 dried human finger.

Collection of snake skins.

The witch is also reputed to have had a black calf skin, and a big dog skin. She was capable of transforming herself and much of the time lived in a small round pond as the wife of a monster black snake. When she finally died and was buried a witch light, gahai‘´, was seen over the pond.

62. OVERCOMING A WITCH.[54]

A strong man began to feel sick and could not tell what troubled him. He took all kinds of medicine and went to three doctors but he grew steadily worse. After a while he could work no more and went to the home of a friend for help. His friend told him to stay with him until he recovered.

He was given a room on the far side of the house and as it had only one window it could be easily darkened. He was very weak and could eat only one meal a day. This caused him to stay in bed most of the time. After a while his friend said: “I am going to go to Newtown after a witch doctor who has just come from Tonawanda.” So he went after the witch doctor.

The witch doctor made a poultice and placed it on the sick man’s abdomen. He covered the poultice with rags and moss. The poultice was very hot and appeared to be drawing something out of the patient. Pretty soon, the witch doctor yelled, “Now is the time,” and grabbed the poultice and ran to the kitchen stove where he threw the contents of the poultice into the ash pan. Then he stirred into the poultice and pulled out a small sharp bone with a white hair wound around it.

Everybody examined the bone, and finally the witch doctor said, “It is my opinion that Widow — is bewitching you.”

“Why, she calls here every day to see how he is,” said the woman of the house.

The witch doctor told her to watch for the witch and notice what she did when she came next time. The sick man did not sleep that night but covered his face and began to talk to himself. He was now becoming a “witch” himself. In his hand he held the witch bone with the hair around it.

The next morning an old woman left her cabin on a hill and started down into the valley and up another hill to visit the sick man. Suddenly he began to talk. “Here she comes,” he said. “She is now leaving her house. Now she is down by the well. Now she is on the road. Now she is crossing the bridge. Now she is at the gate. Now she is walking up the path. Now she is by the apple tree. Now she is at the door.” As he said this there was a rap-rap-rap outside and the housewife opened the door, and there stood the old woman.

The old woman looked worried. “I couldn’t sleep last night,” she said. “I worried too much about Bill, besides I think I have lost something.” Then she went in to see the sick man. He had his head covered but yelled out, “You’re the one; you leave me alone after this or I will kill you.”

The old woman pretended she didn’t know what he was talking about and soon went out.

That night the sick man talked to the bone. He wound one of his own hairs about it and then threw it at the wall, saying, “You go back to her and stick in her heart.”

Everybody in the house heard the bone fly through the wall, for it went “ping!” Then the sick man went to sleep.

The next morning the old witch didn’t come so the people went to her house and it was locked. Someone climbed in a window and found her dead in bed. They turned back the quilts and found the sharp bone driven into her heart. Nobody felt sorry but said, “It served her right; she had no business witching people.”

63. THE SCORNED WITCH WOMAN.[55]

There was a beautiful young woman, the daughter of a witch. When the old witch died her husband wanted to burn up her bundles of witch poisons, because he was a Christian, but the beautiful daughter said, “Father, let us keep this bundle; you never can tell what might happen if we should destroy it.” So she hid the bundle.

Now, there was a handsome young fellow living in the neighborhood and he came to the house once or twice to see her father. The young woman determined to get this young man so she made witch medicine and put it in his cider when he visited the house the next time. It was night and when the young man went out to go home she went out the back door and followed him. Pretty soon she coughed and he looked around. Then she called him and he asked her what she wanted. She asked him to sit down on a log by the road. They stayed there quite a while. After a while the girl said, “Why don’t we two get married?” The young fellow replied, “What is the use?” Then he went home.

Now he had just secretly married another girl from Cold Spring and he went to her house. Pretty soon she said, “You have been somewhere. You have been visiting some other woman.” She then scolded him.

He felt very bad for he loved his bride, but he felt that he could not help having made the mistake of calling on the man who was his friend. He never thought about the girl because he did not like her. He therefore made up his mind that he had been witched.

He felt very bad the next day and wanted some more cider, but the man who had it lived a long way past his friend’s house. Nevertheless he tried to go past the house to the one further on, but all the while he felt something pulling him back. In a moment he yielded and returned to the house, where the beautiful young woman let him in at the back door. He drank some cider, and called for more. This was the young woman’s chance and she put in a double portion of love powder. His mind changed quickly and he began to sing love songs. After a while the girl said to her father, “We two are going to get married.” The father didn’t know what to say. He should have been glad, because the young fellow helped him draw wood in winter. But he had heard that his friend had another woman. He therefore said nothing, but looked worried.

After a while the young man went out again and as before the young woman followed him and they sat down on the same log as the previous night. It was dark and the girl kissed him and held onto him. After a while he said, “I am going home, I really don’t love you. I am married to Fidelia.”

At this the young girl became very angry and said, “You had better leave her and come to live with me. If you don’t I will bewitch you and make you sorry.”

“How can you witch me?” asked the young fellow.

“I never will tell you,” said she, “but I will make you so sorry that you will wish you were dead.”

The young fellow then left her and went home to his own wife. As before she scolded him roundly and accused him of unfaithfulness, but he said nothing. He was a good provider and worked hard.

In a few days the young fellow began to be sick. He had sharp pains all over his body. He kept at work, however, and though he was tempted to visit his friend and get cider he kept away. Day by day he grew weaker and at night it seemed as if some one were scraping his body. Each day he grew thinner until he could work no more.

After thinking over the matter he decided to call in a witch doctor. This he did and the doctor advised him to visit a certain swamp near the creek and watch from across the water what was happening. That night he went down the hill and crouched back of a dead tree, at the same time keeping a sharp eye on the swamp across the stream. It was moonlight and he could observe everything in detail, for the stream was not wide. Soon he saw something swinging in the wind near an elm tree. He looked more closely and saw that it was a large bark doll suspended by a long string. Soon the moon shone full upon it and as he looked he saw the beautiful young witch woman come through the grass. She paused beneath the tree and saluted the doll, calling it by the young fellow’s name. She took out a knife and began to scrape it, to reduce its size, and as she did this the young fellow began to feel a sinking feeling as if he were shriveling up. The girl kept talking and laughing at the doll, saying, “You are tied up now. Well when the string rots you will fall and die. Meanwhile I will scrape you and eat your body.” Then when she had said this, she took out some sharp thorns and stuck them in different parts of the doll, and the young man yelled right out it hurt him so. Thereupon the young woman laughed and said, “Aha, I can hear you groan way here.”

After this the young fellow went home and was sick all night. The next day he resolved to do what the witch doctor had told him, but he was as yet too weak to perform the ceremony. As he lay thinking about his misfortune he heard a footfall outside and then a rap. His wife went to the door and there stood the young woman. “I have brought him some nice soup,” she said. “I hear he is very sick.”

She entered and went over to the young fellow. He hid his face and said, “Go away, I know what you are doing to me. You have poisoned me. I am sending for a crow today.”

The girl laughed and said, “What are you sending for a crow for?”

“You will soon find out,” he said.

That afternoon the witch doctor came and asked, “Well has she been here? If she has I can go ahead with the plan; I have brought the crow.”

So the young fellow took the crow and cut out its heart at the same time saying, “I bestow upon you the name of ——,” the name of the young woman.

The witch doctor and he then went into the back shed and made a model of a kettle-hanging frame. They put it on the dirt floor of the shed and then put a long splinter through the heart. They lighted another splinter and passed it under the heart several times, scorching it.

The next day the young woman came to the house again. This time she was crying very hard. She came in and said, “Now look what you did to me.” She opened her waist and showed her breast. It was burned and blistered.

The young fellow then said, “You let me alone and quit witching me or I will burn your heart right out of you. You made me do wrong. I’ve got a good woman.”

Then the young woman said, “I’ll quit; you are too strong for me.” After that the young fellow got well.

After that the young woman never witched anybody, but was a good friend to the young fellow’s wife and took care of her babies.

64. CATCHING A WITCH BUNDLE.[56]

One night three men came to the house of a man named William and asked him to go with them to a place on the Four-mile Level. It seemed that a man by the name of Jesse —— had been having very bad luck and had lost one child after another by some strange disease. William was reminded of this and asked by one of the men, a Tonawanda witch doctor, to assist in the hunt for the mysterious source of death. He consented and went along with the party.

Reaching the desired spot the witch doctor took a forked stick and held it by the long forked ends, one in either hand. He walked forward and when he pointed the stick in a certain direction the stick would glow. He kept following the glow until he reached an old stump way in the heart of the bush lot. The three men followed him silently. When he touched the stump the forked stick seemed on fire and bent down and touched the ground between two roots. “This is where we must dig,” said the witch doctor.

One of the men carried a spade and dug as directed. Very soon he struck a stone, after which the witch doctor assumed charge of the digging. A lantern was lighted and as the earth was scraped away the investigators found a cubical slate box with a cover over it, made from thick slabs from the creek bottom. The witch doctor lifted the cover and looked in. “It is there,” he whispered, placing some white powder on the top of the box.

The party now went back to Jesse’s house and dug a hole at the corner of the woodshed. In this the witch doctor placed a five-gallon crock. Over this he placed a large piece of silk, weighted at the corners so that it stretched taut, like a drumhead over the mouth of the crock. He then made a little fire and cast medicine powder into it, at the same time talking and commanding the witch bundle to come from its slate box through the air into the crock. After a while there was a ball of fire flying through the air and it came down and went through the silk without burning it.

“Now we have it,” said the witch doctor. “We can open it now.” So they opened it and found a bundle of rags all saturated with fresh human blood. In the middle of the bundle they found a sharp bone called otnä´yont, and it was red with blood. It was the bone that had been drinking the blood of Jesse’s children. The witch doctor then took the bone and took care of it. After that there was no more sickness and the last child got well. It seems that these sharp bones must be taken care of and if neglected they will eat the blood of children until some one finds the bundle and takes care of it.

65. WITCH WITH A DOG TRANSFORMATION.[57]

A sick woman with a wasting disease noticed that every night something would peek in her window. Her husband could find no evidence of this until one night after a snow storm he found the tracks of a large dog outside the window. Following the tracks to the road he saw that they became human footprints and were lost in the other tracks at the side of the road.

The next morning among the friends that called upon the sick woman was an old lady who lived near the creek in a small house. She was a widow and lived alone. This old lady asked about the sick woman in such a peculiar manner that the husband grew suspicious. After the old woman left the sick woman began to feel much worse.

That night she screamed, “She is looking at me!” And the husband going outside saw as before dog tracks running down to the road. He watched and soon some men came by and he asked them if they had seen a large dog. The men said they had; one had just ran down the road toward the creek. Morning came and the husband determined to investigate further. He crossed the road and walked down the other side until he came to the Esther —— place. He noticed that a large dog had run along the fence and had leaped over it. On the other side there were human footprints going to the house.

Morning came and the old woman called again inquiring about the health of the sick woman. This time the husband said, “If you don’t stop witching my wife I will fix you.” The old lady asked him what he meant and said that she was not a witch.

The husband then resolved to watch in the woodshed all night, if need be, and to catch the dog looking into the window. He got some blankets to keep himself warm and waited with his rifle. After a while he heard a sniffing sound and presently heard something walking around the house. Cautiously he looked out and saw the dog with its paws on the window-sill of his wife’s room. Fire was coming out of the dog’s eyes. The husband now ran out and chased the dog which ran down the road. There were many people on the road, for it was moonlight and it was sleighing time. They saw him chasing the dog. It ran to the fence and jumped over. As it poised in mid air over the fence the man fired his gun. There was a yelp and the people saw something shoot through the air and jump into the window of the cabin. The people watched this and looked over the fence but there was no mark or track on the snow, except some dog hair. Three days later the people went to the house and found the old woman dead on her bed with a bullet in her heart. There was dog hair on the window where she had dived through. It was sure then that she had been a witch. The sick woman recovered.

66. WITCH STEALS CHILDREN’S HEARTS.[58]

There was an old woman who always helped with children’s funerals, and would sit up all night while the tired parents slept. She would lock the door and stay with the dead children. Everybody thought she was a nice old woman until one time a woman walking by her house saw a witch light fly out of her chimney and go into the graveyard. “Hoh,” she said to herself, “I guess old lady E—— must be a witch.”

Soon thereafter another child died and the old lady came as usual to help with the funeral. That night she sat up with the corpse but this time the woman who had suspected the old lady told her husband Gus to watch her through a window.

Gus found a place outside where he could see into the room. At midnight the old lady took a knife and cut the heart out of the child and then ran out of the house while everybody else slept. She went to her own house and shortly turned into a ball of fire and flew out of the chimney. The light went to an old cemetery where there were many sunken graves. Gus followed, though he was frightened. He saw the old woman put something into a hole in a grave hollow and say, “There, I have got you another. Now you are my friend and will have to show me where I can get money.”

Soon the light soared overhead again and went back into the old lady’s chimney.

The next morning Gus went to the father of the dead child and told him what he had heard and seen. The father was very mad but after examining the child could find no marks where the heart had been taken out. The old witch had healed the cut. So then they went to the cemetery and found the grave. Digging down where they saw the hole they came to a corpse and it was all covered with blood and had a child’s heart in its mouth, gnawing at it. The men poured kerosene from a lantern in the hole and set it afire. Then they went to the old lady’s house and found bloody rags on the table, but she was not there having gone back to the house for the funeral. The father of the dead child then ran home and found the old lady there.

“You are an old witch,” he stormed. “Now I know why you have been going to children’s funerals. You must confess now or I will kill you.” He grabbed her by the hair and swung her around. She burst out crying and said, “Yes, I now confess. I took children’s hearts to give to my friend. This friend gives me luck and I would starve without her.”

“You go home and quit this business,” said the father.

The old lady went home and after the child was buried the family called in a witch doctor and they made a charm against the witch woman, and soon she died.

67. HOTCIWAHO. (HAMMER IN HIS BELT.)

This was near a river. There lived Hotciwaho an old man. His house was apart from all others and his grandson lived with him. Now this Hotciwaho wore women’s clothes and beneath his skirt he wore a hammer (mallet), and he would hide by the springs back of the rocks and kill children when they came for water. He would strike them on their heads when they stooped over to dip. Their bodies would be found at the spring by the people who after a time found so many that they thought some subtle poison must haunt the places where they drew their water. Now this Hotciwaho would always go to the house where they were mourning over the death of the child and he would weep. Now the people never saw the tears fall from his eyes but they were always wet when he moaned over the child and said, “Hagiă’´!” He did not truly cry but before entering wiped his saliva over his cheeks and eyes so as to appear grieving. This was his trick.

Now why did he kill people? He was lazy and loved good food. Now at funerals the bereaved always provided a feast and afterwards the death feast and the mourners could take away a portion of the soup, bread and cakes. This is why he killed children. He wanted the food.

Now such a man when he does a wrong many times thinks it no offence. The grandson thought this all wrong and being afraid that he too would be killed stole his grandfather’s hammer and struck him a blow on the head and killed him. So he died in the same way.

68. HOW AMERICA WAS DISCOVERED.

HANDSOME LAKE’S STORY.

According to Chief Cornplanter, Handsome Lake taught that America was discovered in the manner here related.

A great queen had among her servants a young minister. Upon a certain occasion she requested him to dust some books that she had hidden in an old chest. Now when the young man reached the bottom of the chest he found a wonderful book which he opened and read. It told that the white men had killed the son of the Creator and it said, moreover, that he had promised to return in three days and then again forty but that he never did. All his followers then began to despair but some said, “He surely will come again some time.” When the young preacher read this book he was worried because he had discovered that he had been deceived and that his Lord was not on earth and had not returned when he promised. So he went to some of the chief preachers and asked them about the matter and they answered that he had better seek the Lord himself and find if he were not on the earth now. So he prepared to find the Lord and the next day when he looked out into the river he saw a beautiful island and marveled that he had never noticed it before. As he continued to look he saw a castle built of gold in the midst of the island and he marveled that he had not seen the castle before. Then he thought that so beautiful a palace on so beautiful an isle must surely be the abode of the son of the Creator. Immediately he went to the wise men and told them what he had seen and they wondered greatly and answered that it must indeed be the house of the Lord. So together they went to the river and when they came to it they found that it was spanned by a bridge of gold. Then one of the preachers fell down and prayed a long time and arising to cross the bridge turned back because he was afraid to meet his Lord. Then the other crossed the bridge and knelt down upon the grass and prayed but he became afraid to go near the house. So the young man went boldly over to attend to the business at hand and walking up to the door knocked. A handsome man welcomed him into a room and bade him be of ease. “I wanted you,” he said. “You are bright young man; those old fools will not suit me for they would be afraid to listen to me. Listen to me, young man, and you will be rich. Across the ocean there is a great country of which you have never heard. The people there are virtuous, they have no evil habits or appetites but are honest and single-minded. A great reward is yours if you enter into my plans and carry them out. Here are five things. Carry them over to the people across the ocean and never shall you want for wealth, position or power. Take these cards, this money, this fiddle, this whiskey and this blood corruption and give them all to the people across the water. The cards will make them gamble away their goods and idle away their time, the money will make them dishonest and covetous, the fiddle will make them dance with women and their lower natures will command them, the whiskey will excite their minds to evil doing and turn their minds, and the blood corruption will eat their strength and rot their bones.”

The young man thought this a good bargain and promised to do as the man had commanded him. He left the palace and when he had stepped over the bridge it was gone, likewise the golden palace and also the island. Now he wondered if he had seen the Lord but he did not tell the great ministers of his bargain because they might try to forstall him. So he looked about and at length found Columbus to whom he told the whole story. So Columbus fitted out some boats and sailed out into the ocean to find the land on the other side. When he had sailed for many days on the water the sailors said that unless Columbus turned about and went home they would behead him but he asked for another day and on that day land was seen and that land was America. Then they turned around and going back reported what they had discovered. Soon a great flock of ships came over the ocean and white men came swarming into the country bringing with them cards, money, fiddles, whiskey and blood corruption.

Now the man who had appeared in the gold palace was the devil and when afterward he saw what his words had done he said that he had made a great mistake and even he lamented that his evil had been so enormous.

69. ORIGIN OF THE CHARM HOLDERS’ MEDICINE SOCIETY.[59]

There was in old times a young chief who was a hunter of great cunning, but though he killed many animals he never took advantage of their positions. He never shot a swimming deer or a doe with a fawn, he never killed an animal fatigued by a long run nor took one unawares. Before the hunt he always threw tobacco and made a ceremony to ask permission to kill game. Nor was he ever ungrateful to the animals of the woods who had been his friends for so many years. The flesh that was useless he left for the wolves and birds, calling to them as he left it: “Come, my friends, I have made a feast for you.” Likewise when he took honey from a tree he left a portion for the bears and when he had his corn harvested he left open ears in the field for the crows, that they might not steal the corn sprouts at the next planting. He fed the fish and water animals with entrails and offal. No ruthless hunter was he but thoughtful. He threw tobacco for the animals in the woods and water and made incense for them with the oyeñkwaoñ´we‘, the sacred tobacco, and “threw it” even for the trees. He was a well loved chief for he remembered his friends and gave them meat. All the animals were his friends and all his people were loyal to him. All this was because he was good and he was known as the “protector of the birds and beasts.” So he was called. It is supposed that his own name was His-hand-is-red.

The southwest country is a land of mysteries. There are many unknown things in the mountains there and also in the waters. The wildest people have always lived there and some were very wise and made different things. When, many years ago, the Oñgwe´ hoñwe‘, (Iroquois) began to make excursions to this distant country they encountered many nations that were friendly and more that were hostile. The Iroquois used to like to go in this country for there they learned new things and found new plants and new kinds of corn and beans and when they would fight and destroy a tribe they would carry away curiously-made things and some captives back to their own country.

THE RESTORATION OF RED HAND.

In this drawing the animals whom Red Hand had befriended are shown
anxiously awaiting his revivification by use of the sacrificial
medicine made from the “life sparks” of their companions. The Bear
is shown raising him to his feet.
]

While one of these exploring parties was in the far southwest looking for war and new things, a band of very savage people attacked them. The young chief, the friend of the animals, was with the party, and, being separated from the rest of his party, was struck down by a tomahawk blow. The enemy cut a circle around his scalp-lock and tore it off. He could not fight strong because he was tired and very hungry from the long journey, so he was killed. The enemy knew him because he had been a brave fighter and killed a good many of their people in former battles so they were glad when they killed him and prized his scalp. Now he lay dead in a thicket and none of his warriors knew where he was but the enemy showed them his scalp. So they knew that he was dead but they did not kill all the Iroquois.

Black night came and alone upon the red and yellow leaves the chief lay dead and his blood was clotted upon the leaves where it had spilled. The night birds scented the blood and hovered over the body, the owl and the whippoorwill flew above it and O‘sh‘ă´dă’geă’, the Dew Eagle, swooped down from the regions over the clouds. “He seems to be a friend,” they said, “who can this man be?” A wolf sniffed the air and thought he smelled food. Skulking through the trees he came upon the body, dead and scalped. His nose was upon the clotted blood and he liked blood. Then he looked into the face of the dead man and leapt back with a long yelping howl,—the dead man was the friend of the wolves and the animals and birds. His howl was a signal call and brought all the animals of the big woods and the birds dropped down around him. All the medicine animals came,—the bear, the deer, the fox, the beaver, the otter, the turtle and the big horned deer (moose). Now the birds around him were the owl, the whippoorwill, the crow, the buzzard, the swift hawk, the eagle, the snipe, the white heron and also the great chief of all birds, Oshadahgeah, who is the eagle who flies in the world of our Creator above the clouds. These are all the great medicine people and they came in council about their killed friend. Then they said, “He must not be lost to us. We must restore him to life again.” Then a bird said, “He is our friend, he always fed us. We cannot allow our friend to die. We must restore him.” Then the Wolf came up to the body and said, “Here is our friend, he always gave us food in time of famine. We called him our father, now we are orphans. It is our duty to give him life again. Let each one of us look in our medicine packets and take out the most potent ingredient. Then let us compound a medicine and give it.” Then the Owl said, “A living man must have a scalp.”