1. Son of the Whirlwind. This “Son” married a daughter of man, showing the belief that the sons of the gods marry the daughters of men. The Being represents the evil side of the Whirlwind, while Sʻhagodiyowe represents the beneficent side.
2. An exclamation of contempt.
3. A device of cannibalistic personages in myth tales. Compare story of Sʻhagowenotʻha, p. 705.
4. It is plain that this story is made up of incidents common to several other stories; for example, the reference to the robe of eyes, and this metamorphosis into animals.
5. These guardians of the pathway to the Lodge of the Seven Sisters also appear in other recitals; for example, in those describing the alleged journey of the human soul to the Land of Souls. These obstacles are, first, the Pine or other variety of tree having leaves or thorn-like points charged with deadly venom; second, the two Rattlesnakes or other monsters; third, the two Sʻhagodiyoweqgowa or Benign Wind Gods (erroneously introduced in this category of malign creatures); fourth, the two Blue Herons; and fifth, the inflated entire skin of a human being, usually placed on a platform, to watch for strangers. These wonder animals, creatures of fear and ignorance, bar the way to some goal—to success—and test the spirit of him who seeks to attain some desired end.
6. The reference to the wampum belt is in all probability a modern touch, since there is no available evidence that wampum belts are prehistoric.
7. The race of Whirlwind Man-Beings.
8. In the older time it was a common belief that these vermin were always found in the medicine pouch or chest of a sorcerer.
9. It is alleged that this was a characteristic device of witches and wizards for the purpose of rendering themselves immune from death; sometimes they were concealed under a pet duck’s wing.
10. It was a common Seneca and Iroquoian belief that the Thunder Man and his sons fed on the flesh of serpents.
11. The Skunk.
12. The Porcupine.
13. The Buffalo.
14. The Rattlesnake.
15. Black Face, a descriptive epithet in mythic lore applied to the rattlesnake.
16. The public assembly lodge, or lodge of public meetings or councils. In the literature relating to the Iroquois, the word “long-house” generally designates this lodge. It never denoted the League or Federation.
17. A dwarf man or pigmy.
18. The Great Mythic Bear Monster.
19. The Wind Man-Being.
19a. The expression, “one rib,” is intended to signify that there was only a single rib on each side, broad enough to occupy the space usually filled by the ordinary number of ribs in an animal body, in the carcass of this mysterious being. The same statement is also made of the Ganiagwaiʻhegōwa, the Monster Bear.
19b. This sentence is a very clear statement of the native Seneca belief that the life of the animal world is something different from the body of the flesh [792]and blood and bones. The same belief is expressed in other stories, especially in that of the child adopted by the Bear Mother.
20. The Great Crow, or the Man-Being Crow.
21. The Follower (?).
22. “Stone Skin,” commonly called Stone Coat. Cf. characterization of the stories in the Introduction.
23. Her magic power or potency.
24. This peculiar finger appears in most stories concerning the so-called Stone Coats, Stone Giants, or Stone Skinned Beings.
24a. This is paralleled by the story in the Odyssey about the skins of the cows of the Sun-god becoming alive. These had been killed by the sailors of Odysseus, although he had forbade such an act.
25. This is also a Tuscarora story.
26. Blackbird, or the Man-Being Blackbird.
27. The Robin, or the Man-Being of that name.
28. The Sparrow.
29. This is in modern usage the Iroquoian name of the Christian devil; it means “dweller in the soil,” i.e., under the surface of the ground.
30. Grasshopper.
31. A similar stratagem is employed in No. 10. Others appear in this story.
32. This is the native Iroquoian name of the Meteor or Firedragon and the Man-Being of this name; it signifies the traveling torch or light.
33. She who deceives as a habit.
34. She who thrusts into apertures.
35. Literally, The Shingled-Haired Female.
36. This alleged feat of disgorging quantities of wampum was one essayed by all budding sorcerers while spending their honeymoons in the lodges of their parents-in-law. Failure to do this task inevitably stamped the luckless pretender as a fraud and weakling, in so far as the arts of the wizard are concerned.
37. The living and inflated human skin, flayed entire, serving as a guardian or watchman for its owners and the strawberry patch, appears in a number of other recitals. In this story such a skin of a man bears the name Hadjoqda.
38. The circumstances mentioned in this statement are not peculiar to this story; with a change of names they appear in other stories. In this paragraph, cannibalism is described as a habit of certain wizards. Human flesh is preferred to that of elk, which are here a pest.
39. This is the literal meaning of the Seneca term. The original personage was probably the Wolf Man-Being. But the hero and Hadjoqda and the grandmother were Turkey people, while the others were Quail and Partridge people.
40. Tradition relates that Hatʻhondas remained at the home of his sister during the following winter and that during this time he was visited by a stranger, who advised him to attend the great New Year festival, at which one or more white dogs are immolated, not as a sacrifice, as some report, but only as messengers to bear the thanksgivings of the entire people to the Master of Life for the rich gifts of life and welfare; he was further advised to walk around the “new fires,” as ritually prescribed for persons suffering from the evil effects of enchantment. This advice he followed, but he received no immediate relief. As spring came, however, his sister was able to draw out the bark dart from his spine, and Hatʻhondas at once recovered from the malign influence of the evil spell cast upon him by Tehdoonh Oisʻha (i.e., Woodchuck Its-Leggings), or, in the meaning of the tale, The-Little-Old-Man-With-The-Woodchuck-Leggings, who was in collusion with the notorious Great Witch to destroy this young man. [793]
Tradition further says that on the first day Hatʻhondas heard the clarion notes of the blue jay, Cyanocitta cristata (Dihdih); on the second day the gleeful notes of spring made by the robin, Merula migratoria (Djoñiaik); on the third day the notes of the chickadee, Parus atricapillus (?Djidjoñkʹʻhwĕⁿʼ); and, on the fourth day, the drumming of the partridge, Bonasa umbellus (Djoqkweʹʼiăniʼ). These facts are interesting because it is said that the women came seeking Hatʻhondas in the spring of the year; with his friends he followed the women two days after their departure.
The people who shot at the eagle perched on the top of the tall hickory tree went home before the beginning of the following winter. Such tests of orenda or magic power following the acceptance of the challenge of some great sorcerer or witch often lasted several months, and sometimes were renewed in later years. The narrative relates that Hatʻhondas shot the eagle by shooting through the lodge’s smoke hole. The old woman in the lodge asked him to desist after he had made two attempts, saying, “That will do for a while.” It is also said that when Hatʻhondas parted from his uncle, Dooeʼdanegĕⁿʼ, the uncle told him that in the event anything evil befell him the uncle would know it by the sky in the west becoming red. See also Note 44.
41. This precaution was regarded as necessary in order to avoid being made the victim of a spell, the “tobacco” used being medicated.
42. He-who-has-two-feathers-set-side-by-side. This is a man’s name.
43. It was customary for women who went to make proposals of marriage to take with them loaves of corn bread of a specified form, prepared from pounded corn meal and boiled, wrapped in corn husks; the form of the loaves resembled modern dumb-bells.
The name Hatʻhondas, in which th do not form a digraph, may be more correctly written Hatʻhondās; it is a modified form of the combination Hatʻhonʻdāts, “He holds out his ear customarily.” As a name it signifies, “The Listener,” and “The Obedient One.”
The name Dooehdanegen may be more correctly written Dooeʼdănēʹgĕⁿʼ; as an appellative it signifies, “He who has two feathers placed side by side,” or as a statement, “He has placed two feathers side by side.”
Dooehdanegen having a presentiment that a well-known witch, for the purpose of attempting the destruction of his nephew, was about to make a proposal of marriage between her youngest daughter and his nephew who had been under his tutelage and protection since his nephew’s birth for the purpose of teaching him the family medicines and orenda or magic power of their fetishes, sent his nephew to the ravine to listen for any premonitory sounds of the approaching messengers from the great witch, since it was a custom to chant on the way words declarative of their mission.
Dooehdanegen smoked not only tobacco but also potent medicines mixed therewith, whose orenda or magic power was designed to thwart the malign influences emanating from the great witch which had for their object the destruction of Dooehdanegen and Hatʻhondas, for the old uncle was the sole surviving custodian of the medicines and fetishes of his ohwachira or blood kin, and was therefore solicitous of the safety of his nephew until after reaching the age of puberty, when he could demonstrate his ability to employ them fortified by his own inherent orenda.
44. De LaMothe Cadillac (ca. 1703), in speaking of the tribes in the neighborhood of “Missilimakinak et Pays Situés au dela,” writes that at the feasts held periodically for the propitiation of the names of the dead of the entire community they erect a cabin about 120 feet in length of pieces of bark which are new and which have not been used before for any other purpose; at either end of the structure they set a pole, and another, exceeding these in height, in [794]the middle; these poles are greased, oiled, and painted; and at the top end of each is fixed a prize, which belongs to the first who can reach and seize it with the hand. (Margry, Découv., V, 104, 1883.) A similar erection of a pole, which was greased and which held a prize at its top, is mentioned in an account of a feast for the dead held by the Nipissings, Hurons, and the Chippewa in 1642. (Jesuit Relations for 1642, 95, ed. 1858.) It was on the top of a similar pole that the eagle was perched at which Hatʻhondas was required to shoot to test his orenda or magic power.
45. Partridge.
46. This is a statement of the Iroquoian common law which placed the value of a woman’s life, in case of murder, at twice that of a man.
47. This is a ritualistic phrase which is a summary of the statement that there are grades of beings classified spatially; i.e., some live and work below the surface of the earth, others on its surface, others in the waters, others among the grasses and weeds and low shrubs, others among the bushes and taller shrubs, others among the trees, others in the air and winds, others in the clouds, and still others in the sky where stands the lodge of the Master of Life.
48. In this story the following native words occur: Yegondji, meaning the eldest woman, or the mother; Awaeh, the Swan; Donyonda, the Eagle; Doendjowens, the Earth Cleaver; Tagonsowes, He, the Long-faced; and Ohohwa, the Owl.
49. The Dwarf Human Being.
50. This story is an extravaganza.
51. Ooⁿʻdawiyo is the Seneca word.
52. This taboo of certain regions, places, directions, and times, is clearly based on the well-known doctrine of tribal men that the jurisdiction or sphere of action of the spirits or the nonhuman beings—daimons, divine messengers, and gods—was limited to specific places, regions, and times; tribal men habitually do not think in the universal terms of modern thinking in the more intensively cultured circles.
53. The words “nephew” and “uncle” in story-telling do not always denote real kinship or relationship by affinity or consanguinity, but rather a male person living in the same neighborhood with another who is “uncle” or “nephew” according to relative age. The neighborhood usually includes all accessible territory. This statement is true of Iroquoian reciters and, perhaps, others.
54. The dice man, the ball man, and the ice pond man occur in other stories, just as the use of the horn in the second preceding paragraph is not unusual.
55. This is not an uncommon incident which is taken from the myth of the beginnings and is there represented as the work of a personification of one of the months, which are presented as 13 man-beings.
56. The signification of the two names in the title is respectively, “He, the last or the remaining one,” and “She, the planter.”
57. Mush-eater.
58. Spotted.
59. A young hunter must not eat the first bird or animal he killed; this was one of the first taboos learned by the youth.
60. Redbreast.
61. The Wild Pigeon.
62. Striped Rump.
63. Skin-headed (?).
64. Pendent Snout.
65. Having a tassel of pine leaves. [795]
66. The Raccoon.
67. He who has a great headdress; i.e., antlers.
68. The Cloven-hoofed Ones.
69. The Buck = the Great-Horned-One.
70. The Large-footed Man, the Bear.
71. The Bear.
72. The Angleworm (?).
73. The Snipe.
74. The Chipmunk.
75. The Heron.
76. Long-snouted One.
77. Long-Upper-Eyelids.
78. The Netmaker = the Spider.
79. This is a proper name.
80. The nephew of Spider.
81. In the details of cannibalism in this and the other paragraphs of this story there is no protest against the eating of human flesh; this is probably a reflex of the attitude toward this abominable practice.
82. The three native terms are the descriptive epithet which was applied to a cruel old wizard who was a cannibal; they signify, “He-puts-them-on-an-island-habitually Potato-Duck or Tuber-Duck.” This species of duck was enslaved by him.
83. The two native words together signify, “He is a man-eater,” hence, a cannibal.
84. This deliberation in torturing a victim was characteristic also of the burning of war prisoners; the latter being fed and cared for and rested lest they should die too soon and so deprive the ceremony of its sacrificial character and the company of full satisfaction at seeing an enemy suffer.
85. This is the hell-diver, as some say, or the mudhen, as others say.
86. This term means simply “Great Duck.”
87. Canada Wild Goose.
88. The Great Blue Lizard, a mythical animal, which probably arose from describing an ordinary lizard in terms of the alligator.
89. The Humming Bird.
90. This is another mythical animal, which appears under various forms in different stories.
91. This is the common name of the meteor, the so-called firedragon; but as a Man-Being, the meteor endowed with human life and faculties, it is prominent in many stories.
92. The original meaning of this term is “He is master or controller or ruler of it”; i.e., any object of conversation. It is now a name of the God of the Christian Church, and so is applied here to the one whom the earlier story-tellers would have called ‘Teʻharoⁿʻhiawăʹʼgoⁿʼ’, the Master of Life.
93. This native term at present is applied to the imported idea, “devil,” which was quite foreign to the thinking of the early Seneca. It is also the name of the muckworm.
94. This native term is an epithet applied to a mythical character well known in story-telling. It signifies “The Trickster,” or, more literally, “He who abuses people by craft often.” Cf. Note 155.
95. This long epithet signifies, “He is the ruler” or “the chief personage.”
96. The Rattlesnake.
97. The Large Woodpecker.
98. The Locust, literally, “Corn-ripener.”
100. The Large Owl.
101. The Vulture (?), or other high-flying, large, half-mythical bird.
102. The Great Bumblebee.
103. The Winged Ant.
104. Phebe (?) Bird; some say, the Gull.
105. The Speaker or Preacher and the Definer or Interpreter.
106. This paragraph shows that even trees and shrubs were endowed with human speech.
107. This is a vague statement of the change held to be needful in the human body before it can enter the realm of the departed—of those who have died.
108. See preceding note.
109. The Master of Life.
110. In this and the immediately preceding paragraphs are stated some ideas concerning the world of the departed—heaven.
111. There are a number of other tales in which these ideas are set forth in slightly varied form.
112. The Speaker and the Interpreter, as already explained in the title.
113. This is the Man-Being represented by the husk mask in various forms.
114. The Stone Coats are the Genonsgwa, which are a class of beings developed from the conception of the Winter God, Tawiskaron, of the Iroquoian genesis myth.
115. This paragraph shows plainly a reminiscence of the defeat of the forces of Winter by the powers of the Spring, evidenced in the thawing and sweating of ice and snow banks.
116. This description of the Whirlwind applies well to the wooden masks which represent the Wind Powers.
117. This statement emphasizes the constant taboo against women seeing or touching the utensils and implements and medicines which belong strictly to the activities of the men.
118. In story-telling the white deer is ever endowed with superior orenda or magic power.
119. The devices employed in this and the several following paragraphs for deceiving pursuing enemies are not peculiar to this story.
120. The Toad.
121. The Crow.
122. The Fox.
123. These birds were the great ancestral Man-Beings of a mythic past cosmic age; a study of the language of this paragraph shows this to be a statement of the action of great nature forces. The next three paragraphs will bear out this remark. Blood is obtained from a mythic cornstalk.
124. Here the singing of the birds is made the sign of the exercise of the orenda of these animals to bring about Springtime; and this orenda is declared to be efficacious.
125. Here again singing is made the evidence that these so-called animals are exercising their powers, but these powers are the life-giving activities of nature.
126. This injunction is still observed among the medicine priests of the Iroquoian peoples.
127. This is the name of the Evil Trickster, whose delight is to abuse and to deceive innocent people. Compare note 94.
128. The Yellow Hammer or Yaril.
129. This statement of the leaving of a trail in the air by arrows and by persons who are aided by such arrows probably refers to the sun’s rays coming from behind broken clouds in the morning or evening. [797]
130. See preceding note.
131. This indicates belief in transmission of thought.
132. Cannibalism taken for granted.
133. In this sentence there appears one of the Wind Goddesses.
134. In many stories this use of boiling oil to destroy monsters appears; hot oil or grease was probably the hottest common thing known.
135. Doonongaes for Doonăʼʹgāes signifies “He has two long horns,” or “His two horns are long,” or, as appellative, “The one whose horns are long,” but restricted by the pronominal affix to persons of the male sex.
One of the most firmly held beliefs of the Seneca and other Iroquoian peoples was that there is a species of serpent of monstrous size, having horns like a buck, which dwells in the depths of deep rivers and lakes and springs of water, and which comes on land for its prey and also to bask in the sunshine. It may be suggested that such a peculiar notion may have been derived from noting the hornlike fixtures on which the eyes of the snail are fixed. The poetic license of legend would, of course, exaggerate these details. This inference is strengthened by the circumstances mentioned in this story that Doonongaes stole a lodge by bearing it away on his horns; the snail in somewhat similar fashion bears its shell along. The common Iroquoian name for the snail is onoⁿʻsăgeʹʻteʼ, i.e., “It bears a lodge along by means of the forehead-strap.” Doonongaes was a reptile that haunted “Long Lake,” and was probably a water moccasin.
But this reptile should not be confounded with the so-called firedragons or meteors which were believed to dwell also in the deepest portions of lakes and rivers; these were known under the name Gaasyendietʻha by the Seneca and other northern Iroquoian dialects; the Tuscarora name is kahăstiʹnĕⁿs, a corrupt form of the Mohawk word, Kăhăserīʹneʼs, “It-light-goes-about-habitually.”
These firedragons (i.e., the meteors of nature) were forced by an inflexible spell or enchantment, exercised by the orenda or magic power of the God of Life, to remain in these watery depths because the shedding of sparks of fire and lambent flames by their bodies would otherwise set the world on fire were they permitted to dwell out of the water for any great length of time, so they are permitted only to fly from one deep river or lake to another through the air.
These mythical horned serpents were reputed to have the power to assume the human form and faculties and sometimes even to marry among men, and so they form the burden of many weird tales and stories which are told around the fires of the lodge during the winter season. This circumstance, so it is said, gave rise to the custom of telling legends only during the winter months, for the reason that these reptiles, like the natural serpent, hibernated during the winter months and so could not overhear what might be said about them in these legends. Thus legends become in some measure “sacred,” or what is the same thing, “tabooed,” within limits.
These mythical serpents were reputed to have been endowed with most potent orenda or magical power which was usually inimical to human welfare. So great was this imputed potency that at times it would even infect the waters in which these serpents abode, and that water became an active agent in defense of these serpents when attacked by some adversary; and so the stories repeat the statement that some hero was attacked by a flood rising from some body of water in which resided some such serpent which was the object of the hero’s attack. The flood usually soon spent itself and did not pursue its adversary far. Such infected water was reputed to have the power of annihilating whatever thing it might come in contact with; should it fall upon the leg of an adversary of its master the leg of the victim would simply disappear. [798]
The Thunder God, Hiʹʼnoⁿʼ, and his sons were regarded as the active enemies of these and other reptiles. And so in some of the stories are found accounts of the rescue of some woman or human being from these mythical serpents. It is even said that these serpents serve as a part of the food of the Thunder Man-beings. But the Thunder Man-Beings had but little power to attack these reputed serpent monsters below the surface of the water, i.e., outside of their jurisdiction. It is said that these monsters stood in great fear of the Thunder Man-beings, and when the serpents were out of the water, i.e., out of their jurisdiction, basking in the sunshine on the shore, and heard in the horizon the voice of Hiʹʼnoⁿʼ, the Thunder God, they would lose no time in seeking safety in the depths of the water.
The firedragon (i.e., the meteor of nature) was regarded as one of the most powerful sorcerers known to mankind, but they were not regarded as persistent foes of the welfare of men. There are tales in which the firedragon befriended some unfortunate human being from his pursuing enemies. Like all the fanciful or rather poetic creations of these legends, the firedragon became multiplied into a large group and some were reported to have been killed by some very powerful human sorcerer.
136. Ganyodaes for Skăniōʹdaes or Tkăniōʹdaes is a proper name. The prefixed s-sound has an intensive force that is characteristic of descriptive appellatives; it denotes a marked degree of the quality or property named by the adjective or a noteworthy proficiency in the action stated by some verbs; with nouns it connotes the meanings, “large,” “important,” or “noted.” Hence, Skăniōʹdaes signifies, “It is a very long lake,” or idiomatically, “It is the well-known long lake.” The prefixed t-sound in Tkăniōʹdaes is the affix t or ti of remote place, meaning approximately, “there,” “yonder,” and it is applied to sentence words of the second and third persons. So Tkăniōʹdaes means, literally, “There it-lake long (is),” or freely, “There where the long lake (is).”
137. Skahnowa is correctly written Skăʼnōʹwā, which is not the usual Seneca form of the name. Hăʼnōʹwā is the customary form of this word denoting the turtle. But the text form is that employed in proper names. The initial s-sound is an intensive affix which is explained in note 136. The following kă is the zoic pronominal affix of the singular third person, meaning, “it” or “its.” And -ʼnōwā is the noun stem, denoting “the carapace of the turtle.” The whole means, “Its carapace (is) very great,” freely, “It is the-great-turtle.” The initial hă of the customary form is the anthropic pronominal affix of the singular masculine third person, meaning “he.”
138. In story and tradition the fungus growing on trees and rocks was a favorite substance with which those who sought to deceive intended victims, in the matter of food, prepared dishes inviting to the eye but deadly when eaten. Puffballs, mushrooms, and lichens, especially Umbilicaria arctica, or rock tripe (i.e., the tripe de roche of the French voyageurs) were not infrequently made into stews and soups for food, and so they readily lent themselves as a means of deception of the unwary.
139. Djidjoʹgwen, correctly written Djidjōʹgwĕⁿʼ, or as pronounced by some, Djidjōñʹkʻhwĕⁿʼ, is the fishhawk or osprey, Pandion haliaetus. The Seneca term is apparently a compressed form of a sentence word meaning, “What habitually takes fish out of the water.”
140. A “gift in payment” is required because the magic power of the thief has been overcome by the wronged individual and the life of the culprit is forfeited to him.
141. Dediosteniagon, correctly written Dediioʻstĕñniăʹʼgoⁿ, is a name of the Seneca for Wolf Run, New York. The name signifies literally “There in-two [799]it-it rock has broken,” and is a common descriptive appellation of rock cliffs or steep precipices or deep chasms of broken rocks.
142. The Seneca, like all the other Iroquoian peoples, apply the term oñʹgweʻ, “man,” “human being,” not only to human beings like themselves but also to such beings as arise from the personification of the phenomena of nature and life which assume the form and faculties and activities of human beings. It was a habit of these languages to qualify this term oñʹgweʻ by the adjective oñʹweʻ, meaning “native, original, true, natural,” to distinguish the real human beings from the creations of their poetic fancy; and upon the advent of trans-Atlantic peoples the term oñgweʹʻoñweʻ remained to distinguish the Indian man from the newcomer.
144. The word “opening” is a literal rendering of the Seneca for a “clearing” surrounding a lodge or village; in formal or ceremonial language it is sometimes used for “village” or “settlement.”
145. The meaning of the Seneca words of this song is, “Now, the game animal has come in to visit us”; a cannibalistic reference.
146. The correct written form of Gaintho is Gāĕñʹtʻhoʻ; it signifies, “Let the wind cease blowing,” “Let there be a calm.”
147. The correct form of “Hwu” is hwuʹʼ; it is an exclamation indicating that the act of a sorcerer is recognized in whatever may have taken place, expressing surprise at the power exhibited.
148. The name Gwidogwido, correctly written Gwidōʹgwidoʼ, is an onomatopoetic word, designating the flicker, highholder, or golden-winged woodpecker (Colaptes auratus).
149. The word Djihonsdonqgwen, correctly written Djiʼhoⁿsdoñʹʻgwĕⁿʼ, is the Seneca name for the ant or emmet.
150. The word Djoñiaik, correctly written Djoñʹiaik, is the Seneca name of the robin redbreast (Merula migratoria). In the story it is called by the epithet of the “Laughing Man,” which refers to a certain series of notes of this bird, which resemble exultant laughter among men.
151. This reference to the use of the pipe calls attention to a well-known habit of reputed sorcerers of smoking in order to gain immunity from the apprehended spell or enchantment in the presence of strangers. Every sorcerer of any repute prepared his tobacco with magic herbs which were supposed to protect him from any malign influence which might be exercised by a visitor or visitors. Hence the custom of smoking when about to hear some startling information.
152. The expression “hindered by the lake” is a veiled reference to the fact that this lake, or rather its waters, had been charged with magic power or orenda to defend its owner. The particular method by which this orenda or magic power accomplished this object was by rendering its victims unconscious, as the epithet, Ganigonhadontha Ganiodae (i.e., Găʼnigoⁿʻäʻdoⁿʼʹtʻhăʼ Ganiōʹdaeʼ), meaning, “It it-mind to-be-lost causes,” or the “delirium-causing” lake, indicates. Thus, the haunts of the allies of sorcerers were usually made impenetrable to persons who possessed a lesser measure of orenda or magic power.
153. The name Ganiagwaihegowa, written Niāʼgwaiʼhegōwā, or correctly Ganiăʼgwaiʹhegōwa, is the name of a mythic monster which was described as a huge bear, being vulnerable only in the soles of its forefeet; keen of scent, it never allowed anything to escape that crossed its circular track or path; it was represented as hairless except as to its tail, and that it had over its forequarters a large ridge or fold of flesh. These characteristics sufficed to make this fanciful creature a source of abject terror. Its reputed form may have [800]been due to a confusion of buffalo form and that of a grizzly bear. The meaning of the sentence here is that this monster was one of the animal fetishes of the speaker. The final -gōwā, meaning “large, great,” signifies here “the well-known” or “the noted,” bear monster.
154. The word Hasʻhonyot, correctly written Hasʻhoñʹʼiot, is an epithet, meaning “His back stands out, is protuberant,” which is applied by story-tellers to the crawfish or lobster because its back ever seems turned toward the observer. The name Odjieqdah, correctly written Odjiʼeʹʻdăʼ, is the common designation of the lobster or crawfish and crab; the word signifies “The claw.”
155. The word Sʻhodieonskon, correctly written Sʻhodieʹoⁿskoⁿʼ, is the name of a fanciful creature who went about playing tricks on all kinds of people. He was reputed to be a brother of Death. He was in fact the God of Mischief.
156. The word sentence Hasdeaundyetʻha, correctly written Hăsdeauñdiēʹtʻhăʼ, is an epithet applied to Hiʹʼnoⁿʼ, the Thunderer, and signifies “He it to rain causes,” or the Rainmaker. But here it may possibly refer to a species of worm which bears this name.
157. The expression or epithet, “Complete power,” does not in the least convey the idea of a single overruling Being, but rather of a Being who possessed such exceptional power as to require no outside aid in accomplishing his purposes. In this Bloodsucker episode there is a touch of the extravaganza in story-telling.
158. The Seneca words signify “Now, it has returned, that by which he lives; so now again he shall stand upon the earth.”
159. The expression “blew into the mouth” indicates how closely life and breath were connected in the minds of the story-telling ancestors of the Seneca.
160. The expression “of stone” is probably an exaggeration of the clay or mud shelters of the crawfish or lobster.
162. The expression “end of the earth” evidently can mean the horizon only; it could not mean aught else here. This expression perhaps strengthened the tendency to belief in a limited earth. And this is, too, a good example of the reification of an illusion.
163. The word Tsodiqgwadon, correctly written Tsodĭqʹgwãdoⁿʼ, is the name of a species of copperhead snake.
164. The question to be decided with all sorcerers is that of the potency of the orenda or magic power possessed by them.
165. The reference here is to the implied challenge in the contest just ended with the life of the loser as the conceded prize of the winner. So Doonongaes having lost in the test of the power of his orenda must make, if possible, composition for his life with his vanquisher.
166. This struggle continuing “day and night for one month” is probably a reference to the fact that the moon once a month waxes and wanes and yet is not overcome or destroyed.
167. The expression “people of orenda, or magic power,” signifies that these are people who make a business of sorcery, and so the line should begin, “We sorcerers,” etc.
168. The word Dagwanoenyent, correctly written Dagwanoʼĕñʹiĕn, is the name of the Cyclone as a personified thing. The name seems to refer to the habit of cyclones to hurl things against the heads of people. The term means apparently, “What habitually hits or knocks our heads.”
169. This term “Niagwaihe” is evidently an error for the full form “Ganiagwaihegowa.” See Note 153. [801]
170. The word Djainosgowa, correctly written Djaiʹnosgōwā, is the name of a more or less fanciful creature. It probably received its characteristics from hearsay reports of the alligator which were transferred to the fence lizard, or swift. The native interpreters usually translate the word by the words “blue lizard.” In story and legend it is a most ferocious antagonist, because of its reputed invulnerability. The final two syllables, gōwā, signify “large, great,” while the remainder of the word means, “lizard,” so that literally the combination signifies, “The Great Lizard,” and in legend, “The Monstrous Lizard.”
171. The reference here to the power of “becoming alive again” very probably rests on the hibernating habits of reptiles, shedding their skins, indicating change of bodies.
172. The word Hanondon, correctly written Hanonʹdoⁿ, is the ordinary Seneca name for the water snake, probably the Tropidonotus sipedon.
173. The word Hawiqson(t), correctly written Hawiqʹson, is the common Seneca and Iroquoian name of the milk snake, Ophibolus doliatus.
174. The word Gasaisdowanen, correctly written Gasʻhaisʹdowănĕⁿ, is the name of a large serpent in Iroquoian mythic lore. The name signifies, “It-serpent great (is),” or “The Great Serpent.”
175. Diagoisiowanens, correctly written Diagoiʻcioʹwănĕⁿs, is a descriptive epithet applied as an appellative to the meadow lark, signifying, “Her-leggings-large (are),” or “She whose leggings (are) large.”
176. Hononeowanen, correctly written Honoⁿʼeʹowanĕⁿ, is the name of a species of snake, probably the copperhead, and signifies, “His-head-large (is),” or popularly, “Big Head.”
177. One of the dominant notes of these stories is that when one of the great sorcerers, mentioned so often in them, is cornered, stress of circumstances force them to resume their true natures; so Doonongaes must do here.
178. The native word rendered “man” here is the ordinary designation for “human being.” These deities were classified with the human race of beings. See note 142.
179. The word Hostoyowanen, correctly written Hostoiōʹwănĕⁿ, is an epithet used as an appellative noun, descriptive of the buck of the deer; it signifies, “His headdress large (is),” referring to the crown of antlers.
180. This statement evidently refers in an exaggerated way to the long periods of fasting which hibernation enforces on snakes and other reptiles.
181. The expression Deyenegonsdasden, correctly written Deyenegoⁿsdăʹsdĕñʼ, is a descriptive appellative which is applied to the partridge; it signifies, “Her two wings large (are).”
182. The erection and use of a pole in this manner was quite common at great feasts or holidays. And the great wizards and sorcerers employed this means, too, for testing the orenda or magic power of visitors and guests. The statement that this one reached the clouds shows that it was an adjunct to the means of amusement and of testing out at the same time the orenda or magic power of those who came seeking the hand of the Partridge’s daughter. Shooting at an eagle on such a pole is a common incident in the stories.
183. He sent a woman in order to neutralize the malign infection given his arrow by being touched by alien wizards.
184. The usual rule among Iroquoian tribes is for the mother or some other female kin to superintend the marriage of a girl. This may be a story which has been modified by ideas of father right, or descent in the male line, possibly adopted from an alien people having this custom.
185. This reference is to the chief’s lodge. [802]
186. The number 16 is unusual in stories of this character. It was probably a vague estimate of the size of the earth’s surface—16 days in one direction from the speaker, roughly a half month.
187. Dedyosdenhon for dedyoʻstĕñʹʼoⁿ was a place name, which signified “At the place of the fallen rock.”
188. The Partridge people are here represented as weak in sorcery.
189. Deienensowanens for Dienĕⁿsoʹwănĕⁿs signifies “Her shoulders (are) large or broad.”
190. Deanohdjes for Deanoʹʼdjes is the descriptive name of the walrus; the term signifies “His two teeth (are) long.”
191. Geia is the generic name for a walrus.
192. The time of one year here apparently refers to the period of hibernation—the absence from his ordinary home.
193. Nitgendasadieha for Nitgĕñdăʹʼsădieʹʼa signifies “At the narrow opening or clearing.”
194. The numeral “10” here and in the fourth line above appears to be simply a round number indicative of a long time.
195. Osigweon for Oʻsiʹgweon is the name of the rattlesnake, and signifies “What has a (?) spear affixed to it.”