Seneca Fiction, Legends, and Myths Thirty-Second Annual...

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.

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.”

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.