all were except the youngest, and the oldest said, “Go get the knife and
we will butcher him.” So they tied his body to a post and they were
ready to kill him. Then the youngest said, “Oh look, he isn’t like the
others. He has curious hair and his body shines! His skirt is nice, it
is spotted and pretty and has deer’s hoofs rattling for a fringe. Let us
look at him.” So she touched his hair and pulled it and said, “My, it is
funny, it won’t pull out. Let’s not kill him yet.” So she looked at him
some more. Pretty soon she says, “Oh what a funny bottle,” and she
pulled out the cork and all of a sudden, out came something, bump, on
the floor. Now he was a great witch and when the hornets struck the
floor he used his great magic, and oh! it was strong magic! Now when the
women looked, Ah-gey! the hornets were warriors! And they kept falling
out until the house was full and the hornet captain took out his knife
and cut the strings on the post and then he stopped up the bottle.
The old woman called her youngest daughter to her and said: “I am a big
witch but he is a bigger one. If I get beaten you must burn down the
house and all things in it. You must burn all the medicine because it
will kill you all if you don’t. Then have all the ashes of me and
everything buried.” Then the mother rushed and yelled, “Kill him!” and
she tried it but a hornet-man warrior raised his tomahawk and he didn’t
hit her but she fell down dead. So the oldest sister ran to stick a
knife in him and a warrior raised his arm and she fell dead and he
didn’t hit her. And they were all afraid and stood back and the youngest
daughter kind o’ cried and said, “I’ll give up my way and eat what he
eats and I’ll take him for my husband.” So right away the chief hornet
married them.
So there was no more fighting and it was dark and he and the seventh
daughter went to bed because they were married and the five sisters
planned to kill him as he slept but it was so he had a friend, a guard
who was a star. And the star came down and sat on his eye and the witch
sisters thought him awake and by and by the star went away, but it was
morning then and they couldn’t kill him.
So that day he ordered the big lodge to be burned and all the medicine
in it and the body of the mother in it. It was a very big fire and hot
and after awhile the mother’s head burst open and up in the smoke flew
all kinds of evil birds that no one eats,—owls and screech-owls, and
hawks and crows, and big crow buzzards, and black eagles and wild poison
animals with feathers. Now the wife said he must not kill those animals
but let them fly away. She told him before her mother died that must be
the way. So that’s how it happened all kinds of mischief got scattered
around.
Then the sisters told him that once in a fight all of their men were
killed and everybody else only them and they didn’t have any men and
wanted some now because they had made up their minds that they wouldn’t
eat any more people. So some of his warriors married the sisters and
others he sent out to find wives for some of the hornet men had no
hornet wives. He wanted to make a big village there.
So then he went back and brought his grandparents to the new village and
they were surprised and knew he was a big witch then. Now when all the
warriors had returned with wives he said, “You are mine.” Then he
uncorked his bottle and let out more warriors for his grandparents. So
they went to another village and the warriors built houses and boats and
cleared land and made a big town.
Now the youngest daughter told her husband where his brother’s bones
were hidden. And she showed him the spot and he dug up the bones and was
in a hurry to match them and smoked on them and they came to life again
but he had been in too much of a hurry. He didn’t put the bones together
the right way they ought to be and that was very bad because when the
meat grew on again some had long legs, some long some short, some had
broken arms, some too many fingers, some not enough, some had not enough
ribs and so were soft and bent over. Oh they were in an awful fix! Their
bones were not a match and some were missing because they had been
chewed up. Oh! But the brothers had lots of hornets to work for them and
it was easy. So now that’s why crooked and lame people come to be born.
They are the grandchildren,—way down,—of the brothers, and it is awful!
Now that’s only how far my Grandfather told us because he said we
wouldn’t go to sleep if we listened to more and he never finished it but
next time began it all over again.
GENERAL NOTES.—This is a characteristic Seneca legend and its
elements are not at all unusual. As a variation I have given it
almost exactly in the same language as originally related to me by
Mrs. Aurelia Jones Miller. My informant was a woman of unusual
natural intelligence and spoke English fairly well, but she
frequently omitted the articles, “the,” “an” and “a,” and in other
ways her language was picturesquely provincial, but typical of the
reservation brogue.
The conclusion of the story copies a common theme, that of restoring
the bones of persons slain by witchcraft. The hero is in too much of
a hurry and forces the skeletons to assemble so quickly that the
bones are mismated, producing cripples and misshapen people when
they are conjured back to living flesh.
20. THE BOY WHO OVERCAME ALL MAGIC BY LAUGHTER.[30]
The world was once visited by a demon of enchantment who scattered all
the people and bewitched all the animals, all the trees, all the lakes,
all the rivers, all the boys and girls and all the older people. Strange
to say, nobody knew that they had been enchanted; they only knew that
all their wishes were thwarted and that there was misery everywhere.
Now, Gajihsondis did not know that he had been placed under an evil
spell. He was a boy and was filled with all the ambitions of a boy, but
all his desires were curbed by his queer-looking old grandfather. The
boy did not even know that it was strange to live in a hole in the
ground under his grandfather’s bed or to be whipped with burning
switches.[31] He only knew that he wanted to do things,—to play down by
the spring and to go hunting. After a while he grew curious to know the
reason of things and so asked many questions.
One day when he had grown to the age of twelve years he asked: “My
grandfather, where are my parents? Why have you never taken me to my
father and my mother?”
His grandfather eyed him curiously and refused to give Gajihsondis any
satisfaction. But the boy kept questioning until the old man growled
like a bear and said: “My grandson, you should not ask questions. You
have forced me to speak and you must not blame me for the trouble that
you have now brought upon the world. You shall now die because I am
about to answer you. There is a spring near the path that leads from
this lodge into the deep forest. I have never let you go there because
in that spring is a terrible monster that is filled with great magic.
His orenda (magical potence) is more powerful than anything else in the
world. If you go far from this lodge the beast will reach out with his
long claws and devour you. You have never been allowed to stray from the
doorway because of this. But now that you know this circumstance you
must learn to use a bow and arrow. You must become a hunter, for what I
have told you has made me very old and I shall soon be unable to hunt.”
The old man, looking more ugly than ever, went to his hunting pouch and
took out a small bow and a quiver of arrows. “Now, take these, my
grandson. Go and hunt. Find your first prey on a tree.”
Gajihsondis went out of the lodge very happy. “I am now a hunter,”
thought he. “I shall soon bring in all the meat.” He watched carefully
for signs of game. Then he spied what he thought a great bird upon the
trunk of a tree. He lifted up his bow and shot but missed his quarry.
Thereupon he ran back to the lodge and cried: “Oh grandfather, I have
been unable to kill my prey.” Then he wept with disappointment.
“I thought you would fail,” said the grandfather. “You have never had
practice. I will hang up the foot of a raccoon and you must shoot this
wherever I hang it. When you hit it every time without missing once you
may go on a hunt again.” He then hung the coon’s foot by a cord to the
roof-pole and allowed it to dangle over the fire. “I am going on a hunt
now but it will be my last. If you are unable to hit the raccoon’s foot
by the time I return we are lost.”
Thereupon the grandfather took his hunting equipment and departed. This
gave Gajihsondis his chance. After many failures he hit the foot and
when he became proficient he tried other things.
After many days the grandfather returned. “We are lost now,” said he.
“The beast is coming to devour us. Only four days remain for us to
live.” “I’ll shoot it,” exclaimed Gajihsondis. “I am a good marksman
now!”
The old man laughed. “Oh no,” said he. “I gave you an arrow that can
never hit its mark. You cannot shoot.” “But my grandfather,”
contradicted the boy, “I never miss the mark.” The grandfather grunted,
“Wha-a-a-ah.”
Gajihsondis then shot the raccoon’s foot. This made the old man look up.
“It is only a chance,” he said. “You had power with you but for a
moment. Never more can you do it. I will place the foot elsewhere.
Thereupon he threw it to the top of a tall tree. “Now you cannot hit
it,” he said.
Gajihsondis took easy aim and hit the foot knocking it from its hanging
to another tree much higher and with a second arrow he knocked it again,
bringing it to the ground.
Instead of being pleased the old man was very angry and said: “Who has
been here to guide you? There is some evil thing lurking about. Well,
never mind this, you can not kill real game. You have no arrows to hit
anything.”
Gajihsondis then went out and saw the bird he first had aimed at. Again
he shot, and killed it this time. Taking it up he ran in great glee to
his grandfather. “Oh contempt!” exclaimed the old man. “You have killed
nothing but a chickadee.” But even so, the old man worried, for he knew
that his grandson had killed the first creature which by custom a child
is permitted to kill when he learns to hunt.
Again the boy went out and soon returned with a raccoon. It was a fine
fat animal and made a good meal for the two, but the grandfather
ridiculed the boy and said it was only temporary luck, for the boy
possessed no orenda (magical power). Again the boy tried his skill and
killed a fine turkey which the old man dressed and cooked, at the same
time sneering as before. On his fourth excursion Gajihsondis killed a
deer and brought it in. This time the old man angrily exclaimed, “It is
not right that you should become proficient as a hunter but it seems
that you have. Oh now we shall all die for you will consider yourself
able to leave this lodge and to follow the path.”
Now, this is just what Gajihsondis wanted to do. He had only one
desire,—to overcome the monster that barred him from his father and
mother. “Now I am going,” said he, without further ado. “I shall slay
the monster.”
The old man scolded and wept, but Gajihsondis was soon out of sight down
the well-beaten path that led from the lodge into the deep forest. After
a day’s journey he found a gigantic frog crying out terrible threats.
“Whoso comes near this spring,” he croaked, “shall die. I eat whoever
comes near this spring.”
Gajihsondis was not a bit frightened; he simply drew his bow and shot
the frog, and though it was larger than he, he tied its feet together
and hung it to his carrying frame and returned to his grandfather’s
lodge. The old man was very angry but the boy only laughed. Now he had
learned a new trick, that of laughing. He had never done this before and
to have him laugh made his grandfather even more angry.
The grandson went out a second time and found a gigantic duck guarding
the spring. It cried out threats and proclaimed its great power. This
did not daunt Gajihsondis who merely fixed his bow and shot it. Again he
returned to his grandfather who became even more angry. “How could you
do this?” he asked. “By magic the path was changed, but you found the
spring again. You shall not find it again.”
For a third time the boy went out on his hunt for the spring and easily
found it, for as plain as day he could see a path leading directly to
it. (Now this was strange for it was not a path that ordinary eyes could
see, which made the grandfather believe that it could not be
discovered.) When he neared the spring he heard the cries of a great
beaver threatening to gnaw anyone in twain who approached the pool. It
was a very terrifying beaver but Gajihsondis found it an easy mark for
his arrows. He laughed as he trussed it in his carrying frame and
laughed as three days later he flung it down at his grandfather’s
doorway. The old man roused himself in furious anger and flung his
“bundles”[32] in the fire. He pawed the earth like a beast and shouted
until his throat bled, but Gajihsondis only laughed again and went away,
saying, “Oh it is very easy!”
Now when he went down the path Gajihsondis knew that it had been
changed. First he had gone north, then west, then south, and now he was
going east over the path, that while invisible to common eyes, was
visible to him, yet he did not know how he could see it. For if he tried
to look he could see nothing, and when he did not try he could see
everything. He also knew something that he would not tell.
For a fourth time he drew near to the mysterious pool. It was most
beautiful and the trees about it were very tall. There were rocks
looking like enchanted beasts asleep about it. The water, itself, was
very clear and sparkled as if the sun were upon it, even when it was
night. Gajihsondis went right up to the spring and flung in a
fishing-line. In an instant he had a bite and some terrifying thing
began to pull him into the water, but though he was sore pressed and saw
himself falling over the edge of the pool he laughed, and when he did he
gave a great pull, staggered backward, and pulled out a lizard four
times his own length. It was the blue Dagwĕ^n´’nigo^n´ge. Though he had
hooked it the creature was not dead, but as Gajihsondis looked at it, it
sprang toward him with a cry and bit off both his legs. This made
Gajihsondis laugh with all his might and he laughed so hard that the
beast grew weak. The creature then despairing of killing the boy stabbed
him in the breast with its tail, crying, “Put me back in the spring.”
Again the boy laughed. “Oh how can I put you back in the spring,” said
he, “seeing that I have no legs wherewith to walk? Replace my legs and I
will put you back.” Then he laughed again.
Now the lizard was a creature of great magic and it conjured a man and a
woman who came forth from the water and made Gajihsondis’s legs whole
again and smoothed up the wound where the incision had been. The boy
laughed and instead of thanking them caught them with his fish line and
cut off the heads of each. “I know you,” said he. “You are the evil
servants of Lizard.” So saying he cast them in a fire and burned them to
ashes. When the heads were consumed they burst with a loud explosion and
out flew a great flock of screech-owls. He then threw the lizard back
into the pool, saying, “I despise you for your lack of magic.”
Laughing as he went, Gajihsondis followed the path until he came to a
clearing. Though he greatly wondered what was in the clearing, for he
heard human voices, he could not proceed, for there, hovering over the
path, were many white owls, screaming at him and swooping down to pluck
out his eyes.
Gajihsondis now thought of a plan to overcome the owls. It seems best to
be truthful, he thought, and so he determined what to say. So he called
out, “I claim this land. It is mine and I shall possess it, but I am
willing to make one of you owls chief with me.” The owls then began to
quarrel among themselves as to who would be chief. They made a great
noise and soon had clawed each other to death. None remained to rule
with Gajihsondis, so he went forward. As he proceeded he found that the
path had changed and that instead of entering the clearing from the
north he was entering from the west. Soon he paused for the path was
guarded by powerful panthers.
Again he resolved to declare his intentions. “I claim this land,” he
cried. “It is mine, I shall possess it, but am willing to make one of
you panthers chief to govern with me.” The two panthers then began to
quarrel and soon were engaged in murderous combat. In a few moments both
were dead. Gajihsondis then went on, but noticed that the path had
changed and that he was entering the clearing from the south.
He paused as he was about to enter the clearing for there, guarding the
path with lowered antlers, were two elk. He saluted them calling out,
“This is my land. I shall possess it, but I shall make one of you chief
to help me govern.” As before, the creatures fought themselves to death,
each one desiring to be chief. Gajihsondis then journeyed on, finding as
before that the path had changed. This time he approached from the east.
As he was about to enter the clearing two enormous serpents rose up and
hissed at him. As before he loudly proclaimed: “I claim this land. It is
mine and I shall possess it, but I am willing to make one of you
rattlesnakes chief with me.” Then did the great serpents begin to fight
and after a fierce struggle both bit one another and both died.
Gajihsondis strode on into the clearing and found a great lodge within.
It was strongly built and large enough to hold a great company of
people. Entering the lodge, he found an old man cooking corn mush. The
old man said nothing until the food was cooked when he said, “Come eat;
it is ready.” The two finished the meal for Gajihsondis was very hungry
and was especially fond of corn pudding. “We will now sleep here,” said
the old man pointing to mats on the floor.
Both lay down on the mats instead of upon the long shelf-like beds that
were on either side of the lodge. As the old man lay down with all his
clothing, his pouch leaped from him and went to a peg on the center
pole; his leggings drew from him and rolled up in a corner; his
moccasins leaped to a bench, and his breech-cloth came off and hung
itself over a pole. Then all the supper dishes leaped about, the pot
emptying itself and then jumping to the upper shelf of the lodge. After
a while the old man went to sleep, and as he did a white deer emerged
from his breast, leaped into the air and sailed away through the smoke
hole. Gajihsondis watched far into the night. He could not sleep for the
utensils in the lodge moved about and talked to each other.
Gajihsondis conceived the idea of robbing the house of its magical
objects and finally decided it might be better to escape without a
burden. Carefully he crawled out from his skin coverings and made haste
to withdraw. He did this with entire success, and ran a long way into
the night. Soon, however, he saw a white deer dart down from the sky and
enter the smoke hole of the lodge. He knew then that the old man would
awake and pursue him. Nor was he mistaken, for soon he could hear the
old man running after him. On and on he came until when just behind
Gajihsondis he waved his war club and struck the boy on the head.
“I have killed another,” shrieked the old man, as he sawed a knick in
his war club with his flint knife. “No man escapes me.”
The old man then went about the forest and restored all the animals
slain or dead through the craft of Gajihsondis. At length he found the
lizard in the pool and told it all concerning his work of restoration.
“It must be Gajihsondis who has done all this,” said the lizard after he
had been restored to his own magical power. “Only Gajihsondis could have
slain all these helpers. I greatly fear that he has acquired sufficient
magic to slay us all.”
“But I have slain him and he will trouble us no more,” said the old man.
“Oh, no,” replied the lizard. “Gajihsondis will revive. Then let us
beware.”
The old man returned to his lodge and passed the body of Gajihsondis and
to his great satisfaction saw the great crows picking at it. “He is
dead,” he thought, and went straightway to sleep.
The boy soon recovered consciousness and, completely restored, he crept
into the old man’s lodge. “I will now be truthful,” he thought. “I will
address the war club.”
“War club,” he commanded. “Stand up,” and the club stood erect. “Now war
club, in you is power. I want you to be my friend and assist me in
slaying my enemy. I am a man and will not be denied.”
The war club then pointed to a bed far away from the door and
Gajihsondis went to the bed and saw a pile of soft tanned pelts.
Removing these he saw a sleeping maiden. He took a brand from the fire
and held it over the girl. “I have now come for you,” he said. “I am
going to rob this house and take you with me. This is my land and I
shall rule it.” The girl looked at Gajihsondis and was pleased. She
liked the looks of Gajihsondis. “I will go,” she said, “but first you
must slay my uncle. It is because he fears you will find me that we are
all bewitched.”
The boy then went over to the old man and awakened him. His clothing
flew upon him, a white deer entered his body and then he sat up. “What
do you want?” he inquired.
“I want to fight with you,” said Gajihsondis.
“Now just wait,” said the old man. “I must get my war paint ready.” So
saying he threw charcoal from the fire in the corn mortar and made a
black paste. Then he took red paint from a box. He applied black to one
side of his face and red to the other.
“Now I am ready,” he announced. “Why do you wish to fight me?”
“I want all your things and I am going to take your niece,” said the
boy.
At this the old man became very angry and whooped. He then sang a magic
song and grasped his war club, and rushed upon Gajihsondis. The young
man grasped his war club and then the two began to fight. In a short
time the old man was overcome and exhausted. Gajihsondis bound up the
old man and put him in his carrying frame. Then he took the girl by the
hand and led her away to his own lodge.
Reaching his grandfather’s lodge he noticed for the first time that it
was identical with the one in which he had had his fight. His
grandfather and the old man looked the same. There was no difference.
When the old man, his grandfather, saw that Gajihsondis had brought home
the old man bound and also the girl, he was very angry but said nothing.
He made up his mind to kill the boy and to marry the girl. Now when the
boy slept and the girl had crawled into her robes afar from the door,
the old man grasped his war club and sang to it. Now the prisoner sat up
and did likewise, and both did exactly as the other did. “I will kill
the boy now,” said the old man, and so saying, he shot three arrows into
his back.
In a short time the boy awakened, being in great pain. He arose and went
out of the lodge. Near the creek he found a sweat lodge and as he stood
near it a voice spoke: “Go in,” it said. “I will help you.” He looked
and there saw another person exactly like himself, only very white and
clear. “I have always known you were my friend,” said Gajihsondis. “But
this time I see you.”
Gajihsondis went into the lodge and took a sweat, and when the arrows
had come out he took an emetic. After a while he saw clearly in the
dark. He saw his friend walk toward him and enter his body. The two
became one. “This is the power that has guided me,” he thought. “But I
will never tell anyone I have seen him, until the day I am about to
die.”
Thereupon he returned to the lodge and awoke his grandfather. “Come and
fight me, grandfather,” he exclaimed. “I believe that you have done me a
great wrong.”
The old man sprang from his bed and as he did so the prisoner became as
a mist and floated into him. Then the grandfather grasped his war club
but it was no longer strong like good hickory, but soft like wet
rawhide. He could not fight.
He began to whimper. “Oh, my grandson,” he moaned. “Do not kill your
grandfather. My strength is gone. I will confess. I have been a great
wizard and have created many evil monsters and slain many people by
magic. Now I am undone. Oh restore my nature and make me human again. Do
not kill me.”
“Then tell me everything,” demanded Gajihsondis, and the old man told
him of his conjuring. The girl, he said, was fore-ordained as
Gajihsondis’ wife, his parents were in the ground back of the lodge in
the clearing. He had exercised his magic in order to claim the girl. He
and the old man in the house in the clearing were one and the same
person, though dual by magic. The path was well trodden because he had
traveled over it so many times.