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
[Illustration:
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.