Part 30

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

65. WITCH WITH A DOG TRANSFORMATION.[57]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

67. HOTCIWAHO. (HAMMER IN HIS BELT.)

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

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

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

68. HOW AMERICA WAS DISCOVERED.

HANDSOME LAKE’S STORY.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Illustration:

THE RESTORATION OF RED HAND.

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

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

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