JOUSKEHA. Ixxvii 



who made lakes and streams : for once the earth was 

 parched and harren, all the water being gathered under 

 the armpit of a colossal frog ; but Jouskeha pierced the 

 armpit, and let out the water. No prayers were offered to 

 him, his benevolent nature rendering them superfluous.^ 

 The early writers call Jouskeha the creator of the 

 world, and speak of him as corresponding to the vague 

 Algonquin deity, Atahocan. Another deity appears in 

 Iroquois mythology, with equal claims to be regarded as 

 supreme. He is called Areskoui, or Agreskoui, and his 

 most prominent attributes are those of a god of war. 

 He was often invoked, and the flesh of animals and of 

 captive enemies was burned in his honor.^ Like Jous- 

 keha, he was identified with the sun ; and he is perhaps 

 to be regarded as the same being, under different attri- 

 butes. Among the Iroquois proper, or Five Nations, 

 there was also a divinity called Tarenyowagon, or Teha- 

 ronhiawagon,^ whose place and character it is very diffi- 

 cult to determine. In some traditions he appears as 

 the son of Jouskeha. He had a prodigious influence ; 

 for it was he who spoke to men in dreams. The Five 

 Nations recognized still another superhuman personage, 

 — plainly a deified chief or hero. This was Taounya- 

 watha, or Hiawatha, said to be a divinely appointed 

 messenger, who made his abode on earth for the political 

 and social instruction of the chosen race, and whose 



1 Compare Brebeuf, as before cited, and Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, 

 p. 228. 



2 Father Jogues saw a female prisoner burned to Areskoui, and two 

 bears offered to him to atone for the sin of not burning more captives. — 

 Lettre de Jogues, 5 Aug., 1643. 



3 Le Mercier, Relation, 1670, 66 ; Dablon, Relation, 1671, 17. Conf 

 pare Cusick, Megapolensis, and Vanderdonck. Some writers identify 

 Tarenyowagon and Hiawatlia. Vanderdonck assumes that Areskoui is 

 the Devil, and Tarenyowagon is God. Thus Indian notions are often 

 interpreted by the light of preconceived ideas. 



9* 



