Tooker] APPENDIX 153 



gathered com for her brothers, but she tired of this and as a punish- 

 ment her brothers cast her down (Barbeau 1914: 289-290; 1915: 

 37, 47, 50) ; in still another version, the woman was pushed hy mis- 

 chance through the hole (Barbeau 1914: 290; Connelley 1899 b: 46, 

 67 ; Hale 1888 : 180) . The variability in the myth is apparently old; 

 the Jesuits mention two versions of this incident. Barbeau (1914: 

 289) suggests that this variation in the accounts means that the reasons 

 for the fall are of slight importance. However, the variability also 

 may indicate a more heterogeneous origin of Huron culture than that 

 of the Iroquois, and the apparent loss of the rather consistent Iroquois 

 explanation that the woman fell in fulfillment of a dream to cure 

 her husband may indicate a more recent loss of this method of curing 

 among the Wyandot. 



The second part of this major episode concerns the fall of the 

 woman from the sky world to the underworld (i.e., the earth). In 

 i\^^ Iroquois versions (Hewitt 1903: 179-182, 224-228, 285-289; 1928: 

 481-483) and in others (cf. the Jesuit version), she is seen falling by 

 Turtle and some other animals. Turtle moves so that she lands on 

 his back. Earth is made by the animals diving into the water and 

 bringing up mud [also see Hewitt 1928: 465; in a Seneca version 

 (Hewitt 1903: 226) earth is made by the handful of earth that the 

 woman has brought with her] . A girl is either born or reborn to this 

 woman. Essentially the same earth diver myth is told by the Wyan- 

 dot (Barbeau 1915 : 48, 50; Connelley 1899 a: 121-122; 1899 b: 68-69; 

 Hale 1888: 180). 



Although the earth diver myth in the Jesuit Relations is not tied 

 to Aataentsic'' s fall, it is obviously a part of this myth. The reason 

 for the Jesuit failure to connect these two myths is probably familiar 

 to most anthropologists; often, when doing fieldwork, the ethnog- 

 rapher is told episodes from the creation myth and, because they are 

 tx)ld as separate stories, it is not immediately apparent that they also 

 form part of the creation myth until the entire myth is told. 



The third episode in the Iroquois creation myth concerns this 

 daughter of the woman who fell from the sky when she has grown up. 

 A man appears and magically impregnates her and leaves. After a 

 while, she gives birth to two boys, one (Sapling) is bom first in the 

 normal fashion and the other (Flint) comes out of her armpit, or 

 navel in a Seneca version (Hewitt 1903: 231), and by so doing kills 

 his mother. The grandmother asks the two which one killed his 

 mother. Both deny it, but the grandmother believes Flint's denials, 

 and so believes the wrong brother (Hewitt 1903: 184-186, 228-232, 

 290-295; 1928:483-486). 



In the Iroquois versions, it is the grandmother (mother's mother) 

 of these twins who fell from the sky, but it is not in the Huron and 

 Wyandot versions (Barbeau 1914: 291-292, 291 n.) with the exception 



