154 BUREAU OF AIMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



of Sagard's. In one Wyandot version, the woman, when she fell 

 from the sky, was pregnant with the twins and when she arrived on 

 earth, one was born the usual way and the other came out through her 

 side, killing her (Hale 1888 : 180-181) . In another, the woman gives 

 birth to the twins after finding and living with another woman called 

 "grandmother" (Barbeau 1915 : 44, 306 ; Connelley 1899 a : 123 ; 1899 b : 

 47, 73-74). In another, the woman found the two boys on the island 

 (earth) (Barbeau 1915:48, 51). In these Wyandot versions and in 

 one Seneca version, at least (Parker 1910 a: 478; see also Converse 

 1908:34), as that in the Jesuit Eelations, the twins' mother is the 

 woman who fell from the sky, not their grandmother. 



The variation in these versions may indicate Huron and Wyandot 

 cultural disintegration and, specifically, a breakdown in matrilineal 

 descent. That the twins were the children of the daughter of the 

 woman who fell from the sky seems to emphasize matrilineal descent ; 

 that they are children of the woman who fell does not. 



Following these first three episodes of the creation, the longer myths 

 proceed to recount the exploits of the twin brothers. The theme of 

 these events is that the older brother creates the world so that man- 

 kind will have an easy life, while the younger twin tries to thwart 

 his actions. Perhaps the best illustration, at least to the non-Iro- 

 quoian reader, is the story in which the elder creates rivers so that one 

 stream runs uphill and the other downhill (making canoe paddling 

 easy), but the younger brother changes this so that rivers run only 

 downhill and adds falls and rapids. The Jesuit statement that 

 louskeha had charge of the living and of things that concern life is 

 an obvious reference to the fact that he created the flora and famia 

 that was to be useful to man and tried to create the world so that man 

 could live easily in it. (For the Wyandot descriptions of the works 

 of the brothers see Barbeau 1915: 48, 51; Connelley 1899 b: 7^77; 

 Hale 1888: 181.) The wickedness attributed to Aataentsic probably 

 stems from her alliance in many of the Iroquois myths with 

 Tawiscaron ; both of them try to harm men. 



The Jesuit statement that Aataentsic was the moon and lousheha 

 the smi is difficult to substantiate ; the Iroquois material is quite con- 

 fused (Barbeau 1914 : 303) . Hewitt (1895 a : 245) thought this iden- 

 tification of Aataentsic with the moon was a confusion of Aataentsic 

 with her daughter ; in some Iroquois versions this daughter becomes 

 the sun and moon (Hewitt 1903 : 201, 295-296, 319) . 



The episodes that recount the adventures of the twin brothers are 

 given in apparently random order in the Iroquois cycle. In one of 

 them. Sapling (the elder brother) finds his father (sometimes he is 

 Turtle) who gives him a bow and arrow, animals, and corn — the ver- 

 sions vary (Hewitt 1903: 188-190, 232-236, 297-301; 1928: 487-499). 



