48 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth. ann.32 



on Sept. 8, 1760. They contrasted the sympathetic and bountiful paternalism of 

 the P"'rench rfgime with the neglect and niggardliness that characterized the 

 British rule. Such was the state of affairs that on July 29, 17G1, Sir Wm. 

 Johnson wrote to General Amherst: "I see plainly that there appears to be an 

 universal jealousy among.st every nation, on account of the hasty steps they 

 look upon we are taking towards getting possession of this country, which meas- 

 ures, I am certain, will never subside whilst we encroach within the limits 

 which you may recollect have been put under the protection of the King in the 

 year 1726, and confirmed to them by him and his successors ever since and by 

 the orders sent to the governors not to allow any one of his subjects settling 

 thereon . . . but that it should remain their absolute property." But, by the 

 beginning of the American Revolution, so well had the British agents reconciled 

 them to the rule of Great Britain that the Seneca, together with a large ma- 

 jority of the people of the Six Nations, notwithstanding their pledges to the con- 

 trary, reluctantly espoused the cause of the British against the colonies. Con- 

 sequently they suffered retribution for their folly when Gen. Sullivan, in 1779, 

 after defeating their warriors, burned their villages and destroyed their crops. 



There is no historical evidence that the Seneca who were on the Ohio and the 

 s. shore of L. Erie in the ISth and 19th centuries were chiefly an outlying colony 

 from the Iroquois tribe of that name dwelling in New York. The significant 

 fact that in historical times their atfiliations were never with the Iroquois, but 

 rather with tribes usually hostile to them, is to be explained on the presump- 

 tion that they were rather some remnant of a subjugated tribe dependent on 

 the Seneca and dwelling on lands under the jurisdiction of their conquerors. It 

 is a fair inference that they were largely subjugated Erie and Conestoga. 



The earliest estimates of the numbers of the Seneca, in 1660 and 1677, give 

 them about 5,000. Later estimates of the population are: 3,500 (1721) : 1,750 

 (1736); 5,000 (1765); 3,250 (177S) ; 2,000 (1783); 3.000 (1783), and 1,780 

 (1796). In 1825 those in New York were reported at 2,325. In 1850, according 

 to Morgan, those in New York numbered 2.712, while about 210 more were on 

 Grand River res. In Canada. In 1909 those in New York numbered 2.749 on the 

 three reservations, which, with those on Grand r., Ontario, would give them 

 a total of 2,962. The proportion of Seneca now among the 4.071 Iroquois at 

 Caughnawaga, St Regis, and Lalie of Two Mountains, Quebec, can not be esti- 

 mated. 



Characterization of Contents 



The Seneca material embodied in the following pages consists of 

 two parts. 



Part 1 comprises the matter recorded in the field by the late Jere- 

 miah Curtin in 1883, 188C, and 1887 on the Cattaraugus reservation, 

 near Versailles, New York, including tales, legends, and myths, sev- 

 eral being translations of texts belonging to this collection made by 

 the editor. This worlv of Mr. Curtin represents in part the results 

 of the first serious attempt to record with satisfactory fullness the 

 folklore of the Seneca. 



The material consists largely of narratives or tales of fiction — 

 naive productions of the story-teller's art which can lay no claim 

 to be called myths, although undoubtedly they contain many things 

 that ciiaracterize myths — narratives of the power and deeds of one 

 or more of the personified active forces or powers immanent in and 



