186 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS (eth. ANN. 32 



be all right," said he, bringing in game until the old woman was so 

 glail that she was almost crying with joy. She hurried around like a 

 yoimg girl to prepare food. Then he began to question her. She 

 told him : " There is a great gathering at the Long Lodge. The 

 chief's daughter is to be married. She has been married before, but 

 she nearly destroyed her husband, her daughter, and their dog. She 

 had a son, but nobody knows where he is. Now she is going to tor- 

 ture her husband to death. lie is hung up at one end of the Long 

 Tjodge, and everyone can strike him with a burning brand; his tears 

 become wampum beads. Her daughter is hanging on a peg over the 

 fire, slowly roasting. The dog is at one end of the fire and everyone 

 who passes gives him a kick. He has consumption and his hair is all 

 singed off." 



The boy was very angry. When night came he said to his grand- 

 mother, " I am going to the gathering." She warned him to beware 

 of evil men and women who played games and tried to deceive people. 

 When he arrived at the gathering he pretended to be a little boy, 

 playing around with the children and going into the Long Lodge 

 with them. There he saw his mother decked out gaily, perched on a 

 high seat in the middle of the room, where she coidd be seen by every- 

 body. He saw his father secured to a stake. Over the fire his sister 

 was roasting, and he heard his dog coughing, barely alive. Then he 

 told his gi'andmother what he had come for; that the woman was 

 his mother and the man his father. " Now, my mothers, the two 

 sisters, told me to ask you to help me. Tell me what to do." Con- 

 senting, she said : " I know everything and am ready to help you. I 

 have a pair of moccasins you must wear. At certain intervals your 

 mother orders your father to be branded. Now, you must stand near 

 the fire. The moccasins, being made of the skin of a woman's private 

 parts, have sympathetic power over them. When your mother calls 

 out, ' Brand him,' you must stick your foot into the fire." The boy 

 obeyed her, sticking his foot into the flame as the woman gave the 

 order " Brand him." That instant his mother screamed with pain. 

 All, wondering at this, questioned her, but she would not tell. She 

 was ashamed. Then the boy ran out of doors, but when it was time 

 for her to give the order again he was near the fire. As she was be- 

 ginning to say " Brand him," again he put his foot into the fire and 

 at that moment she screamed with pain. He tormented her in this 

 way until she died. Each time she suffered his father and sister felt 

 great relief. When she was dead, he took his father and sister and 

 dog out of the building. Then he said, " Let this building turn to 

 red-hot flint." Inmiediately the lodge was in flames. As some of the 

 people of the lodge had magic powers, their heads burst, the pieces 

 striking against the stone walls, while their spirits flew out through 

 the top into the air in the form of owls and other birds of ill omen. 



