262 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth. ann. S2 



After all had left, a young woman, who took pity on him, went 

 to him and said, " Let lis be married and go hunting." They got 

 married and went to hunt, camping in the woods. The man could 

 not kill anj' big game; only squirrels and such creatures. He made 

 traps to catch deer, which he placed around so that the deer might 

 get their feet into them. One morning when he went to look at his 

 traps he heard some one crying like a woman. The sound came 

 nearer and nearer. At last he saw a woman coming with two little 

 boys. She was crying, and as they came up she said: "Help me! 

 for we are going to die. One of my little boys stole a feather, which 

 he pulled to jjieces. Now we are going to die for that feather. I 

 want you to kill that hawk on the tree over there, and when the per- 

 son whose feather my little boy took comes, throw the hawk at him, 

 saying, ' This is your feather.' " 



The man killed the hawk, and had no sooner done so than he heard 

 a terrible roar and noise, and the trees fell, and a man came and stood 

 on one of them. This man had terrible eyes and long hair; that was 

 all there was to him — just a great head without a body."° The young 

 man flung the hawk at him with the enjoined remark. Catching it, 

 the latter said, " Thank .you," and was satisfied. This woman was a 

 ])anther and the children were her cubs, but she seemed to the man 

 to be of the human kind. She said that she lived among the rocks 

 and that Dagwanoenyent lived near her, being her neighbor. Once 

 while he was away from home her little boy went into his place, and 

 getting his feathers, spoiled them. When Dagwanoenyent came 

 home he was very angry and chased them. Then the panther told 

 the man that she knew he was poor and that no man would hunt 

 with him, adding, " Now, I will help you, and you will get more 

 game than any of them. I do this because you helped me." After 

 that he killed more game than any other hunter in the woods. 



50. The Shaman and His Nephew 



In times past a noted shaman and his nephew dwelt together in 

 a lodge in the forest. 



One day, when the nephew had grown to manhood, the uncle said 

 to him : " Now, my nephew, you must go to the lodge of the chief, 

 who has two daughters whom you shall marry. When you go you 

 must wear those things endowed with orenda (magic power) which 

 I wore when I was a young man." The shaman here referred to a 

 panther-skin robe, a pouch of spotted fawn skin, and a pipe deco- 

 rated with a manikin. Among other things the uncle brought out 

 these, bidding his nephew : " Now, test your ability to use them. See 

 what you can do with them." First the nephew placed in the bowl 

 of the pipe red-willow bark which had been dried for the purpose. 



