270 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth. an.n.sz 



to do as he had requested. Taking up a small vessel, he gave her 

 to drink a portion of what it contained, and then rubbed the rest 

 of the contents on -.her back about the loins. In a short time three 

 large snakes passed from her reproductive organs, whereupon the 

 old man i-emarked, " You are now saved from the evil orenda with 

 which you have been afflicted." To purify her further he gave her 

 a beverage which caused vomiting. The matter which she threw 

 up consisted of worms, ants, maggots, and all kinds of foul creeping 

 things. While living with her husband her mind had been so much 

 under his spell that she had believed that the food which he gave 

 her was good and wholesome. The three men, now satisfied, said 

 to her : " You are at last thoroughly purified and freed from the 

 evil power of your husband and his people; so you can return to 

 your home, which is seven days' journey from here" (when she made 

 the journey with her husband it seemed to her but a short distance). 

 Then the old man said to her : " I am he whom your people call 

 Hinon. You must marry one of your own people, one who is older 

 than you are, for the younger ones ai"e filled with witchcraft; and 

 you must tell your friends all that has happened to you, for if you 

 do not do so, you will undergo the same misfortunes again." There- 

 upon they took her home; while on the way it seemed to her that they 

 were fiying through the air. 



The morning after returning home her people found her lying 

 in the lodge. Her family were all delighted that she had returned 

 to them safe. AVhen they had found she was missing they had 

 searched for her everywhere, but had never been able to find even a 

 trace of her. She related to them her adventures, telling them how 

 she had become the wife of a great horned snake, and how she had 

 been rescued from it by Hinon, their grandfather. 



When her grandfather, Hinon, had left her at the lodge doorway 

 he had given her a basket, telling her to fill it with native Indian 

 tobacco, saying, " For with this plant we cleanse ourselves." He told 

 her further that from time to time she should leave a small quantity 

 of the tobacco in the woods, which he would get as a grateful offer- 

 ing to him. 



52. The Man Pursued by His Sister-in-Law 



Two brothers lived together in the forest. Every day the elder 

 went out to hunt, but he never brought home game or flesh of any 

 description. The younger brother noticed, however, that his broth- 

 er's back bore bloody stains just as if he had been carrying freshly 

 killed game; so he decided to watch him, that he might see what he 

 did with the game he killed. 



One day while the younger brother was watching he found that, 

 when returning with game, a woman approached from a side path 



