274 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth. ANN. ift 



Now, Bloody Hand liad great love for the birds of the air and the 

 animals on the earth that eat flesh. He greatly respected them and 

 paid them marked attention. When he had killed a deer while out 

 hunting he would skin it and cut the meat into small pieces; then 

 he would call Gaqga '" to come to eat the flesh. When he killed an- 

 other animal, he would dress it in like manner and call Nonhgwat- 

 gwa ^^- and his people to come to eat the flesh which he had given 

 them. Sometimes he would cari-y home a portion of the game he had 

 killed, but generally he gave it all to the various birds and animals 

 whose chief food is flesh. 



According to a Seneca legend a number of Seneca warriors went 

 on a warlike expedition against a tribe which was hostile to them, 

 and it so happened that Bloody Hand was one of this warlike band. 

 In an encounter with the enemy he and a number of others were 

 killed and their remains were left on the ground. The body of 

 Bloody Hand lay in the forest stark naked; the enemy, having 

 scalped him, had borne away the scalp as a great trophy. 



The birds of the air, having seen Bloody Hand killed and muti- 

 lated, held a council at which they bemoaned the death of their 

 lumAn friend. Finally one of the assembly said: "Let us try to 

 bring him back to life. But before we can begin to resuscitate his 

 body we must recover his scalp, which hangs before the door of the 

 chief of the enemy who killed him. Let us send for it." The as- 

 sembly after agreeing to what had been proposed with i-egard to the 

 preparations necessary to bring their friend back to life, first sent 

 the Black Hawk to secure the scalp. Having arrived at the place 

 where hung the scalp, Black Hawk Avas able by means of his sharp 

 and powerful bill to break easily the cords that held the scalp; 

 thus securing it, he bore it in triumph to the council of the birds. 

 Then one among them said, " Let us first try our medicine to see 

 whether it has retained its virtue or not. W^e must try first to bring 

 to life that dead tree which lies there on the groimd." Thereupon they 

 proceeded to prepare their medicine. To make it, each representa- 

 tive placed in the pot a piece of his own flesh. (These representatives 

 were, of course, birds of the elder iime, not such as live now."^) In 

 experimenting with their medicine they caused a stalk of corn to 

 grow out of the ground without sowing seed. In this stalk there was 

 blood. After noting the efficacy of the medicine they broke the stalk, 

 and after obtaining blood from it, caused it to disappear. With this 

 medicine is compounded the seed of the squash. 



When the medicine was made they held a sanctifying council, in 

 which part of the assembly sat on one side of the tree, and the other 

 part on the opposite side. The wolves and the snakes attended, also 

 other animals and birds of great orenda (magic power). The birds 



