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



Dooiiongaes went westward, traveling day and night for a month. 

 He traveled till he came to a broad opening.^*^ In the middle of the 

 opening he saw a lodge, which he coidd not reach without being 

 seen. " Very well," thought he, " 1 will go underground." He went 

 into the ground, and going forward until he thought he was at the 

 right phice he came out. Peeping througii a crack in the lodge wall, 

 he heard singing, and saw that there were two very old women in- 

 side. The words of the song were, Orwn umongi' ons iie ganio.^*'' 

 " That does not sound well," thought Doonongaes; " I may get killed 

 here. I will see whether I can not steal this lodge." So he pushed 

 his horns under the lodge; then lifting it on his head, he rushed 

 away, carrying it on his horns. He came very soon to the edge of 

 the woods and ran into it. Finally he heard a noise in the lodge. 

 " Well," said a voice, " it seems to me that there is a terrible wind 

 blowing." (He went at such speed as to give the impre-ssion of wind 

 blowing past the lodge.) The other woman said: " You must do all 

 you can to stop it. Let us stand, you in one corner and I in the other 

 and sing our wind song." Taking their places, they said: " We beg 

 you who have care of us to stop this wind. Our lodge is so small that 

 we are afraid it will blow away." Then they sang 'Gaintho, Gain- 

 tho}*^ One of them, seeing the lodge moving, called out, '■^Hwn,^" 

 our lodge is moving." " Well," said the other, " maybe Doonongaes 

 has come; he always troubles poor people; hurry up, go out and see." 

 So she went out through the smoke-hole, and, looking around, saw that 

 they were far out in the dense woods. On taking an observation to see 

 whither the wind was going, she saw a long black body moving, and 

 she saw that their lodge was on it. Going in, she said, "As I looked 

 down the wind I saw a very black thing, which was so long that I 

 could not see the end of it." " It is just as I said to you," said the 

 other woman ; " this is Doonongaes, who is making sport of us. Now, 

 do your best to puni.sh him." 



These two old women, who were Gwidogwido "* people, and sisters, 

 were possessed of such very powerful orenda (magic power) that 

 it was hard to conquer them by sorcery. Taking their clubs, there- 

 fore, they went out of the smoke-hole. Then the elder of the two 

 said: "Go to the end of his tail; something is sticking out there. 

 Strike it. and I will try to cut its head off." While the younger sis- 

 ter went to the tail, the elder went to the neck joint. The younger 

 sister, seeing objects which resembled fins sticking out, began to 

 pound these; soon she saw that she was driving them in. "What 

 shall I do," thought she; " my sister said these things woidd crumble 

 to pieces." She kept on pounding, however, until she saw that 

 something like milk began to come out. She stopped striking them, 

 whereupon the milklike fluid turned into foam and came out stronger 

 and stronger. At last, becoming frightened, she ran to her sister. 



