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



When Hagowanen reached home, his wife, looking at him, began 

 to cry : " Oh ! my dear son, I wish you were here. I think I have 

 seen something mysterious." Hagowanen asked, " Why do you 

 talk so ? " She cried the more, and he added : " Why do you cry ? 

 Are you sorry that I have returned ? " " No, but you are not alive," 

 she said. " Oh, yes! I am," he replied. " No; I can not believe that 

 you are," and, thinking he was a ghost, she drove him out to the 

 rocks, where he sat down. 



After his father had gone Ot'hegwenhda burned Djieien's lodge. 

 When nothing but coals were left, something shot up out of them, 

 and flying westward, it finally alighted on the plain, becoming a 

 Dowisdowi (Sandpiper). "That is the way I do, and that is why I 

 claimed, ' I can kill anybody,' " said the boy. Going around the 

 edge of the clearing on the eastern side, he found a broad trail on 

 which he traveled for half a day, until he came to a cross-trail lead- 

 ing from north to south. He stood at the four corners made by the 

 trails, and putting the fetish on his hand said, " You are the one 

 I need." " What do you wish ? " asked the fetish. " I wish you to 

 tell me what I am to do now." " If you go to the foot of that pine 

 tree," answered the fetish, " you shall find a bark bowl, beyond the 

 tree a medicine spring, on the other side of the spring, a plant. Dig 

 up this plant, put it into the bowl, which you shall fill with water 

 from the spring, and then at this spot where the trails intersect, dig 

 a hole, and in it put the bowl with the plant standing in the water. 

 This done, step aside and see what will happen. Now, be quick!" 

 Hurrying to the pine tree which grew in the northwest between the 

 northern and western trails, Ot'hegwenhda found the spring, and 

 farther on, the plant aweaundagon (in full bloom), with bright red 

 blossoms. He did as directed, putting the bowl with the plant 

 therein in the gi'ound at the crossing of the trails; then stepping 

 aside, he watched and listened. Presently he heard a noise in the 

 forest like that made by a heavy wind from the north. Nearer 

 and nearer it came, accompanied with a great cloud of dust. Noth- 

 ing could be distinguished until the cloud stopped at the crossing. 

 Then, in the middle of the cloud he saw the skeleton of Djainosgowa 

 standing near the bowl. The skeleton, walking up to the plant, ate 

 one of its red blossoms. Though it had no stomach, no place to hide 

 the blossom, it nevertheless vanished, at which the boy wondered 

 greatly, saying : " It is nothing but bones. Where does the food 

 go?" Presently, the skeleton growing sick, jumped around until it 

 fell to pieces — arms, legs, head, ribs, all the bones falling apart. 

 Now Ot'hegwenhda laughed, standing in his hiding place. But be- 

 fore he had stopped laughing he heard the rushing of another wind 

 from the south ; after it came a cloud of dust, which stopped at the 



