394 SENEGA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [ETU. ANN. 32 



heat of the fire, whereupon she exclaimed, "TrAw'/ My son-in-law 

 has spoiled my lodge. Let us go to the lodge of my daughter." 

 Going thither, they found something good to eat (i. e., food which 

 was not the product of the arts of sorcery). 



In the night when all had retii'ed the wife of Okteondon told him 

 in confidence : " My mother will try to kill you (by testing your 

 orenda). She does not care much about the other two men, for she 

 knows just what powers of orenda they have, and that she can take 

 their lives whenever she wishes to do so." So toward evening of the 

 next day the old woman, Kahenchitahonk, said: ""II7n<'.' I think 

 that it is going to be terribly cold tonight. I will get some large 

 logs to make a fire to warm my back during the night." So bringing 

 great logs into the lodge from the woods, she made a hot fire. The 

 wife of Okteondon said to her husband : " My mother will say to- 

 night, ' I dreamed that my son-in-law must go to hunt to kill the 

 S'hadahgeah, and that he nmst return to this lodge before the door- 

 flap, which he swings shut behind him in going out, stops swinging, 

 I>ecause if these things are not performed something direful will 

 happen.' " There were then only two men besides Okteondon in the 

 lodge, for the third companion of Okteondon, Hois'heqtoni,^*" had 

 been turned into bones on the lake by the collapsing of the power of 

 his orenda. In the middle of the night the old woman, Kahenchita- 

 honk, began to groan hori-ibly and to writhe and toss in her sleep. 

 Finally she rolled out of her bed into the fire with such force that she 

 scattered the firebrands and coals about the lodge. Quickly rising 

 from his bed, Okteondon struck his mother-in-law on the head with 

 the corn-pounder, to awaken her, calling out, " Well, mother-in-law, 

 what are you doing, and what is j'our trouble? " Thereupon the old 

 woman, sitting up, said : " Oh ! I have just had a dream. I dreamed 

 that you, my son-in-law, must kill S'hadahgeah ^""^ tomorrow and 

 l)ring his body in here, before the door-flap, which you will swing shut 

 behind jou in going out, stops swinging, because if these things are 

 not performed something direful will happen." " Oh, mother-in-law I 

 (lO to sleep now ; we will attend to this matter in the morning," 

 answered Okteondon. So Kahenchitahonk lay down again and 

 slept. 



The next morning Okteondon was ready to perform his task. 

 Taking hairs from his wife's head, he tied them end to end, making 

 a cord long enough for his purpose: then tying one end of this 

 cord to the door-flap, he gave the other end of it to his wife, bidding 

 her to pull the door-flap to and fro, so as to keep it swinging, until 

 he came back from shooting S'hadahgeah. Okteondon then started 

 out to hunt for his victim, but he had not gone far from the lodge be- 

 fore he saw S'hadahgeah perched on a cloud. He let fly one of his 

 arrows, which kept its course until it struck the bird. When S'hadah- 



