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



cut it into small pieces for the purpose. Then the oldest one said, 

 " Give thanks," whereupon they gave thanks to the Tobacco, and all 

 danced, the little ones, too, and asked this man to dance, and he did 

 so. When the man was going away the oldest S'hagodiyoweqgowa 

 said, " I want you to remember us, so you must come and see us when 

 you are on your travels." 



[The foregoing incident took place on the Canadian side of the 

 Niagara Kiver, near the mouth. — The Eelator.] 



96. S'hagodiyoweqgowa 



A few years ago (previous to 1884) two young men started for a 

 S'hagodiyoweqgowa dance. They had their wooden masks or " false 

 faces " with them in a bundle. On the way they stopped at a white 

 woman's house. The woman asked, "^Vhat have you in your bun- 

 dle?" "Our masks, or false faces," they answered; "we are going 

 to a S'hagodiyoweqgowa dance." " If you will put on the masks and 

 let me see them, I will give you two quarts of cider," said the woman. 

 Going outdoors, they put on the masks, and came into the house 

 again. The woman's child, a boy of six or seven, became so fright- 

 ened that he acted as if he had lost his mind; he could not talk. The 

 mother sent to Perrysburg (N. Y.) for a doctor. He came, but he 

 could not help the boy. The mother then went to an Indian shaman 

 for advice, who said to her that she must get the maskers, or false 

 faces, to cure him. They came at her request and danced, and they 

 rubbed the boy with ashes, also blowing some in his face; soon he 

 was well. According to custom, the woman had ready a pot of 

 pounded parched corn, boiled with pork and seasoned with maple 

 sugar, for the false faces, or maskers. 



97. The Vampire Skeleton 



A man with his wife, starting from a Seneca village, went from it 

 two days' journey to hunt. Having built a lodge, the man began 

 hunting. When he had obtained a sufficient store of meat, they 

 started for home. They packed all the meat they could carry and 

 left the rest at the lodge. Setting out in the morning, after traveling 

 all day they came to a cabin in which they found all the people dead. 

 The last person to die was the owner of the lodge. The people of 

 the village had put the body on a shelf in a bark box which they had 

 made. When the man and his wife came it was already dark. The 

 husband thought it better to spend the night there than to continue 

 the journey. He gathered a quantity of wood with which he made a 

 fire. The woman began to cook, broiling meat and making a cake of 

 pounded corn, which she placed under the hot ashes to bake. The 

 man lay down to rest a while and fell asleep. While cooking the 



