554 SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [bth. ANN. 32 



midst, were borne aloft on the huge billows of smoke, which moimted 

 ever higher and higher, and were soon in cloudland, where they 

 came down in the form of cinders. 



Then one of the lads called two mice, which he instructed to 

 creep cautiously under the leaves, grass, and rubbish to a certain 

 lodge having a fox skin for a clan mark, and to emerge from 

 the trail as near the lodge as possible without being apprehended by 

 the warder, Hane"hwa'. Then each lad entered one of the mice, 

 and the two mice, burrowing along under the leaves and other 

 rubbish, soon came out just where they had been directed to emerge. 

 Notwithstanding their caution and ruse, Hane"hwa' knew the pur- 

 pose which the two mice had in coming, but before he could give 

 the alarm one of the lads said to him: " Keep silence. We will give 

 you a quantity of wild beans if you consent to our request." Believ- 

 ing the lads to be harmless and to be on a mere sporting expedition to 

 show their powers of metamorphosis, he readily consented to per- 

 mit them unheralded to pass to their destination. 



Having thus easily passed the warder of the lodge of Ga- 

 ho°'dji'da"ho"k, the two lads, assuming the form and size of fleas, at 

 once entered the portico or porch of the lodge, in which several of 

 their aunts, sisters of their father, were pounding corn in wooden 

 mortars with wooden pestles. As fleas the lads, unnoticed, quickly 

 crawled up the legs of these women, and by vicious bites soon caused 

 the corn pounders to fall to fighting among themselves, believing 

 that they had been cruelly pinched by their mates. By crawling on 

 and biting the legs of all the women the lads were able to make all 

 of them fight. In fighting, the women, influenced by the orenda of 

 the boys, employed their wooden pestles in striking their opponents 

 on the head, fracturing their skulls. Thus, in a short time the 

 women had destroyed one another. 



After all the women were either dead or stretched out unconscious 

 with fractured skulls, the lads cautioned the warder, Hane''hwa', 

 not to inform Degiyane'gen', their father, what he had seen them do, 

 should he come there inquiring about his sisters. They told him to 

 sing for their father the following song : 



Yeke''ne''ne'^ho^ skahetchona' oW'sen. 

 Oehe^ne^'ne"'ho'' skahetchona' oti"sen. 



The warder consented to do what his boy friends had asked him to 

 do. Thereupon the lads quickly entered the lodge to which was 

 attached the fox skin clan badge. They soon found the cradle 

 board on which was fastened the female child, even as their uncle 

 had told them, but they were greatly astonished wiien they saw that 

 the eyes of many persons adorned the swaddling clothes (wrap- 

 pings). Quickly but carefully examining these eyes, which served 



