584 SENECA FICnON, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [eth. ann. w 



At midnight the two started and had gone very far when daylight 

 came. As they traveled they suddenly heard ahead of them the 

 sounds "c??^", du'-', fZw", cZm"." Thereupon Hodadefion said to his 

 friend: "Show your courage now, my friend. We have arrived, 

 it seems, in the place where those who have evil minds dwell. Closer 

 let us go." At last they reached the place in which the lodge stood, 

 and they halted some distance from it. 



All at once they heard a man singing and beating a drum. As 

 he sang, he said : " Here I am making tobacco ; here I am malcing 

 tobacco; here I am making tobacco; he who has tobacco prepares 

 tobacco." Hodadenon said to his companion, " Now is the time," and 

 his friend replied : " So let it be." Then they two entered the lodge, 

 where they came face to face with an old man, who held a mallet 

 in his hand with which he was pounding the tobacco all over. He 

 was so old that his eyebrows hung down far over his eyes. Hoda- 

 defion said to him, " Oh, my imcle ! " but he did not notice him and 

 kept on pounding the tobacco. At this, Hodadefion, drawing his 

 war club, struck him a blow on the forehead, causing the blood to 

 gush forth. After a long while the old man said, " Oh ! I am sweat- 

 ing," at the same time wiping the blood off his forehead. Next, 

 upraising his eyebrows and looking at them, he said: "Oh! my two 

 nephews, you have now arrived. Take courage, my two nephews, 

 because I myself am a slave working in tobacco." Hodadeiion an- 

 swered: "I have come after tobacco and nothing else, because my 

 elder brother, who is far from here, desires to smoke." The old man 

 answered : " He is, I suppose, my own brother. So be it. Take some 

 back with you." 



So Hodadenon, taking up a twist of tobacco, threw it, saying: 

 " Go hence to the opening of the chimney of the lodge where my sister 

 abides and drop in the ashes [at her feet]." The sister, greatly sur- 

 prised to see the ashes of the fire fly up, exclaimed. " I am thankful 

 that my brother Hodadenon, it would seem, is still alive," and she 

 picked up the tobacco. 



Next the young men asked the man with the long eyebrows where 

 stood the lodge of the very wicked women. He answered the spokes- 

 man : " Have courage. There stands the lodge yonder, on the farther 

 side of the lake. It is doubtful whether you two can cross the lake. 

 As we know, the ice on it is very slippery. No matter who it is that 

 goes there, as soon as he steps upon the ice a man speaks out, saying : 

 ' Let it rain bones ; let it be nothing but bones.' And at once he be- 

 comes a pile of bones. Such will happen to you if it be that you two 

 are sorcerers." Hodadenon said in reply: "Come, my friend, let 

 us start." Then they set out at once. Arriving at the lake, they 

 found that the ice that covered it was very smooth and that the lodge 

 stood on the farthfc- shore. There a number of people were walking 



