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



customary on such occasions, and greatly rejoiced to become ac- 

 (|uainted. 



Then the old woman began to prepare food for the returned 

 hunters; and when it was cooked the old woman called the men, say- 

 ing, " Now, of course, 3'ou will eat the food which I have prepared for 

 you"; and the men began to take their nourishment. Their manner 

 of doing tliis seemed most peculiar to the band of Dehaenhyowens; 

 lience they intently watched the hunters, who did not eat the food 

 set before them. Instead, they merely absorbed the exhalations of 

 the food, it being the odor or eflluvium of the food that satisfied 

 their hunger. When they had finishe'd their meal the old woman 

 said to them, " It is now time, perhaps, that you shouhl go out to hunt 

 game which our human gue^sts can eat, for you know that they do not 

 eat the same kind of things that you do." 



Accordingly, the hunters started out of the lodge to seek game 

 for their guests. As soon as the men were gone the old woman took 

 from the headrest of her couch a single grain of corn and a single 

 squash seed. Going to the end of the fireplace, there she prepared 

 in the ashes two small hills or beds, in one of which she placed the 

 grain of corn and in the other the squash .seed, and carefully covered 

 them with rich soil. In a very short space of time the visitors were 

 greatly surprised to see that the seeds had sprouted and shot out of 

 the ground small plantlets, which were growing rapidly. Not very 

 long after this they saw the cornstalk put forth an ear of corn and 

 the squash vine a squash. In the short space of a few hours these 

 plants had supplied the old woman with ears of corn and squaslies. 

 These she prepared to cook. 



By this time the men who were out hunting returned to the lodge, 

 bringing with them the carcass of a fine deer which they had killed. 

 This they speedily set to work to skin and quarter. As soon as they 

 had finished this task, the old woman set the venison, corn,' and 

 squashes over the fire to cook in kettles on stone supports and has- 

 tened the cooking by putting hot stones into them. "When these 

 things were cooked she placed them in fine bowls of bark, which 

 she set before the visitors, bidding them to eat heartil}'. So Dehaen- 

 hyowens and his friends ate their fill. 



It now came to j^ass that the aged woman said, " It is time, 

 you will agree, I think, for you to go again to hunt." This she said 

 to the male members of her family. Then the visitors saw some- 

 thing very strange. They saw the old woman take from under her 

 couch a large quantity of corn husks and carry them to what ap- 

 peared to be an added lodge or separate room and there push aside 

 the door flap. In that room the visitors saw what seemed to them a 

 lake, round in form. The old woman made a circuit of the lake, 

 heaping the corn husks around its edges. When this task was fin- 



