704 SEKECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS [kth. ann. 32 



discovered a number of persons who were tearing off the ears of corn 

 and the bean podSj and also others who were stealing the squashes. 

 These thieves they captured and held as prisoners. These prisoners 

 were taken in the morning to the council lodge before the dun chief. 



The chief, after looking the prisoners over, remarked that these 

 thieves were their enemies Ijecause they had stolen their corn and 

 beans and squashes. Then he asked one of the corn thieves, """Where 

 do you live?" '"A long way hence in the forest." came the reply. 

 "Are there many of your people? " continued the chief. "We are a 

 large nation," came the answer. In like manner he questioned the 

 squash thief and the bean tliieves, and these made replies similar to 

 those made by the corn thieves. 



They bound the corn thieves and daily they took them out of the 

 lodge and all the chiefs and the people came to see them, and every- 

 one was priviledged to strike these thieves a blow with a staff, and 

 the thieves would weep bitterly at this treatment. Then they would 

 be taken back into the lodge. The bean thieves and the scjuash 

 thieves were also daily punished in this way. 



Daily the corn thieves wept loudly. After a long time had elapsed 

 these thieves were told that if they would conduct the people to their 

 own nation they would be set free. The corn thieves agreed to this 

 proposition and the old chief selected a party of his warriors to lead 

 the thieves back to their own nation. 



The corn thieves led the warriors a long way into the forest. But 

 at last thej' came to a settlement, and the thieves said this is a village 

 of our peo]:)le. The warriors killed many of the people, and then 

 they set free the thieves whom they had brought back to their country. 

 The people whom the warriors had killed were carried home. 



Then some warriors were sent to the squash stealers with an order 

 to split their upper lips so that they would not be able to eat 

 squashes again. 



It is said that the warriors whipped the corn thieves so much 

 during their captivity that they wept so much that their faces were 

 striped and their backs were striped and their tails were ringed, 

 from the blows they received; and these marks have remained to 

 this day. The corn thieves were raccoons. The squash thieves were 

 rabbits (hares?), and their lips have remained split to this day 

 from this pimishment. 



Tradition says that the ancestors of the Seneca thought that all 

 trees and shrubs and plants were endowed with human life and 

 were divided into families, having brothers and sisters, fathers and 

 mothei's. And that in like manner the Corn, and Beans, and the 

 Squash have human lives, and that if one offended them they would 

 grieve and would depart and would leave the people without food. 



