NOTES 797 



130. See preceding note. 



131. This indicates belief in transmission of thought. 



132. Cannibalism taken for granted. 



133. In this sentence there appears one of the Wind Goddesses. 



134. In many stories this use of boiling oil to destroy monstei's appears ; hot 

 oil or grease was prolialily the hottest eomuiou tiing linown. 



135. Doonongaes for Dooiia''fiO(!i signities "He has two long horns," or "His 

 two horns are long," or, as appellative. " The one whose horns are long," but 

 restricted by the pronominal affix to persons of the male sex. 



One of the most firmly held beliefs of the Seneca and other Iroqunian peoples 

 was that there is a species of serpent of monstrous size, having horns like a 

 buck, which dwells in the depths of deep rivers and lakes and springs of water, 

 and which comes on land for its prey and also to bask in the sunshine. It may 

 be suggested that such a peculiar notion ma.v have been derived from noting 

 the hornlike fixtures on which the eyes of the snail are fixed. The poetic 

 license of legend would, of course, exaggerate these details. This inference is 

 strengthened by the circumstances mentioned in this story that Doonongaes stole 

 a lodge by bearing it away on his horns: the snail in somewhat similar fashion 

 bears its shell along. The common Iroquoian name for the snail is onij"'g(iyc"tc\ 

 i. e., " It bears a lodge along by means of the forehead-strap." Doonongaes was 

 a reptile that haunted " I-ong Lake." and was probably a water moccasin. 



But this reptile should not be confounded with the so-called firedragons or 

 meteors which were believed to dwell also in the deepest portions of lakes and 

 rivers ; these .were known under the name Gaasyendiet'ha by the Seneca and 

 other northern Iroquoian dialects; the Tuscarora name is kahaKti'nC"s, a 

 corrupt form of the Jlohawk word, KdhAgen' tic's, " It-light-goes-about- 

 habitually." 



These firedragons (1. e., the meteors of nature) were forced by an inflexible 

 spell or enchantment, exercised by the orenda or magic power of the God of 

 Life, to remain in these watery depths because the shedding of sparks of fire 

 and lambent flames by their bodies would otherwise set the world on fire were 

 they permitted to dwell out of the water for any great length of time, so they 

 are permitted only to fly from one deep river or lake to another through the air. 



These mythical horned serpents were reputed to have the power to assume 

 the human form and faculties and sometimes even to marry among men, and 

 so they form the burden of many weird tales and stories which are told around 

 the fires of the lodge during the winter season. This circumstance, so it is 

 .said, gave rise to the cu.stom of telling legends only during the winter months, 

 for the rea.son that these reptiles, like the natural .serpent, hibernated during 

 the winter months and so could not overhear what might be said about them 

 ih these legends. Thus legends become in some measure " sacred," or what is 

 the same thing. " tabooed," within limits. 



These mythical serpents were reputed to have lieen endowed with most potent 

 orenda or magical power which was usually inimical to human welfare. So 

 great was this imputed potency that at times it would even infect the waters 

 in which these serpents abode, and that water became an active agent in de- 

 fense of these serpents when attacked by some adversary ; and so the stories 

 repeat the statement that some hero was attacked by a flood rising from some 

 body of water in which resided some such serpent which was the object of the 

 hero's attack. The flood usually soon spent itself and did not pursue its 

 adversary far. Such infected water was reputed to have the power of annihilat- 

 ing whatever thing it might come in contact with; should it fall upon the leg 

 of an adversary of its master the leg of the victim would simply disappear. 



