66 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Then she began to ill-treat her daughter, and then the daughter 

 also began to feel aggrieved because of this ill-treatment from her 

 mother. 



It so happened that as the time approached when the daughter 

 would deliver the child, that the mother dreamed ^ that she saw a 

 man whom she did not know, and that he said that he appeared as 

 a messenger to her on account of her troubled mind, caused by the 

 condition of her daughter who had in so mysterious a manner con- 

 ceived a child. 



" I am here to deliver to you a message and now I will ask you 

 to cease your grieving and trouble of mind, and the ill-treatment 

 of your daughter from day to day because it is indeed a fact that 

 your daughter does not know how she became with child. I will 

 tell you what has happened. It is the wish of the Creator that she 

 should bear a child, and when you will see the male child you shall 

 call him Dekanahwideh. The reason you shall give him that name 

 is because this child will reveal to men-beings (Ofig'weo"we'), the 

 Good Tidings of Peace and Power ^ from Heaven, and the Great 

 Peace shall rule and govern on earth, and I will charge you that you 

 and your daughter should be kind to him becauses he has an im- 

 portant mission to perform in the world, and when he grows up to 

 be a man do not prevent him from leaving home." 



Then the old woman, (lagen'tci) asked the messenger, what of- 

 fice the child should hold. 



The messenger answered and said : " His mission is for peace 

 and life to the people both on earth and in heaven." 



When the old woman woke up the next morning she spoke to 

 her daughter and said : " My daughter, I ask you to pardon me for 

 all the ill-treatment I have given you because I have now been satis- 

 fied that you told me the truth when you told me that you did not 

 know how you got the child which you are about to deliver." 



Then the daughter also was made glad, and when she was de- 

 livered of the child, it was as had been predicted; the ch\ild was a 

 male child, and the grandmother called him Dekanahwideh. 



The child grew up rapidly, and when he had become a young 

 man he said : " The time has come when I should begin to perform 

 my duty in this world. I will therefore begin to build my canoe 

 and by tomorrow I must have it completed because there is work 

 for me to do tomorrow when I go away to the eastward." 



^ She dreamed, waagoi'she°dukse^a. To guess the meaning of a dream, 

 third person, plural, present, Hodinowaiya'ha. 



2 Ne"ga'ihwiio'ne"skaii'no^'khu (Seneca), literally. The good message (or 

 edict), the power. 



