Education Department Bulletin 



Published fortnightly by the University of the State of New York 



Entered as second-class matter June 24, 1908, at the Post Office at Albany, N. Y., under 



the act of July 16, 1894 



No. 437 ALBANY, N. Y. December 15, 1908 



New York State Museum 



John M. Clarke, Director 

 Museum bulletin 125 



MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE NEW YORK STATE 



IROQUOIS 



BY 



HARRIET MAXWELL CONVERSE 



(Ya-ie-wa-noh) 



EDITED AND ANNOTATED BY 



ARTHUR CASWELL PARKER 

 ^Ga-wa-so-wa-neh) 



PREFATORY NOTE 



One may not hope to read a primitive culture from the record 

 of its workmanship alone, although this is often the only avenue 

 remaining by which a lost culture may be approached. The 

 mentality of a primitive people living close to nature mirrors the 

 supreme law of the universe in its simplest and most elemental 

 expressions; it clothes with individuality the manifestation of this 

 law, gives words to its unconscious forces and thoughts to its 

 living agents; it reads, suffused in a wealth of imagery, the 

 spiritual law in the natural world or embellishes some historical 

 event. Such simple and unembarrassed expressions, transmitted 

 not by records of hand but from mouth to mouth through the 

 generations, are priceless to the student who finds in a progressed 



