IROQUOIS MYTHS AND LEGENDS 47 



Listeners, great birds who fly far above the Sun and can see all 

 that passes below. They hear every sound and know every voice 

 in the heavens, and watch the soft winds which waft the summer 

 clouds to gather the showers; and when the Fire Spirit suffocates 

 the Earth, they speed to her voice, and bear it to O-se-ha-da-gaar 

 who waits in his lodge. 1 



Then O-se-ha-da-gaar hears; and pluming for flight, pushes the 

 skies far apart, obscuring the Sun with his vast spreading wings 

 as they dip to the east and the west fanning gentle breezes, and 

 mist veils the skies as through his fluttering wings he sifts down 

 from his lake the dews to refresh the famishing Earth. 



Then all nature revives, the Fire Spirit flees; the parching Earth 

 bares her broad breast to the falling dews; her glad rivers and 

 lakes rejoice, and her harvests rise to new life. 



At the Harvest Feast of the Iroquois, the Creator is thanked for 

 having bestowed upon the people the guarding vigilance of He-no, 

 and is implored not to withdraw from them his power, which con- 

 trols the gentle rains in the seedtime and the dews in the ripening. 



O-GA-NYO-DA AND SAIS-TAH-GO-WA, THE RAINBOW AND THE 



SERPENT 



Twins : Hah-gweh-di-yu, the Good Minded ; Hah-gweh-da-et-gah, the 

 Bad Minded. Ga-oh, Spirit of the Winds. He-no, the Thunderer 



In the creation of the earth, which the Turtle bears upon its 

 back, the Sky Woman gave birth to the twins, Hah-gweh-di-yu, 

 and Hah-gweh-da-et-gah; and with their birth, Good and Evil 

 came upon the Earth; for Hah-gweh-da-et-gah was bad minded, 

 and between the brothers there was continual strife. Hah-gweh- 

 di-yu, the Good Minded, was ever striving to create all things 

 beautiful, which angered Hah-gweh-da-et-gah, who sought only to 

 disfigure and destroy. 



Hah-gweh-di-yu created beautiful rivers, and planted high hills 

 to guard their peaceful flow through the valleys, which enraged 

 Hah-gweh-da-et-gah, who brought forth Sais-tah-go-wa, a sea 

 monster, directing him to enter and destroy them. Sais-tah-go-wa, 



1 In some respects the Dew Eagle has its counterpart in the Thunder Bird of the Dakota s 

 and Algonquins. In the instances of the Dew Eagle and the Thunderer we have example s 

 of the complex character of the Iroquoian mythology. The Eagle (Thunder Bird) ha 

 been stripped of the thunder power with which the other races endowed him. Hi"no ha s 

 taken the thunder and rain-making office but the Eagle is made the dew maker and labor s 

 faithfully when Hi"no fails to come. 



There is a legend that an enormous white eagle will come from the east ocean and battle 

 with the Dew Eagle until he dies. Then will the Ongweh'owe no longer have woods and 

 fields, but dry desert places where they will starve. The Indians' Dew Eagle has probably 

 been dead for some time. 



