Part 2 

 MYTHS AND LEGENDS 



BY 



HARRIET MAXWELL CONVERSE 



REVISED BY THE EDITOR FROM ROUGH DRAFTS FOUND AMONG 

 MRS CONVERSE'S MANUSCRIPTS 



OTT-WAIS-HA, THE SOUL 



Its journey 



With faith in the immortality of the soul, the Iroquois also 

 believe that each no-twais-ha (soul) has a path which leads from 

 every lodge door direct to the land of the Great Maker, and that 



Chief Cornplanter, of the Senecas, the tribal historian from whom 

 Mrs Converse obtained this legend 



the Ott-wais-ha never loses its identity in the various transmigra- 

 tions through which it must pass toward its final rest. 



In its earth tarrying it frequently leaves its human in the care 

 of its mortal, or material, spirit, to wander throughout the mysteries 

 of space, and in its wingings may enter some other existence, either 

 bird, animal or reptile, there to tarry for a time for knowledge which, 

 when it returns to its human, it will reveal to him in dreams. 



93 



