THE HIAWATHA TRADITION 



Related by Baptist Thomas (Sa ha whi) an Onondaga (Turtle Clan) as 

 he had it from Thomas Commissary (Ostowago'na* Big Feather). 



When a man's heart is heavy with sorrow because of death he 

 wanders aimlessly (wa-he-des-yas-sha-da' / -na'). 1 That is why 

 Ha-yent-watha went away from the Mohawks. His only sister — he 

 had only one sister — died. She was Da-si-yu' and she died. She 

 was not a comely woman but her brother loved her and so Ha-yent- 

 watha mourned and no one came to comfort him. Not one person 

 came to him in his grief to comfort him, therefore his mind was 

 clouded in darkness. His throat was dry and heavy and bitter. 

 So he went away for he did not wish to stay among a people who 

 had no hearts of sympathy for sorrow. The Mohawks had grown 

 callous and so accustomed to troubled times that they did not 

 care for the sorrows of others and even despised the tears of 

 mourners. They were always fighting. Even they sent out war 

 parties among their own relatives in other towns. Hayentwatha 

 often said this was wrong but no one listened to him. So when 

 his great sorrow came he went away. He took a canoe and went 

 upstream. He paddled up the Mohawk river and when he landed 

 to camp he talked to himself about his sorrow. " I would com- 

 fort others in sorrow," he said, " but no one comforts me." 



After a long time he reached the portage and carried his canoe 

 to Wood creek. 2 Here he camped three days. He took up his 

 journey again and camped at one of two islands and went through 

 Oneida lake. Then he went up the river and came to Three River 

 point. Here he heard a broken branch creaking against a tree. It 

 cried giis, giis, giis, so he named this spot Dyo-neda-tonk. So then 

 he went up the river into Onondaga lake. He landed on the north 

 side, (near the present site of Liverpool), 4 and built a hut. Here 

 he made a camp fire and stayed for three days. Then he saw the 

 monster. He was a long way off and he was looking at Hayent- 

 watha. So Hayentwatha moved his camp but the next morning 

 the monster came nearer. This being was Tha-do-da'-ho'. So 

 the next evening Hayentwatha moved his camp again and in the 



1 Onondaga vocabulary. 



2 This portage is called De-hon-yugwha-tha. 



3 Odi-nes'-shi-yii, People of the sand and they shall be of the Snipe Clan. 



4 This spot he named Ga'skwasoetge'. 



