IROQUOIS MYTHS AND LEGENDS 



63 



And thus he remains So-son-do-wah, the human hunter, who 

 yet yearns for the star which has never known him. 



After the disappearance of So-son-do-wah, game multiplied in 

 the forests and the deer stalked unafraid. The Sky Elk, who 

 roams restlessly in the celestial hunting grounds, frequently visits 

 the earth but returns before sunlight. 



The Iroquois relate that the Sun lights his council fire by the 

 torch of the Star Woman before he appears above the horizon. 



This Star Woman of the Iroquois, who precedes the sun in the 

 east sky, is the morning star 1 of the paleface. 



O-NA-TAH AND THE GA-GAAH, SPIRIT OF THE CORN, AND THE 



CROW 



Hah-gweh-di-yu, the Good Minded. Hah-gweh-da-et-gah, the Bad 

 Minded. Ga-oh, Spirit of the Winds 



Ga-gaah, the Crow 2 



Among the birds which came from the sun land, Ga-gaah carried 

 in his ear a grain of corn which Hah-gweh-di-yu planted above the 

 body of his Mother (the earth), and it became the first grain, the 

 "life" of the red man. By this birthright, Ga-gaah, claiming his 

 share, hovers above the fields, guarding the young roots from the 

 foes which infest them. 



O-na-tah, Spirit of the Corn 



O-na-tah, Spirit of the Corn, and patroness of the fields, brings 

 the planting season to the earth. 



O-na-tah, chaste in her virgin beauty — the sun touches her dusky 

 face with the blush of the morning, and her eyes grow soft as the 

 gleam of the stars that floats on dark streams. Her night-black 

 hair flares to the breeze like the wind-driven cloud that unveils the 

 sun. As she walks the air draped in her maize, its blossoms plume 

 to the sun, and its fringing tassels play with the rustling leaves in 

 whispering promises to the waiting fields. Night follows her dim 

 way with the dews, and Day guides the beams that leap from the 

 sun to her path. And the great Mother (earth) loves O-na-tah 

 who brings to her children, the red men, their life-giving 3 grain. 



1 The Iroquois call the morning star, Gen-defi'-wit-ha, It Brings the Day. 



2 The crow and raven are among the most magical of all the " medicine " creatures. 

 The Iroquois believed that the crows possessed great intelligence and sagacity since they 

 " hold councils and have chiefs." The spirits of the crow and the raven figure prominently 

 in the rituals of the Little Waters Society and the Ih'-dos Company. 



3 The three vegetables, the corn, beans and squash were known to the Onondagas as 

 tu-ne-ha-kwe meaning " these we live on," and to the Senecas as Dio-he'-ko, meaning " our 



