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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



At one time, O-na-tah had two companions, the spirits of the 

 bean and the squash. In the olden time, when the bean, corn and 

 squash were planted in one hill, these three sister plant spirits, the 

 De-o-ha-ko were never separated. Each was clothed in the plant 

 which she guarded. The Spirit of the Squash was crowned with 

 the flaunting gold trumpet blossoms of its foliage, and the Spirit of 

 the Bean was arrayed in the clinging leaves of its winding vine, its 

 velvety pods swinging to the summer breeze. 



One day when O-na-tah had wandered astray in search of the 

 lost dews, Hah-gweh-da-et-gah, capturing her, sent one of his 

 monsters to blight her fields, and the Spirits of the Squash and the 

 Bean fled before the death winds which pursued them. 



Hah-gweh-da-et-gah imprisoned O-na-tah in his darkness under 

 the earth, where she languished, lamenting her lost fields; when a 

 searching sun ray discovered her and guided her back to her lands. 



Bewailing the desolation of the blight, and mourning the deser- 

 tion of her sister spirits of the bean and the squash, O-na-tah made 

 a vow to the Sun that she would never leave her fields again; and 

 now she holds her vigils alone, separated from her sister plants. 



If her fields thirst, she can not leave them to summon the dews. 

 When the Flame Spirit of the Sun burns the maize, O-na-tah dare 

 not search the skies for Ga-oh, to implore him to unleash the 

 winds and fan her lands. When great rains fall and blight her 

 fields, the voice of O-na-tah grows faint, and the Sun can not hear; 

 yet, faithful, she watches and guards, never abandoning her fields 

 till the maize is ripe. 



When O-na-tah brings the planting season, her crow flocks 

 know, and the birds whirl and call in the sky. When invoking the 

 aid of the sun, O-na-tah scatters her first corn over her broad lands, 

 the birds flutter down and hunt the foes that follow the roots in the 

 earth. 



When the maize stalks bend low, O-na-tah is folding the husks 

 to the pearly grains that the dews will nourish in their screening 



true sustenance." It is interesting to note that among the ancient Aztecs the spirit of the 

 maize was called Tonacayohua, She Feeds Us. 



In the rites of the green corn thanksgiving the Dio-he'-ko are saluted in the words daiet- 

 i-non-nioh dio-he'-ko, we salute our true living. 



The Seneca women have, (and probably all the other Iroquois had), a society called the 

 To-wiis'-sas, a society composed solely of women. The Towi'sas people call themselves 

 the friends of the Dio-he'-ko. Their object is to attend to the wishes of Naidiohe'ko, spirits 

 of the three sisters, and preserve the rite by which they may be supplicated. 



Owing to the capture of an entire lodge on its march from one village to another, two 

 warriors are now admitted as guards and to keep them interested the women have them 

 sing one part of their ritual while the women, for a ceremonial purpose (not because of 

 appreciation), clap their hands. 



