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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Thereafter the hunter would not kill the eagle, fearing the 

 vampire behind him which might plunder and kill. 

 The dream prophet knew, and could reveal! 



It is the custom of some Indian tribes to kill a bird above the 

 grave of the newly dead, that its spirit may accompany the soul 

 on its way to the lands of the Maker-of-all. Other tribes release 

 a living bird from a cage to typify the release of the spirit from 

 its body. 



The Iroquois says the eagle is the only bird that looks straight 

 into the eyes of the sun. He seeks his prey in the low valleys 

 but has his aery on the pinnacles of the mountain hights. 



GAU-WI-DI-NE AND GO-HAY, WINTER AND SPRING 1 



The snow mountain lifted its head close to the sky; the clouds 

 wrapped around it their floating drifts which held the winter's 

 hail and snowfalls, and with scorn it defied the sunlight which 

 crept over its hight, slow and shivering on its way to the valleys. 



Close at the foot of the mountain, an old man had built him a 

 lodge " for a time," said he, as he packed it around with great 

 blocks of ice. Within he stored piles of wood and corn and dried 

 meat and fish. No person, animal nor bird could enter this lodge, 

 only North Wind, the only friend the old man had. Whenever 

 strong and lusty North Wind passed the lodge he would scream 

 "ugh-e-e-e, ugh-e-e-e, ugh-e-e-e," as with a blast of his blustering 

 breath he blew open the door, and entering, would light his pipe 

 and sit close by the old man's fire and rest from his wanderings 

 over the earth. 



But North Wind came only seldom to the lodge. He was too 

 busy searching the corners of the earth and driving the snows and 

 the hail, but when he had wandered far and was in need of advice, 

 he would visit the lodge to smoke and counsel with the old man 

 about the next snowfall, before journeying to his home in the 

 north sky ; and they would sit by the fire which blazed and glowed 

 yet could not warm them. 



1 Another version, from the Senecas, makes Ha'-to' the Spirit of the Winter and O-swi- 

 n£'-don\ the Spirit of Warmth. The former is described as an old man who skulks about 

 in the woods and raps the trees with his war club, (ga-ji-wa). When the weather is the 

 coldest he is the most active and any one can hear him rapping the trees. It is a very evil 

 thing to imitate the acts of any nature spirit. The penalty is to be captured by the spirit 

 and pressed into its service. Ha'-to' is deathly afraid of blackberries and never visits the 

 earth when they are in blossom. A boy who had mocked Ha'-to' once vanquished him 

 by throwing a pot of blackberry sauce in his face. Thus the Senecas use blackberries in 

 winter as a medicine against frost bites. 



