IROQUOIS MYTHS AND LEGENDS 



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Then one of the young men said, " Let us wait here awhile and rest 

 ourselves for we may need our strength for greater dangers." 

 So he said. But the other said, " I am rested; we must go onward 

 somehow." When he had so spoken a light came flying over and 

 sang for them to follow it. So they followed the winged light and 

 ascended the mountain and they were helped. The winged light 

 kept singing, " Follow me, follow me, follow me! " And they were 

 safe when they followed and were not afraid. Xow the singing, 

 flying beacon was the whip-poor-will. He led them. After a time 

 the light disappeared but they struggled up the mountainside 

 unaided by its guidance. The way became very stony and it seemed 

 that no one was helping them now and then they wished that 

 their unseen friends would help them, so they made a prayer and 

 threw sacred tobacco on the path. Then the light came again and 

 it was brighter, it glowed like the morning and the way was lighted 

 up. The singing continued all this while and they were nearing 

 its source and they reached the top of the mountain. They looked 

 about for they heard the song near at hand but there was no one 

 there. Then they looked about and saw nothing but a great stalk of 

 corn springing from a flat rock. Its four roots stretched in the four 

 directions, north, east, south and west. The roots lay that way. 

 They listened and discovered that the music emanated from the 

 cornstalk. It was wonderful. The corn was a medicine plant and 

 life was within it. Then the winged light sang for them to cut the 

 root and take a piece for medicine. So they made a tobacco offering 

 and cut the root. As they did red blood flowed out from the cut 

 like human blood and then the cut immediately healed. Then did 

 the unseen speaker say, " This root is a great medicine and now we 

 will reveal the secret of the medicine." So the voices told them the 

 composition of the medicine that had healed the chief and instructed 

 them how to use it. They taught the young men the Ga-no-dah, 

 the medicine song that would make the medicine strong and preserve 

 it. They said that unless the song were sung the medicine would 

 become weak and the animals would become angry because of the 

 neglect of the ceremonies that honored their medicine. There- 

 fore, the holders of the medicine must sing the all-night song for 

 it. And they told them all the laws of the medicine and the sing- 

 ing light guided them back to the spring and it was morning then. 

 The young men returned to their chief and told him the full story 

 of their experiences and he was glad for he said, " The medicine 

 will heal all our wounds." 



It was true, the medicine healed the cuts and wounds made by 



