IROQUOIS MYTHS AND LEGENDS 



175 



rest. At these moments the forest folk vanish but the winged 

 light returns to cheer him. 



He thirsts: an invisible bird, bearing the night dew in the hollow 

 between its wings, brings him a drink. 



He hungers: an invisible animal brings him food that nourishes 

 him. 



Thus refreshed he wanders on, at intervals, until he reaches a 

 frowning mountain of rocky steeps that are insurmountable by 

 human will or skill. 



As this monster mountain threatens the chief the east sky seems 

 nearer to him, the voice of the wiiip-poor-will grows faint and at 

 last silent, the forest folk have fled, the winged light does not 

 return, yet the deserted chief believes and waits. 



At last in the distance of the fair skies he hears the screaming of 

 an eagle. He is suddenly possessed with a power that leads him 

 up the mountain, where he finds at its summit nothing but rocks 

 and barrenness, except one majestic plant that stretches its leaves 

 far out toward the east, west, south and north skies. 



A voice directs him to divide the plant into two portions. As 

 he cuts it, a stream of blood flows from the wound down the rock 

 side. A substance is laid in his hand which the voice bids him 

 hold close to the bleeding plant stalk, whereupon, the prostrate 

 plant lifts itself and its wound closes, leaving no sign to tell of its 

 bruise save a seed sheathed, tasseled and golden. This is the maize 

 or wild corn plant. In this manner was the chief endowed with 

 life's great restorer, the medicine, the Ne-gar-na-gar-ah. 



How the medicine is dispensed today 



The conventions of this society are held four times a year ; when 

 the deer sheds its coat, at the berry moon, when the corn is ripe 

 and in midwinter. 



The curative handed down from the chief is held by one medicine 

 man or " mystery man " of a nation or league of nations, and at 

 these conventions is distributed by him to certain bands of the 

 order who are entitled to use it for the people. This head man 

 holds the secret of compounding the restorer until his death warn- 

 ing when he reveals it to his successor whom he has a right to 

 choose. It is told that " he who holds the medicine " never dies 

 suddenly, for, as the red men say, " he has time to die." 



Tradition says that when the medicine is exhausted the red 

 man will disappear from the earth. It is a fact that the medicine 



