The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-10-05
A Legend Of the Seneca Indians.

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his lodge behind the sheet of water which
pours down at the Falls of Niagara. Fol
a very long time he dwelt there, astonish-
ing the Indians with his stunning peals,
but never ventr1ring forth to practice his
strange art before their eyes. They could
hear him and knew he was there but
never as vet had he been seen; nor is it al
all likely that he or the effects of the sun
would ever have been seen but for a
little incident, the results of which
brought him forth.
A young and beautiful maiden residing
at Seneca Village, just above the falls,
had been contracted in marriage by her
father to an old man of disagreeable
manners and hideous person. She at
once resolved to seek death rather than
drag out the life of misery which such a
union must bring about; and with this OBJ
ject in view she launched forth from the
village in a bark canoe and swept down
the rapids of Niagara, singing her own
death song until she took the awful leap.
But death was not ready for her. Herno,
the Thunder-spirit, happened to be wide
awake; and when he saw her coming
down among the foaming waters he coolly
caught her in his blanket and conveyed
her to his home behind the falls.
Of course, the maiden had romance
enough about her to be grateful for all
this, more especially when she found she
was entirely beyond the reach of the mon
ster her "cruel pa-ri-ent'' had selected to
comfort her through life. She fell upon
the neck of the Thunderer and wept sweet
tears. The tears softened his stern heart,
and led him to smooth back if not to toy
with her golden tresses. In short, to hur-
ry through long story, they got to billing
and cooing-they fell in love-they made
the interesting affair known to each other;
and the wronged though beautiful maiden
spirit. And, as a matter of course, she
was very happy.
About this time the Senecas of the viii
lage above the falls were visited with a
pestilence which swept them off by hun
dreds, and while some prayed to the Great
Spirit for help, others gathered around the
cataract and sent in their petitions to
Herno. The tale of their sufferings moved
the Thunderer, and he sent the maiden forth
to tell her people that monstrous SER
pent was dwelling beneath their village,
just below the surface of the ground; that
it was depending upon their bodies for
food, and that it came forth at the end of
every moon aud poisoned the waters, in
order that they might die and be buried
within its reach.
AS soon as the Indians learned this
they pulled up and moved to another To-
cality; consequently when the great SER
pent poisoned the waters as usual, the
earth brought him no food. This was an
affair so strange that he crawled forth to
see what it meant, when, to his surprise,
he found the village was deserted.
With many curses on the head of the
Thunderer, as the author of his misfor-
fune, the serpent took the trail of the re-
treating Indians and started away in hot
pursuit.
The maiden still loved her people, and
when she saw the serpent moving on to
effect their further destruction she APP
pealed to her husband to arrest him.
Herno was not deaf to her entreaties, and
so he stepped forth from his hiding place
and launched Kissing bolt after the ser
pent, which struck him just as he was en-
deavoring to cross the narrows just above
the falls.
The wound produced was fatal one,
and the great monster fioated down the
stream and lodged upon the verge of the
cataract, stretching nearly from shore to
shore. The swift waters were damned
up by the obstruction; but they finally
broke through the rocks behind, and thus
the whole top of the falls upon which the
snake rested was precipitated with it into
the abyss below, excepting small Dor
ton which is now known as Goat Island.
1t almost entirely ruined the home of
the Thunderer, for it reduced the great
space behind the waters to very narrow
compass. lie still occupies it as Sleep
ing apartment, however, and you may
now hear him snoring under there as you
stand on the shore; but if he would exer-
else himself in his favorite pastime of
throwing thunderbolts he is forced to
come forth into space less limited.
Unreasonable as this myth may sound,
there can be no doubt that the Senecas be-
lieved every word of it. When they were
to be met with in the Niagara country
they pointed out place near the mouth of
Cayuga Creek, where the banks were
shelved out III semi-clrcular form, and
declared that it had been done by the
serpent in his death throes after having
been wounded by Hernos thunderbolt.
And to this tradition may be attributed
their custom of putting away their dead
upon scaffolds above ground instead of
burying them.-St Louis ReDubLicnn