The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1876-12-02
IA Legend of the Seneca Indians.

MS louSG Denlnu tnc Sileet OF water
which pours down ut the falls OF Mag
ara For long time he dwelt there,
astonishing the Indians with his stun
ming peals, but never venturing forth to
practice his strange art before their
eyes. They could hear him, and knew
he was there; but never as yet had he
been seen; nor is it at all likely that he
or the effects of the sun would have
been seen but for little incident, the
results of which brought him forth.
A young and beautiful maiden, resid-
ing ut Seneca village. Just above the
falls, had been contracted in marriage
by her father to i'm old man of disagree
able manners and hideous person. She
at once resolved to seek death rather
than drag ont the life of misery which
such union must bring about; and,
with this object in view, she launched
forth from the village in 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 tho
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
monster her cruel PARENT had Sc
lected to comfort her through life. She
fell upon the neck of the Thunder, and
wcpt sweet tears. The tears softened his
stern heart, and led him to smooth buck
if not to toy with her golden tresses. In
short, to hurry through q long story,
they got to billing and cooing-they fell
in love-they made the interesting fact
known to each other; and the wronged
though beautiful maiden became the
wife of Herno, the Thunder spirit.
And, as a matter of course, she was very
happy.
About this time the Scnccas of the
village above the falls were visited with
pesticnce which swept them off by
hundreds. and, while some prayed to
the Great Spirit for help, others gath
cred around the cataract and sent in
their petitions to IIerno. The tale of
their suiferngs moved the Thunderer,
and he sent the maiden forth to tell her
people that II monstrous serpent WAS
dwelling beneath their village, Just be-
low 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 and poisoned the waters,
in order that they might die and be
buried within it's reach.
AS soon Us the Indians learned this,
they pulled up and moved to another
locality; consequently, when the great
serpent 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 de-
serted.
With many curses on the head of the
Thunderer, us the author Of his misior-
tune. the serpent took the trail of the
retreating 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 appealed to her husband to arrest
him. Herno was not deaf to her en-
treaties. and SO he stepped forth from
his hiding-place, and launched hiss
ing bolt after the serpent, which struck
him Just rs he was endeavoring to cross
the narrOws, some distance above the
falls.
The wound produced was fatal one,
and the great monster tloated 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 be-
hind, and thus the whole top of the falls
upon which the snake rested were pre-
cipitated with it into the abyss below,
excepting small portion, 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 Il very mar
row compass. He still occupies it IS Il
sleeping apartment. however, and you
may now hear him snoring under there
as You stand on the shore: but if he
would exercise himself in his favorite
pastime of throwing thunderbolts, he is
forced to come forth into space less linn
tied.
Unreasonable as this myth may sound,
there can be no doubt that the Senecas
believed every word of it. When they
were to be met with in the Niagara
country, they pointed out Il place near
the mouth of Cayuga Creek, where the
banks were shelved out in semi-circu-
lar form, and declared that it had been
done by the serpent in his death throes,
after having been wounded 10y Hernos