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  SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION----BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.


  MYTHS

  OF

  THE IROQUOIS.


  BY

  ERMINNIE A. SMITH.




CONTENTS.

                                                              Page.
  CHAPTER I.--GODS AND OTHER SUPERNATURAL BEINGS                 51
    Hi-nun destroying the giant animals                          54
    A Seneca legend of Hi-nun and Niagara                        54
    The Thunderers                                               55
    Echo God                                                     58
    Extermination of the Stone Giants                            59
    The North Wind                                               59
    Great Head                                                   59
    Cusick's story of the dispersion of the Great Heads          62
    The Stone Giant's wife                                       62
    The Stone Giant's challenge                                  63
    Hiawatha and the Iroquois wampum                             64

  CHAPTER II.--PIGMIES                                           65
    The warrior saved by pigmies                                 65
    The pigmies and the greedy hunters                           66
    The pigmy's mission                                          67

  CHAPTER III.--PRACTICE OF SORCERY                              68
    The origin of witches and witch charms                       69
    Origin of the Seneca medicine                                70
    A "true" witch story                                         71
    A case of witchcraft                                         72
    An incantation to bring rain                                 72
    A cure for all bodily injuries                               73
    A witch in the shape of a dog                                73
    A man who assumed the shape of a hog                         73
    Witch transformations                                        74
    A superstition about flies                                   74

  CHAPTER IV.--MYTHOLOGIC EXPLANATION OF PHENOMENA               75
    Origin of the human race                                     76
    Formation of the Turtle Clan                                 77
    How the bear lost his tail                                   77
    Origin of medicine                                           78
    Origin of wampum                                             78
    Origin of tobacco                                            79
    Origin of plumage                                            79
    Why the chipmunk has the black stripe on his back            80
    Origin of the constellations                                 80
    The Pole Star                                                81

  CHAPTER V.--TALES                                              83
    Boy rescued by a bear                                        83
    Infant nursed by bears                                       84
    The man and his step-son                                     85
    The boy and his grandmother                                  86
    The dead hunter                                              87
    A hunter's adventures                                        88
    The old man's lesson to his nephew                           89
    The hunter and his faithless wife                            90
    The charmed suit                                             92
    The boy and the corn                                         96
    The lad and the chestnuts                                    97
    The guilty hunters                                           99
    Mrs. Logan's story                                          100
    The hunter and his dead wife                                103
    A sure revenge                                              104
    Traveler's jokes                                            107
    Kingfisher and his nephew                                   108
    The wild-cat and the white rabbit                           110

  CHAPTER VI.--RELIGION                                         112
    New Year's festival                                         112
    Tapping the maple trees                                     115
    Planting corn                                               115
    Strawberry festival                                         115
    Green-corn