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4. The Woman Who Married a Great Serpent

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A woman and her only daughter lived together in a fine bark lodge on the outskirts of a village. The daughter was attractive in form and feature, but haughty and proud in her bearing. Many young warriors had made proposals of marriage to her through her mother. Her customary reply was, “That man is not as fine looking and handsome as I want a man to be.” Her mother, however, remonstrated with her often on her too haughty manner and selfish pride, but she disdainfully disregarded her mother’s advice.

One day the mother and daughter started off into the forest to gather wood. When they were far from home darkness came upon them, which was so intense that the mother said to her daughter, “I think we may as well gather bark to make a temporary shelter and wood to make a fire, so that we can remain overnight in this place.” So they constructed a temporary lodge and kindled a cheerful fire, and made the necessary preparations to stay there overnight. After preparing and eating their evening meal they sat down on opposite sides of the fire to rest and converse together.

Suddenly, while the mother was dozing, a man came and stood beside the girl. When she looked up at him she was amazed and [87]charmed by his great beauty of face and form. He wore a wampum sash around his body and a fine headdress with black eagle plumes waving over it. His entire person seemed to shine with paint and oil. Without ceremony he informed the young woman that he had come to marry her and that he would await her answer. Answering him, the young woman said, “I will first tell my mother what you have said, and when I get her reply I will talk to you again.” The strange man stood near the fire while waiting for an answer from the two women.

The young woman told her mother what he had said to her, and her mother answered, “You must do as you yourself like. You have already refused a great many men without good cause, so far as I know. Now, therefore, it is for you to decide what you must do in this case. You must please yourself.” With this equivocal response the girl went back to the man and gave him her mother’s answer, adding, “I have decided to become your wife. You may follow me to my mother”; then she took her seat at his side. When they had been to talk to the mother they returned to the fireside. He seemed to the mother also a very handsome man; so she agreed to the marriage and the two became husband and wife.

Then the young man said to his young wife, “I want you to accompany me to my own lodge tonight.” Then removing the beautiful wampum sash, he gave it to her for her mother, saying, “This shall be a sign for your mother that we are married.” The mother received it and hung it up, for she was much pleased with it. Then the man and his wife started off toward his lodge. As they traveled on the wife could see in the distance a large clearing, at one end of which she saw a lodge which her husband pointed out to her as his. They went into it, and the people within seemed to be delighted to see her; so she sat down in her husband’s seat. They passed that night and the next day together. On the second day the young husband said, “I am going out to hunt.”

He went out. When he closed the door the young woman heard a very strange noise; she did not know what to think of it. Then all became still. In the evening she heard sounds of the same kind. Then the door was flung aside and a tremendous serpent, with his tongue darting from his mouth, entered the lodge and placed his head in the lap of the young woman, asking her to hunt in it for vermin. She found in his head a large number of bloodsuckers, angleworms, and other noisome insects.8 She killed all she found, whereupon then the serpent slowly withdrew from the lodge and disappeared.

In a moment the young woman’s husband came into the lodge and he appeared to her handsome as ever. He asked his wife, “Were you afraid of me when I came in a short time ago?” She replied, “No; I [88]was not afraid at all.” The next day he went hunting again. As he started out of the lodge and closed the door she again heard the same strange sounds that she had heard the day before. About midday she went forth to get fuel for the fire and to bring water to the lodge. While thus engaged she saw a huge serpent sunning himself upon the rocks; then another, and soon another; and she began to be very homesick and disheartened.

In the evening her husband came home as before. After he had gone out to hunt the third time she began seriously to think of escaping from the terrible place in which she found herself, and firmly resolved to try to do so. She went into the forest to gather wood, and while standing there she heard a voice; turning toward the direction from which it seemed to come she saw a very old man. When she looked into his face he said: “My poor grandchild, you are very unfortunate. The seeming man to whom you are married is evil and wicked. We have tried many times to kill him, but he is very cunning and crafty, hence we have not yet been able to destroy him. He is one of seven brothers. They are all great sorcerers, and like all such evil persons their hearts are not in their bodies. Their hearts are tied in a bunch of seven, which is carefully hidden9 under the couch of the eldest one. You must now get it and escape with it. My friends and I will help you all we can. Do as I have instructed you.”

Going quickly to the lodge, she found indeed the seven hearts tied in a bunch, which hung under the couch as the old man had said. Placing it under her robe, she fled out of the lodge as rapidly as possible and ran at top speed. Soon she heard a voice calling to her, “Stop! Come back!” but she rushed on as fast as she could. Then the voice said, “You may think that you can, but you can not escape me, no matter how you may try.” All her strength seemed to leave her: but at that moment her grandfather was at her side, saying, “I shall aid you now, my grandchild,” and, taking hold of her robe, he pulled her out of the water. Then for the first time she saw that she had been in the water all the time. A great black cloud was above them, and she saw the Lightning flash, and the Thunder began to shoot his arrows, and the Wind lashed the water into great foaming waves. In a few moments the young woman saw that her grandfather had killed a great and terrible serpent. She saw also standing on the shore men resembling her grandfather, who thanked her for the aid she had been to them in killing the great serpent and his progeny; for the old grandfather had blasted the bunch of hearts with the lightnings and had shot them with his arrows, thus killing the serpent and his offspring. These other men drew the great serpent out of the water and cut him in pieces. They stuck the head on a pole, whereupon the head appeared to her more fierce and ugly [89]than before. Then her grandfather said, “Now, my grandchild, you must go home with us.” After packing suitable loads of the serpent’s flesh they started for home, each with a load of the meat on his back.10

In a short time they came to what seemed to her to be a lodge, which they entered; there the young woman saw an old man whose hair was as white as snow and whose manner and voice were kind. To him the leader of the party said, “This woman of the human family has helped us to kill the great serpent and his progeny.” The old man, looking up at her, said, “My granddaughter, I am indeed thankful for the great help you have given us in killing that awful serpent and his wicked progeny.” While she was sitting there the old man said, “My granddaughter, come here to my side.” When she stood beside him he rubbed her body up and down with his hands, fortified with his orenda. Whereupon several young serpents crawled from her; these were killed at once by the men. Then the old man, remarking “You are now entirely well,” bade her to be seated.

While she remained in this lodge the younger people went out to hunt when they had the inclination to do so. They would bring corn for her to eat, as they knew she could not eat their food, which was in large measure the flesh of the serpents. They would tell her where they had gathered the corn, and they told her also the names of the people from whom they had taken it; she recognized the names of some of the people mentioned.

One day the old man said to his sons, “Perhaps it would be better for you to take the young woman with you to hunt. She shall thus secure more orenda.” The sons agreed to this, saying, “It is well.” They told her that one of their number was missing, saying, “Deep in the great waters there is a terrible bloodsucker lying on a rock. One of our number shot at it, but he was not quick enough to avoid the rush of the great bloodsucker, and he was caught by it. He lies there on the rock, and we can not save him, nor can we kill the bloodsucker. But you will go with us, will you not?” She consented to go, and they started for the place.

When they arrived at the place they looked down into the water, far into its depths, and there they saw the great bloodsucker. All these men went high up into the clouds and shot arrows down into the water at the great bloodsucker, but they all failed to hit it. Then they asked the young woman to shoot an arrow. Willingly she took her bow and arrows and shot into the water at the monster. The great bloodsucker moved. At her second shot there was a terrible struggle and commotion in the water. When all became quiet again, and while she was still up in the clouds with the men, they saw that the great bloodsucker was dead. Just as soon as the monster [90]died their brother got loose and came up to them, and they all rejoiced and then went to their home.

After the woman had been with them about a year the old man said to his sons: “I think that it is time that this young woman should go home to her mother,” and to her the old man said, “You must not do any kind of work—pounding or chopping. You must keep quiet for ten days at your home.”

When the time was up they took her toward home. She thought that they walked along as ordinary people do. When they neared her mother’s lodge they told her to do just as her grandfather had requested her to do. She then saw that she was standing in water. A heavy shower of rain had just passed over the earth. Her mother’s home was near at hand and, bidding her well-going, they left her. She reached home in due time and her mother was delighted to see her long-lost child.

She observed her grandfather’s injunction for nine entire days without any desire to break his command. But on the tenth day the women of her family urged her to help them in their work. At first she refused, saying that she could not do so. They urged her so hard, however, that finally she struck one blow with the corn-pounder, whereupon the mortar split in two and the corn fell to the ground. The orenda of the Thunders had not entirely left her yet. This was why the old man had enjoined her not to work for ten days.