Читать книгу Seneca Fiction, Legends, and Myths - Jeremiah Curtin - Страница 64

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36. The Dagwanoenyent (Daughter of the Wind) and Her Husband

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There were a nephew and an uncle, who lived together in a bark lodge in the woods. The uncle gave the nephew nothing to eat, making him live on fungus. He told him he must not go north to collect fungus, but always south. The uncle himself went hunting every day but brought back no game. At home he lived on chestnut pudding and bear’s oil. The nephew could not find out for a long time how he made the pudding, but at last he discovered the process. The uncle had a little pot and a chestnut. He would put the least bit of chestnut into the pot, saying, “Watchisgwengo, Swell, Pudding.” Thereupon the mush would increase in quantity.

The next day after his discovery the boy did just as he had seen his uncle do, with the result that he had a good meal of chestnut pudding. He did likewise every day while his uncle was hunting. Then he began to wonder why his uncle forbade him to go northward. After thinking over the matter a few days, he determined to go in that direction notwithstanding his uncle’s injunction.

The boy started on his journey, traveling until he came to a Long Lodge. In the lodge was a great supply of venison and bear meat, and skin bags of bear’s oil were hanging all around the wall. The only person within was a woman, who was sitting in the middle of the room, with her head bent down. There was also a small boy toddling around, who clapped his hands and laughed when he saw the young man. The woman took no notice of him. The young man played a while with the child. After a time he started for home, taking with him a small piece of meat which he had filched. The uncle, returning home, prepared his pudding in secret as before.

Thus it happened every day from year to year. It was the custom for the old man to set out to hunt and for the young man to go to the Long Lodge to play with the little boy. The woman never moved nor spoke.

The little boy of the Long Lodge was about 15 when one day he said to the young man: “You and I are cousins. Your uncle is my father and that woman sitting there is my mother.” The nephew then asked, “Why does she never speak?” He asked her various questions, but she would not answer him a word. Thereupon with his bow and arrow he shot at a bag of bear’s oil which hung above [188]her head. The arrow pierced the bag and the oil flowing out fell upon the woman’s head and face. This made her very angry, but she did not speak.

Now, all the meat in the lodge was the game which the uncle of the young man killed and brought in every day. He never came there until late in the day while the nephew went home early, so that in all these years they had never met at the Long Lodge. When the uncle came that evening he found the bag broken and the oil spilt over the woman. He suspected that his nephew had been there. On reaching his own lodge that night he asked, “Have you been at the Long Lodge?” “Oh, yes,” said the nephew; “I have been going there for the last 13 years. I have always eaten of the meat there. I have not eaten fungus for many years.” The uncle was very angry, and asked him whether he broke the bag containing the bear’s oil. “Yes,” the young man answered. “Oh! you have destroyed us both, I fear. That woman is an awful witch. She can not be killed. She will ruin us both,” said the uncle.

The next day the uncle went off again. But that time the nephew remained at home. During the day, raising the cover of his uncle’s couch, he found a great pot. This he filled with water, putting in also a good-sized piece of the chestnut, for he was very angry with his uncle. When the pot boiled, he began to strike it, saying, “Swell, Pot! Swell, Pot!” When it came up as high as the bed, he climbed on the bed. On the pot rising higher, he climbed on the shelf, which extended around the side of the lodge. When it rose as high as that, he climbed out of the smoke hole on the roof, enjoying immensely the increase of the pudding, knowing how terribly angry his uncle would be when he returned in the evening.

When his uncle came home he said to the boy, “What have you been doing?” “Making chestnut pudding,” declared the nephew. “Oh! it is too bad,” exclaimed the uncle. “Oh! that is an old story with me. I have been eating chestnut pudding for 15 years,” declared the boy. “By doing this you will destroy us both,” said the uncle, who was more angry than ever before. “You have enraged that woman. She will never stop her revenge until she has killed us both,” continued the uncle.

They went to bed, the old man feeling very bad. Just at daybreak the next morning they heard a terrible noise away off in the distance. The trees began to moan. The sound grew louder and louder. The two anxious watchers heard the cracking of branches and the falling of trees. They said the most awful tempest they had ever heard was coming, with the woman right in the midst of the storm. Sweeping down on the lodge and tearing it up from the ground, she caught up the uncle and bore him away. The nephew had hidden, so she did not find him. [189]

That day the boy, going to the Long Lodge as before, found the old woman sitting there, mute and motionless, as if nothing had happened in the meantime. He asked the other boy, “What has your mother done with your father?” “Oh! you will never see him again. She will come for you tomorrow morning. I do not know what she has done with my father, but she went off with him and came back without him,” declared the boy.

The nephew of the man went home to prepare for the coming of the woman. He had a mole for his guardian. He got inside of the mole, which, instructed by him, went down into the ground under the lodge as deep as he could. The next morning the woman came again with terrible fury, raging worse than before. She uprooted all the trees in her path, but she could not find the nephew, so she had to go away without him.

Soon afterward the nephew went again to the Long Lodge. There sat the woman, motionless as before. “Oh!” said the small boy, “she went for you this morning, but could not find you. Where were you?” “I was right there,” replied the nephew of the man.

Then the nephew went home. The next morning at daybreak a similar tempest came; but the boy was down in the ground, inside the mole, so that the woman could not find him. Thereupon, making herself into a great whirlwind, and digging a deep hole in the ground, she lifted the earth to the sky, carrying the mole along in the dirt. The mole fell, but escaped, while the boy was killed. The old woman went home well satisfied.

The mole went immediately to work, however, and by blowing the breath into the boy’s mouth and withdrawing it brought him back to life.

After that the nephew set out to find where his uncle was, going northward. He went beyond the Long Lodge, traveling as fast as he could all day and night and carrying the mole with him. The next morning at daybreak the witch again came after him in a terrible tempest. Once more getting into the mole, he went into the ground, where she could not find him, so she went home to the Long Lodge. He traveled the second day as fast as he could. On the third morning the woman came still again in a roaring tempest. Finding that the nephew was in the mole, she made once more a whirlwind, which scooped up the earth, leaving a great hole, and carried him in the dirt far up into the clouds. The mole falling to the earth, the boy was killed. The witch went home satisfied. The mole, by again working over the dead nephew, brought him back to life. Whereupon the latter, putting the mole into his belt, ran on as fast as he could all the third day. That night he spent deep down in the great rocks of a mountain. [190]

On the fourth morning at daybreak the woman came in a tempest, as before, but could not find the nephew. The same day he traveled until he came upon a lodge in an opening, like the other Long Lodge, which was supplied with everything; there, under the roots of a great elm tree near the lodge he found his uncle. The tree was standing on his breast, and his feet were sticking out at one side and his head at the other. He was reduced to skin and bones. He begged for a smoke, exclaiming, “Oh, my nephew! if only I could have a smoke.” “Poor uncle! I will get you a smoke,” said the nephew, and pushing the tree down he gave him a smoke. After smoking, the uncle arose, well. He and the nephew then went into the lodge, where they remained together two or three days.

One morning at daybreak the tempest came again. By watching the young man had found that the witch came in a narrow path and that it was possible to get out of her course. So he told his uncle to run westward, keeping out of her path, for she was the wind. The nephew himself stayed at home to meet her, going into the ground again, and again she dug him up and killed him. She went home contented, but the mole brought him to life. Then he followed her immediately to the lodge, where he found her sitting motionless. Shooting an arrow at the witch, he killed her. Then forming a great pile of dry bark, wood, and bear’s oil, he burned the body thereon, throwing the bones far away in every direction. When he had finished this task he said to the small boy, “We will go to my uncle, your father.” They went together to the old man and lived at the second Long Lodge for a few days.

But the witch came to life, and suspecting that they were at the Long Lodge, she went there in a terrible rage. Now the nephew, determined to meet her alone, sent his uncle and the boy away. He himself kept out of her path, for he had discovered her habits and her strength. He had learned also that after a certain time her force was spent, so that she became weak and could not go fast. He kept swerving to one side, therefore, until she turned into a whirlwind, and even afterward. When all her strength was spent and she had not found him the witch turned to go home. She had to walk, for she could no longer go through the air. Then, following her, the nephew killed her with his arrows. Thereupon he called his uncle and cousin. They burned her body to ashes and taking all the larger bones to the second Long Lodge they there pounded them into powder. This powder the nephew divided into three portions, each one of which he put in one of three skin bags, which he tied tight. One bag he gave to his uncle, another he gave to his cousin, and the third he put into his own pouch, saying: “I will keep it here. She shall never come to life again. When we are in a storm we must [191]always keep apart, so that the force that is in these powders can not unite.”

Then the three went to the first Long Lodge, where there was a large supply of every kind of dried meat, and they lived together, prosperous and happy.