Manataka American Indian Council
A Man Pursued By His Uncle and His Wife
A Seneca Story
An old man and his nephew lived together in a forest. Their house had a
partition through the middle and a door at each end. The uncle never entered the
part occupied by his nephew, and all communication between the two was held by
each hearing through the partition what the other said to himself. Each
went in and out of his own part of the house when he liked, but neither ever
crossed the threshold of the other part. After a time the nephew discovered his
uncle's true nature--he was a man-eater.
One day a woman came to the young man's part of the house. The next morning the
uncle said, "My nephew has two ways of breathing." The young man,
speaking to himself, said, "My uncle is mistaken, I am talking to
myself." "My nephew can't deceive me," said the old man. There
are two persons in his part of the house. I am glad that game has come to him--I
am going hunting."
When his uncle had gone, the young man said to his wife, "My uncle knows
that you are here, now you must do as I tell you. If you don't he will kill and
eat you. Three women have been here. He killed and ate each one of them, for
they paid no heed to what I told them. Before I go away to hunt, I will bring
wood and water and whatever you want, so you need not go out. If you go out, you
are lost. My uncle will kill you. As soon as I leave the house he will come
back."
The young man started off, but turned back and a second time warned his wife not
to disobey him. The minute the nephew was out of sight in the forest, the uncle
came to the door. The old man had the power of commanding things to be done and
the person had to obey though they didn't hear or see him. He said, "Let
the woman come out!"
But the woman had power also. When he saw that she didn't come out, he said,
"Let the water she is cooking with boil away!" The water boiled away,
but the woman had a plenty more. The old man was angry, and said, "I will
get her out in one way or another." As the young man was coming home, he
saw smoke rising from his part of the house. "All is well," thought
he. "My uncle has not been able to kill my wife." When he went into
the house he praised the woman for her obedience.
That afternoon, about dusk, they heard the old man come into his part of the
house and they knew that he hadn't brought any game. He hunted only for people.
He called out, "What luck has my nephew had to-day." "I have had
good luck," answered the young man. The old man began to mutter to himself,
to blame his nephew for hiding his uncle's game. At last he said, "I will
wait a while then I will have my own." He heard two persons breathe and he
was angry. Determined to have something to eat he pounded bones into bits, put
the bits into a kettle, filled the kettle with water and hanging it over the
fire made soup.
The young man and his wife were silent. The man had decided to leave his uncle
and his plans were laid. He had walked in circles around the house making each
circle larger than the preceding one till he had a ring three days' journey in
circuit and now he told his wife what she must do. That night the uncle said,
"I am going away for a while. I can find no game around here."
"Well," answered the nephew, "hunters, go where they can find
something to kill and they are often gone a long time. I am going farther
myself. Game is getting scarce in our neighborhood."
The young man had power. He caused a house to appear in a place six days'
journey away, then he told his wife about the house, and said, "I have a
brother there and I am going to send you to him. This brother is invisible. No
stranger has ever seen him. Hitherto he has accompanied me, but now he will aid
you."
The young man took an arrow from his quiver, shook his wife till she was only a
couple of inches long, then, taking off the flint point of the arrow, he put her
inside the arrow and replacing the point, said, "In three days I will
follow you."
Putting his arrow on the bow string he drew it and sent the arrow to the East.
That instant the call of a woodpecker was heard. The feathers on the arrow were
from that bird, and all the way the arrow sang with the voice of a woodpecker.
The young man could see the trail that the arrow left as it went through the
air. He went back to the cabin, and waited. In three days his uncle came, but
without game. Talking to himself he asked, "What luck has my nephew
had?" "Good luck," said the young man. "I have a plenty to
eat." "I found nothing," said the old man. "This hunting
ground is barren, my eyes see no more game. But if I have no fresh meat I have
bones. I'll break them up and make soup." Then the nephew heard his uncle
breaking bones--there was a terrible noise. At last the young man said, "My
uncle makes too much noise." "My nephew wouldn't make less noise if he
were in my place. I am trying to get something to eat." And paying no
attention to what his nephew said, the old man kept at work. The next morning,
at daybreak, he said, "I am going hunting. I shall be gone three
days."
"I am glad," thought the young man, and as soon as his uncle was out
of, sight he took the trail that he had made and followed it three days. Then he
went directly toward his new cabin. Glancing up he saw the arrow's trail, which
looked like a rainbow in the sky. After a while he made a long leap and as he
leaped he ran in the air, went up far above the forest and off on a level which
was still in the air.
The trail of the arrow was in the form of a rainbow and it seemed to roll up and
dissolve in mist as the young man passed over it. It ended where the arrow had
struck. In the cabin at the end of the trail he found his wife. The invisible
brother saw the arrow when it struck the ground and burst. He saw the woman come
out of the arrow and take her natural size.
When she came into the house, he said to her, "I knew you were coming. By
obedience to your husband you have been able to make this journey. No one has
ever seen me before except my brother and he only two or three times. I know
what will come from my uncle's wrath. He will pursue, and, if possible, kill
you."
The old man came home and began to talk to his nephew. When he received no
answer he was very angry. He knew that his nephew was not at home, and going out
he looked for his trail, struck it and found that the footprints were as old as
his own, made three days before. Going back to the house he muttered, "I'll
follow him to-morrow. The world is small. He cannot escape me. I'll follow him
everywhere."
The invisible brother, though a great distance away, heard his uncle talking to
himself, heard his threats, heard him say, "My daughter-in-law will never
get out of my reach. I can go to the edge of the world very quickly. My nephew
is trying to save her. He'll not succeed. I'll eat her flesh."
The next morning the old man set out. He followed his nephew's footprints till
night, then, looking up, saw that his own house was near, that he had been going
around and around. He was angry, and said, "To-morrow I will get on the
right trail."
As soon as daylight came, the old man started again. As he traveled he found
that the trail was growing dim, but he kept on till midday, then he saw that he
was near his own house. "Be it so!" said he. "Though my nephew is
possessed with the witchcraft of all the animals, I will have his wife's
flesh."
He followed the trail three days longer, then he reached the end of it and cried
out, exultantly, "My daughter-in-law's flesh is mine!" Looking up in
the air he saw his nephew's trail. The trail of the arrow was gone, but the
footprints of the nephew remained on the clouds.
As the old man followed on the ground the trail that he saw in the air, he
muttered to himself. The invisible brother heard his threats and the three
started for a lake that was not far away. The woman took the lead; the husband
stepped in her footprints. When they came to the lake, the young man took a clam
shell and threw it toward the opposite bank. Immediately the banks came together
and the three stepped over. When they had crossed and the lake had again resumed
its natural size they looked back but could scarcely see, at one look, 1 the
bank they had left. The young man, thinking that when his uncle came to the lake
he would be long in crossing, left his wife and went to hunt for game.
The old man came to the lake and ran back and forth looking for a place to
cross. At last he called out, "Daughter-in-law, Daughter-in-law, how did
you cross the lake?" And though the woman knew he wanted to kill her, she
thought, "Why doesn't he throw a clam shell!"
He heard distinctly what she said in her mind and picking up a clam shell he
threw it. The banks came together and when the woman looked to see where the old
man was she was terrified to find him right there at her side.
He caught her by the hair, and said, "I knew that I should eat your flesh.
My nephew has no right to keep game from me." With one blow he cut off the
woman's head. She had been left alone. The invisible brother was not there to
warn her. The woman had twin boys. The old man hid the children in a hollow
tree, together with the woman's head, then putting the body on his back, he went
to the lake, and picking up a clam shell threw it toward the opposite bank. The
banks came together and he stepped over. As he looked back, he saw the lake
spread out again. The young man thought that when near home he would see smoke
rising from his cabin, but he did not. "My uncle's words have come
true," thought he. "She forgot my warning." He was lonesome and
discouraged and he determined never to go back to his uncle's house.
While cooking supper, the young man had to go for water. As he stooped down to
dip it up he heard a voice say, "Your uncle has killed me! Your uncle has
killed me!" On looking around he saw that the willows were bespattered with
blood, and he knew from the blood out of which the voice came that his wife had
been killed. He had two proofs now, his uncle's tracks and the speaking blood.
The young man continued to hunt and as he had good luck he didn't go again to
the house across the lake. One day when he came from hunting he saw tracks
around his fire, two little trails. Though he saw fresh tracks each evening he
paid no attention to them. They looked like the tracks of a child but he thought
that a little animal made them. At last he noticed that some of his meat was
gone and that each day more and more disappeared. Then he resolved to catch the
thief. Pieces of meat hung up to dry had been pulled down, dragged out of the
house and then pulled along on the ground.
The young man followed the trail till he came to a big log. The log, was hollow
and the trail disappeared at the opening. He was sure that some animal lived in
the tree. The next day he started off, as usual, but after going a short
distance into the forest he stopped to watch his house. Soon he saw two little
boys come out of the log and run toward the house. They went in and after a
while came out dragging a piece of meat. When they reached the log they
disappeared in the opening, pulling the meat in after them. The man thought,
"To-morrow I will catch those children,"
He knew they could talk, for as they pulled the meat along he heard one of them
say, "Hurry, father will come!"
The next morning the young man went a short distance into the forest, hid and
waited. The time seemed long, but at last the boys came from the log, ran to the
house, went in and closed the door. The man hurried home, went into the house
and fastened the door behind him. As soon as the children saw him, they began to
cry. "Why do you cry?" asked he, "I am your father. Don't
cry." When they stopped crying, he asked, "How do you know that I am
your father?"
One boy was a little larger than the other, and when the man questioned them he
answered, "An old man killed our mother. He cut off her head and hid it in
a hollow log and he put us in there too. Our mother's head is in the tree
now." "What do you do with the meat you take from here?" "We
feed it to our mother." "You must stay with me now," said the
father. He was kind to them and the boys were glad to stay. He made them
playthings, bow and arrows and a ball and club. Whenever he went hunting, they
carried meat to their mother.
One day the larger boy said to his father, "My mother is hungry."
"Feed her," said he. "Feed her all she will eat. We have a plenty
of meat. You can take as much as you want." Soon the man saw that the meat
was disappearing very fast, faster than he could bring it in. He was frightened.
One of the boys noticed this, and said, "My mother eats a great deal, we
can't carry her enough." And he asked his father to go and see her. The man
went to the log and looking in saw two great eyes in a skull. "What can we
do?" asked one of the boys.
"I am afraid," said the father, "that after she has eaten all the
meat she will eat us." "We must go to some place far away," said
the boys, "so that she will have to travel a long time to overtake us. We
can't feed her. She never gets enough, and we are tired." The man knew that
it would soon be impossible to satisfy the Head, so he said, "We will go
away from here. You will start in the morning and travel till you come to a
large village. My dogs will go with you as far as the village, then they will
come back to help me."
The boys started and after they had gone quite a distance and were tired, the
larger dog said to the larger boy, "Sit on my back." Then the smaller
dog said to the smaller boy, "Sit on my back." The boys did as told.
The dogs ran on swiftly. After a long time they came to a place where trees had
been felled, then they said to the boys, "We are near a village. You must
walk now." The boys were unwilling to walk, but the dogs, shaking
themselves as if they had just been in water, threw them off and told them to go
to the village. The dogs turned then and went back to their master.
The man knew that by going South he would find uncles who would help him, just
such powerful men as his old uncle. When the dogs came back, they told their
master that they would stay till the last meat was gone, but he must go, for as
soon as the meat was eaten the Head would fly in the direction he took. They
would delay it all they could, but he must travel fast for his life was in
danger.
The man started toward the South and went with great swiftness, for he was a
fast runner. Two days after he left, one of the dogs overtook him, and said,
"The meat is gone and the Head is trying to find the boys. It can follow as
far as they walked but no farther. Be on your guard for it will find your
trail."
The dog could see a great distance, it looked back, and said, "The Head is
coming! You have always said that no one could outrun you. The time has come
when you must exert all your strength."
When the Head started, the dogs left behind did what they could to delay it.
They bit it and when it turned to pursue them, they dodged into the ground. It
went on and again they sprang at it and when it turned they again escaped into
the ground. The trail of the Head could be seen plainly for the bark was gnawed
from the trees where the dogs kept it back, delayed it and made it angry.
All at once, far off in the West, one of the little boys said to the other,
"Our father is in trouble, our mother is following him." Soon a dog
came up to the man, and said, "The Head is possessed of such power that we
don't know how to keep it back. We are doing what we can, but you must run with
all your strength."
The man ran with all speed. Seeing a house he darted into it and called out to
an old man sitting there, "Uncle, help me! A terrible Head is following me
to take my life!" "I will help you all I can," said the old man,
"but hurry to the next house, your aunts live there; they will help you. If
I am killed, a dark cloud will go up to the sky."
The man was about half way between the two houses when he heard a terrible noise
and looking back saw that the Flying Head had reached his uncle's house and his
uncle was fighting it with all his strength. When he turned a second time he saw
a great black cloud rise into the sky and he knew that his uncle was dead.
That minute one of the dogs came to the man, and said, "Your uncle is dead.
He was never beaten before." When the Head had devoured the old man's
flesh, it rushed after the husband. The man ran as fast as he could. When almost
exhausted, he saw a house, ran into it and called to the women sitting there,
"Help me! help me! Something is following me to take my life!"
"Poor man," said one of his aunts. "Hurry on. We will do what we
can to delay the Head. Go to the next house. Your mother lives there. Maybe she
can help you."
The man wasn't out of sight of the house when he heard a great noise and heard
his aunts call to their children to have courage. The Head flew into the house,
and bit at everything it came in contact with. The women beat it with clubs. The
man heard the blows fall on the skull. When he was half way to his mother's
house, all was still at his aunts' house. Suddenly his invisible brother called
out, "Run! Run or we are lost!"
The invisible brother urged the man forward, pushed him and he seemed to run
faster. The brother urged and pushed till they reached the house. Then the man
cried, "Mother, help me, help me!"
"Poor Son, you are in great trouble," said the mother. "Go on, we
will do what we can." The man hurried through the house. The Head came in
as he went out. The dogs ran around the house and urged their master on. The
mother called to her children, "Kill the Head if you can! Fight with all
your strength!" They took their most poisonous weapons and began to strike
the Head. One of the women stumbled and fell; the Head devoured her in an
instant.
The old mother cautioned her children, telling them to be careful and make no
misstep. The youngest girl, remembering there was bears' oil in the house,
thought she would boil it and see if she couldn't kill the Head with boiling
oil. While the Head was chasing the women through the house, the oil began to
boil, then the girl seized the kettle and threw the oil onto the Head. It burned
and killed the Head.
'Your brother is free," said the mother. "We ought to have a game of
ball. It is our duty to give thanks. The Head will be the ball." She
picked up the Head, carried it out and called in a loud voice, "Here,
warriors, is a ball for you to play with." Soon a great many people, with
netted clubs in their hands, came and began to play ball. (These players were
animals that lived in the forest.) The man saw them play with his wife's head.
Each one struggled to get the ball and in that way they wore it out.
One of the dogs said to him, "Your wife is dead and you are safe."
When it said, "Your wife is dead," the man's strength left him, his
arms dropped down, and he was very sad. "You are sorry," said the
invisible brother, "but I am glad. Why should you be sad? She would have
devoured you, if they had not killed her. Now there is no one to harm us. Our
uncle will not trouble us again." "Your children are living off in
that direction," said he, pointing to the West. "Go and find
them." So saying he turned and when the brother looked after him, he had
disappeared.
The man and his dogs traveled toward the West. When the dogs left the children
they were near a house at the edge of a village. In that house lived an old
woman and her granddaughter. One day when the girl was in the woods stooping
down to pick up broken boughs, she heard voices. She listened and, as the wind
came toward her, she discovered that they were the voices of children. She went
home with her wood, told her grandmother that she had heard children crying, and
asked her to come to the forest and listen.
"It is a pleasure to know that there are children alive. They must be for
us," said the grandmother. "We will go and find them." When they
came to the place where the girl had heard the voices, she said, "Now
listen!"
"True," said the grandmother, "there are children in the woods.
We must look everywhere till we find them. Maybe they are sent to us because we
are alone."
The girl followed the sound, going in the direction from which the wind came,
she could hear distinctly and she knew the sound came from near the ground. At
last she came to where the boys were. They were apparently about a year old, one
a little larger than the other and both were crying. The girl began to comfort
the children, to tell them she would be their mother and be kind to them.
While she was talking, her grandmother came. She pitied the children and 'said
to them, "Stop crying. It is the will of the Great Spirit that you should
be our children. I will be your grandmother and my granddaughter will be your
mother."
"All we have we will give to you," said the girl. "I will love
you as your mother would." The boys stopped crying and went home with the
girl. Each boy had the little bow and arrow and ball club that his father had
made for him. "We will take good care of these children," said the
grandmother. "There are many people in our village, but not a child. I have
lived here a long time, but I have never seen a little child." When the
boys were old enough to hunt for birds, their grandmother gave them bows and
arrows and they brought in a good deal of game.
One day the larger boy called, "Grandmother, come and see what I have
killed. It is covered with spots. It is over here in the weeds."
"Where is it? Where is it?" asked the grandmother. The boys led the
way, but she could hardly keep in sight of them, the weeds were so high. On
reaching the spot she found a fawn a few hours old. She carried the fawn home,
and said to herself, "I am thankful that I have these children. They will
be great hunters; their game is getting larger. First they killed birds, now
they have killed a fawn."
One day the larger boy said, "Our father is coming." "I am afraid
our father is dead," answered the other boy. The grandmother overheard this
and told the boys to go and hunt for birds, she was hungry for bird meat. The
next day, while the children were out, a man came to the house. The invisible
brother had told the man that when he came to the old woman's house he must say,
"Grandmother, I am glad to see you," and to the girl, "Sister, I
am glad to see you." As the man went in, he saluted the old woman as
Grandmother, and to the girl he said, Sister.
One of the boys said to the other, "Our father has come!" "I
don't think so," said his brother, "Our father had dogs; there are no
dogs with this man." To find out he raised the skin door a little and
looking in he saw his father sitting there with his elbow on his knee and his
face on his hand. "We must find the dogs," said the larger boy.
They followed their father's tracks and they hadn't gone far when they found
that the dogs had run off in another direction. They tracked the dogs and toward
night found them standing by a fallen tree. The dogs heard the children's voices
and ran to meet them. They were as glad to see the boys as the boys were to see
them.
"We must go home," said the brothers, but they didn't know the way.
The dogs took the lead. It was late at night and very dark when they got home.
When the boys didn't come, the grandmother and granddaughter were frightened.
They were waiting for daylight -to come so they could hunt for them. When they
came, the grandmother asked, "Why did you stay so long and
frighten us?"
The father was happy to be with his children again. The girl was the man's
sister and the old woman was his grandmother.
They all lived together now and were happy.
Seneca Indian Myths by Jeremiah Curtin
1922
[Told by Johnny John who learned it from his grandmother, "who lived to be
one hundred and thirty years old."]
From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories.