{"collection":"Native American","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/nam/iro/sim/sim25.htm","path":"nam/iro/sim/sim25.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/nam/iro/sim/sim25.htm","text":"Characters\n| H\u00c1IENDONIS | He, woodmaker (A large tree worm) | \n| YENOnGAA | She, Shingled Hair | \n| YENOGEAUn | Ear Enter (Barkworm) | \n| G\u00c1SYONDETHA | Meteor | \nH\u00c1IENDONIS was walking along with all of his effects in a bundle. He didn't know where he came from or where he was going, though he knew he was going in a northerly direction. Wherever darkness overtook him, there he put his bundle on the ground, went inside of it and spent the night, if he didn't find a hollow tree to sleep in.\nHe traveled a long time. Then one morning he came to a precipice. It was very far to the bottom and he didn't know how he was to get down with so large a pack on his back.\nAt last he put the pack on the ground and going to basswood tree stripped it of bark, split the bark into strings, tied the strings together and made a long rope. Then fastening one end of the rope to a hemlock tree on the edge of the precipice, he let the other end down, took hold of the rope near the tree and lowered himself. Soon was at the end of the rope, and he clung there. The bundle on his back pulled the upper part of his body over till he was in nearly a horizontal position, face ward. He couldn't see where he was. He almost touched\nthe ground, but he didn't know it. He thought, \"What can I do? I can't hang here long. Maybe I had better let go and fall. I can't get up and I can't go down.\"\nHe decided to let go of the rope and fall. As soon as he dropped the rope, the pack on his back touched the ground and his head rested on the pack, but he thought he was falling all the time. At last he said to himself, \"I am tired of falling. I'll try and turn over a little so I can see where I am going.\"\nHe turned and found that he was on the ground. Saying, \"Oh, how I've been delayed by not knowing that the ground was at the end of the rope!\" he got up and went on.\nWhen night came H\u00c1IENDONIS slept in a hollow tree or in his bundle. He traveled many days. When he was tired of traveling he looked around for a good place to live in. At last he stopped where the trees were only a short distance apart. He built a cabin, took his pack inside and arranged his blankets, pouches, ladles, and bark bowls. The next morning he went out to hunt for food. He saw a deer, pointed at it, and the deer fell dead. Every kind of game was under his control, when he went home\nhe didn't carry the game. He stood near the house, and said, \"Let the game I have killed be piled up here at the door. Let it be dressed and hung up to dry.\" In the Morning the meat was drying and a pile of skins lay at the door.\nOne day, when H\u00c1IENDONIS was hunting, he saw a G\u00c1SYONDETHA and pointing his finger at him killed him' for he wanted the skin for a pouch. Going farther he\nkilled a panther and then a fox. \"Now,\" thought he, \"I'll have three new pouches.\" The next morning the three skins were hanging on the side of the cabin. \"What will I do with these pouches?\" thought H\u00c1IENDONIS, then, taking down the skin of G\u00c1SYONDETHA he said to it, \"Stand here, alive!\" That instant G\u00c1SYONDETHA stood alive before him.\nH\u00c1IENDONIS brought the three skin pouches to life and had them stand inside the house.\nSoon it was known that a man, who was full of witchcraft, had settled down in the neighborhood. That if he\nwanted to kill an animal or a man he had only to point a finger at them. People were afraid of him.\nNot far from H\u00c1IENDONIS' house lived a woman and her three daughters. The woman was full of witchcraft and had come there to settle down because no one wanted to live near her.\nOne day this woman said to her daughters, \"We will grind corn and make bread.\"\nEach woman had a pounder. Soon the corn was flour and the mother made it into bread. Then she filled a basket and said to the eldest daughter, \"I want you to go to H\u00c1IENDONIS and see if he will marry you.\"\nThe girl, whose name was DEY\u00d3NDEnNIGOnGENYOS, started with the basket.\nH\u00c1IENDONIS saw a girl coming with a basket on her back, and he thought, \"There is a woman coming, I think she is coming to see me. I wonder if she wants to marry me?\" Then he said to his pouches, \"G\u00c1SYONDETHA, go over there and stand by the tree! You, Panther, go and stand a little nearer this way; and you, Fox, stand at the door.\"\nWhen the girl was near, H\u00c1IENDONIS began to smoke his pipe. She walked along with her head down and did not see G\u00c1SYONDETHA till she was right at his side. Then, looking up, and seeing such a fierce person, she turned and ran. As she ran, the bread fell out of the basket and when she reached home she had lost it all.\n\"What is the matter?\" asked Barkworm, her mother.\nThe girl was out of breath and couldn't answer.\nH\u00c1IENDONIS laughed and watched the girl till she got home.\nAfter a few days the mother said, \"We will grind corn and make bread.\"\nThe girls pounded corn into flour and Barkworm made the flour into bread. Then she said to her second daughter, \"Take the basket and go to H\u00c1IENDONIS, your sister is a coward.\"\nH\u00c1IENDONIS saw the girl coming, with a basket on her back, and said, \"Here comes another woman, she will soon be spilling her bread.\"\nHe stationed the pouches as before. The girl came with\nher head down till she reached G\u00c1SYONDETHA, then, looking up and seeing him, she said, \"I'm not afraid of you!\" and went on. She passed the panther and came to the door of the cabin. In the doorway stood a man switching something against the door. The girl was frightened; she screamed, turned around, and began to run. As she ran she spilled the bread out of her basket.\nH\u00c1IENDONIS laughed, and watched the girl till she reached home.\nAfter a few days Barkworm said to her daughters, \"We will try again.\" She made bread, filled a basket with it, and said to her youngest daughter, YENOnGAA, \"You must go this time. Don't notice anything or be afraid of anything. Go straight into the house.\"\nWhen H\u00c1IENDONIS saw the girl coming, he said, \"It is strange how little those women care for bread. There is another one coming and when she gets near she will turn and run, spilling her bread as she goes.\"\nWhen the girl came to where G\u00c1SYONDETHA stood she looked at him, then she gave him a blow, and he fell to the ground, and was nothing but a skin pouch. She treated Panther in the same way. When she came to the door, Fox stood there, the wind was switching his tail against the door, this had frightened the second sister, but YENOnGAA was not afraid. She struck Fox and down he went, nothing but a skin pouch.\nWhen H\u00c1IENDONIS saw the girl knocking down his guards, he thought, \"She will come in! I will get my Pipe and pretend to be an old man.\"\nAs the girl pushed the skin door aside she asked, \"Where is H\u00c1IENDONIS?\"\nNo answer. She asked again, then an old man sitting there, said, \"It seems to me that I hear a woman speaking.\"\nThe girl spoke louder.\nThe old man looked up and said, \"I don't think he is at home. I don't think he will be here for ten days.\"\n\"Very well\" said the girl, \"I will come in ten days.\" And she went home.\nAt the end of ten days, the girl set out again. When l H\u00c1IENDONIS saw her coming, he said, \"Now I will be a little boy.\"\nThis time the girl paid no attention to the pouches. She went straight to the door and stood there.\n\"Come in!\" said a little boy.\nShe pushed the door aside, and asked, \"Where is H\u00c1IENDONIS?\"\n\"He went out a little while ago,\" said the boy. \"He has gone to the other side of the world.\"\n\"How long will he be gone?\"\n\"He said he would be back in ten days.\"\n\"Very well. I will come again in ten days.\"\nAt the end of ten days, H\u00c1IENDONIS saw the girl coming and he thought, \"I'll be invisible this time.\"\nThe girl went into the house and put her basket down, Seeing nobody she said, \"I will wait a while,\" and she sat down on H\u00c1IENDONIS' couch.\nH\u00c1IENDONIS laughed. The girl jumped up and ran home, forgetting her basket.\n\"Where is your basket?\" asked Barkworm.\nThe girl gave no answer, but her mother knew where it was.\nH\u00c1IENDONIS had cleaned the intestines of the game he had killed, filled them with blood and meat, cooked them and hung them up over his couch, some of these intestines clung to the girl. Barkworm took them, and said, \"Thank you, my daughter. This is good meat. You must go again to-morrow.\"\nThe next morning the girl started. When H\u00c1IENDONIS saw her coming, he laughed, and said, \"I think this time all the intestines will go.\"\nShe found him in his real form. He asked, \"What were you doing with the basket you left here yesterday?\"\n\"It was full of marriage bread. My mother sent me to stay with you,\" said the girl.\nH\u00c1IENDONIS did not drive her away. He ate of the marriage bread and that made her his wife.\nThe next day YENOnGAA said, \"I want to go to my mother.\"\n\"You can go,\" said her husband.\nOld Barkworm and her two elder daughters were evil-minded, poisonous persons. Barkworm now began to give her youngest daughter as much power as possible and to\ninstruct her how to control H\u00c1IENDONIS. \"You must make him come and live with us,\" said she.\nWhen YENOnGAA came back, H\u00c1IENDONIS looked at her and right away he knew she was going to try to control him.\nEach time she tried, she failed. But she went often to her mother to get more power and witchcraft. H\u00c1IENDONIS wondered why she acted this way. At last he said to himself, \"I will destroy all of her people.\" The next time she started for her mother's, he followed, circled around, got ahead of her and reached the old woman's house first.\nHe sprang into the house, and said to old Barkworm, \"I am here to fight with you.\"\nThey were fighting when YENOnGAA came. She stood at one side powerless to help either her husband or her mother and sisters.\nH\u00c1IENDONIS killed Barkworm and two of her daughters, then he said to his wife, \"Go off a little way.\"\nShe went, and he set fire to the house. It blazed up high, then burned to the ground. When the fire died down, something among the coals popped; a horned owl flew to the trees, and hooted; a second pop and a screech owl called out; at the third pop a common owl flew to the top of a tree.\n\"Now we will go home,\" said H\u00c1IENDONIS.\nThe woman stood still, looking in one direction; she was dazed. He pulled her along by the arm, and said, \"Come home,\" then she started.\nThe minute the old woman was killed, people, even at the edge of the world, knew it, and a shout of joy was then that sounded all over the world.\nH\u00c1IENDONIS put saliva on his hands, rubbed his wife's head and pulled her hair, which till then had been short, and right away it became long and beautiful. Now they lived in H\u00c1IENDONIS' house and were happy.","title":"Seneca Indian Myths: Tree Worm and his Mother-In-Law, Barkworm","type":"page"}