{"collection":"Native American","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/nam/iro/sim/sim68.htm","path":"nam/iro/sim/sim68.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/nam/iro/sim/sim68.htm","text":"Characters\n| HATCINONDOn | | \n| H\u00c1WENIYO | Great Spirit | \n| ENDEKH\u0100 GEQGWA, | Sun (Orb of Day)--The usual word is Geqgwa | \n| NOHNOHSOT | Heron | \nHATCINONDOn was a great warrior, the greatest of all the Senecas. Once, when out with a party of warriors, he came to a high cliff and knowing that the Cherokees were on the lookout he told his men to stay where they were and he would go ahead and see what could be done. He hadn't gone far when a party of Cherokees saw him and started in pursuit.\nHATCINONDOn ran into tall reeds that grew in two great patches with a narrow space between them. He escaped from the first patch and hid in the second one. His pursuers thought he was in the first patch; they watched the narrow space and set fire to the reeds. When the reeds were destroyed they expected to find him dead, burned up.\nHATCINONDOn fell asleep in his hiding place. In the night two men came, wakened him, and said, \"Follow us, we have come for you.\"\nHe went with the men and after a time one of them pointed at a house, and said, \"NOHNOHSOT, the man who lives there, sent for you.\"\nHe went to the house, but could find no door. After a while a voice called, \"Come in!\"\nA door opened and he went in and saw a man, who said, \"I sent for you and you have come. Are you hungry?\"\nHATCINONDOn smiled and said in his mind, \"That's a strange question. That's not the way I do; I give food.\"\nNOHNOHSOT laughed, he knew the man's thoughts. He brought out half a loaf of acorn bread, half of a wild apple, and half of a pigeon.\nHATCINONDOn said, \"How little will fill me.\"\n\"If you eat all of this I will give you more,\" said NOHNOHSOT.\nAs the Seneca ate he noticed that each thin-, became whole again, that he was unable to finish either the loaf, the apple or the pigeon.\nWhen he had eaten all he could, NOHNOHSOT said to him, \"Now I will talk with you.\"\nJust then the door was thrown open and Sun came in so quickly and with such brightness that HATCINONDOn had to hold down his head.\nSun spoke to NOHNOHSOT and right away hurried off towards the East.\nThen NOHNOHSOT said, \"That is the man you call ENDEKH\u0100 GEQGWA\u00b4 (the orb of day). It is night down below and he is hurrying to the East. He told me of a great battle.\nNOHNOHSOT was H\u00c1WENIYO (Great Spirit), and he said, \"That is what I expected when I made people, I thought they would fight. Hereafter when you meet an enemy don't run away, go up to him; he can't harm you; no arrow can kill you. I am the cause of the Senecas not fighting with the Cherokees. You will find your warriors where you left them. Now the HADIOnYAGEONOn (Spirits) are ready to go with you.\"\nHATCINONDOn went out, passed through an opening, as he thought, and found himself in the reeds. He got back I o his party and told the men what he had seen, and they all went home.\nSoon after this the Senecas held a council and the warriors decided to go again to the Cherokee country.\nWhen the Senecas and Cherokees met, HATCINONDOn, remembering what NOHNOHSOT had told him, went straight up to a Cherokee warrior, killed and scalped him, then called out, \"I have killed and scalped a man! My name is HATCINONDOn.\"\nAfter that there was a battle and many men were killed. But the Senecas won and went home carrying a large number of scalps.\nAnother party started off to fight the Cherokees. This time HATCINONDOn was captured; he was tied and led to the Cherokee village.\nIt was a Cherokee custom when a man was captured to leave it to two women to say how he should be tortured.\nThe two women decided that HATCINONDOn was to be bound to a tree and burned to death.\nThey tied him to a tree and piled dry brush and wood around him. He thought, \"Now I am going to die.\" But, just as the women were setting fire to the brush a terrible rain storm came and every one ran for shelter, leaving the Seneca bound to the tree.\nWhile he was there alone, an old woman came to him, and said, \"My Grandson, you think that you are going to die, but you are not. Try to move.\"\nHe moved, the thongs fell off and he was free.\nThe woman said, \"I have returned your kindness. Once when your people were making a circle of fire, you saw a toad inside the circle, you took it up and put it in your bosom and when you came to water put it down. I was that toad. Now when I saw you in trouble I brought rain to save you. Go to the river and run with the current.\"\nWhen the rain was over the Cherokee women came back to the tree and found that their prisoner was gone. They raised an alarm, men ran together, found tracks, and followed them.\nWhen they came to the river, they lost the trail, and after a time they abandoned pursuit and went home.\nTwo men came and sat down near HATCINONDOn's hiding place, and one said to the other, \"It is strange where that man went.\"\nThe Seneca was afraid they would discover where he\nwas, but at last they went away, then he went down the stream some distance and struck off toward the South.\nToward night he came to an opening and saw three men building a fire. He watched and listened till dark, then crept up to a place opposite the fire and found that the men were asleep; he stole their weapons and provisions.\nThe next morning he traveled in a circle till he found the trail by which he and his party had come. Soon he saw men sitting around a fire, he crept near and heard Seneca words, then he called \"Goweh! Goweh!\" three times. The men shouted with joy and ran to meet him.\nThis is their story.","title":"Seneca Indian Myths: War Between Senecas and Cherokees","type":"page"}