{"collection":"Sacred Texts: Native American","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_nam_iro_sim_sim53_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_nam_iro_sim_sim53_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_nam_iro_sim_sim53_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/nam/iro/sim/sim53.htm","summary":"This is a Native American folk tale in the oral tradition, likely from a northeastern or Great Lakes peoples, belonging to the widely distributed \"magical obstacle flight\" narrative type. It follows a young man who becomes the target of a supernaturally persistent woman \u2014 apparently a sorceress or spirit \u2014 who has been draining his elder brother's hunted game using a fishhook hidden in the brother's neck. The bulk of the story is a prolonged chase in which the young man escapes through a series of magical obstacles: enchanted moccasins that run to the world's end, a rock wall spanning the world, a pigeon-roost barrier, a shapeshifting deception in a lake, and the aid of NOSGWAIS (a giant Toad who flings him to safety). The pursuer is ultimately killed when she dives into a kettle of boiling bear oil, deceived by a reflected image of her quarry. Distinctive to this telling is the emphasis on the woman's relentless, almost mechanical persistence \u2014 she always recovers, always resumes the chase \u2014 which gives the story its tension, and the resolution that folds the hero into a new family lineage (twin sons, a wife) before finally reuniting him with the elder brother. Readers interested in Indigenous North American mythology, comparative folklore, or the obstacle-flight tale type will find a compact, well-structured example here.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Seneca Indian Myths: A Young Man Rescued by a Toad","tradition":"Sacred Texts: Native American","translated_text":null,"word_count":1349}