Seneca Indian Myths: Tree Worm and his Mother-In-Law, Barkworm

This is a mythological narrative from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) oral tradition, following HÁIENDONIS — a powerful worm-being who is also a woodmaker — as he wanders northward, settles in a forest, and acquires supernatural dominion over game animals. The central plot is a courtship sequence in which a witch named Barkworm sends her three daughters to HÁIENDONIS with marriage bread; the first two flee in terror from his spirit-pouch guardians, but the youngest, YENOnGAA, defeats the guardians one by one and patiently endures his trickery until he accepts her as his wife. After the marriage, Barkworm attempts to use YENOnGAA to magically subjugate HÁIENDONIS, triggering a climactic confrontation in which he kills the witch and her elder daughters and burns their house to the ground — at which point three owls emerge from the coals, offering an etiological explanation for owl species. A notable feature is the story's deadpan humor: HÁIENDONIS, despite his formidable power, can hang unknowingly inches above the ground, convinced he is mid-fall. The tale functions simultaneously as cosmological myth, trickster narrative, and a morality about witchcraft versus legitimate power, with the worldwide shout of joy at the witch's death underscoring how communally threatening she was.

Seneca Indian Myths: Tree Worm and his Mother-In-Law, Barkworm

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