Note 170 — SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS (continued 9)

The word Djainosgowa, correctly written Djaiʹnosgōwā, is the name of a more or less fanciful creature. It probably received its characteristics from hearsay reports of the alligator which were transferred to the fence lizard, or swift. The native interpreters usually translate the word by the words “blue lizard.” In story and legend it is a most ferocious antagonist, because of its reputed invulnerability. The final two syllables, gōwā, signify “large, great,” while the remainder of the word means, “lizard,” so that literally the combination signifies, “The Great Lizard,” and in legend, “The Monstrous Lizard.”