Note 410 — SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS (continued 9)

It was customary in some families making pretensions to sorcery to conceal the child who had been born with a caul. This was done in such manner that no one other than one of the nearest of the child’s kin should be charged with the wardship of the hidden child, and so should have access exclusively to the initiate. One of the means employed in shielding the initiate from the view of other persons was to strew carefully about the place of concealment cat-tail flag down in such wise that any displacement of it would indicate intrusion by some unauthorized person. Thus is derived the epithet “down-fended,” or “warded by down.” Secondarily, it may have meant “mat-warded,” because mats were in some instances made from this kind of flag. (See 21st Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 127.)