Note 414 — SENECA FICTION, LEGENDS, AND MYTHS

Having reached home, she said to her son-in-law, “In a short time the people will have assembled here.” Shortly after, the people began to come. They seated themselves in the lodge and became very quiet. Then the old woman, Godwĕñniăʹʻdănĭʻ, placing a bench or block of wood in the center of the room, called to her son-in-law, “Oh, my son-in-law, Oñgweʻ Hañgesʹʻhäʼ, come hither.” At this he came forth from the place wherein the “noble” or “down-fended” maiden lived. Seating himself on the block provided by his mother-in-law, he threw over his knee the entire skin of a woman,414 which still had the head affixed to it; the eyes winked and moved from side to side. Oñgweʻ Hañgesʹʻhäʼ took from his pouch his pipe and filled it with tobacco. The tobacco which he used was a mixture of native tobacco, hemlock gum, spicebush bark, and red willow bark.414a When he placed it in his pipe this mixture emitted a very pleasant odor.