Seneca Indian Myths: The Creation of Men (Indians)

The beaver and duck people kept at work making the earth larger and larger. As it grew, more Beavers and Ducks were ordered to work. Bushes began to grow, little red bushes, like water reeds.

Soon the woman gave birth to a child, a girl. The child quickly grew to be a young woman and to be very active. She walked here and there and watched the birds and animals and once when she was wandering around she met a nice looking young man. They fell in love with each other and by their union came night and day. At daybreak the young woman went to meet her husband, at twilight she came home and the man went away.

One evening, after they had parted, the young woman turned to look at her husband, and saw a big Turtle walking along where the man had just been. She thought, "A Turtle has deceived me!"

She told her mother about the man, and said "I am going to die, you must put my body in the ground and cover it up well. Two stalks will grow from my breasts and on each stalk an ear will come. When the ears are ripe you must pick them and give one to each of the boys that are born to me."

The younger woman gave birth to twin boys, and died. The mother buried her daughter and soon two stalks came up out of her grave. And this was the origin of corn.

The boys grew quickly; they were strong and healthy, but the younger was an awkward, ugly looking, disagreeable fellow, with a head like a lump of rough flint.

Once when the elder brother was off by himself, he was lonesome and he thought he would try to make something,

Then he thought he would make something that would run on the ground, so he shaped a deer, brought it to life, and said to it, "You must run fast and go everywhere in the world." He blew on it, and pushed it, and it ran off. In the same way he made different kinds of animals. Then he thought, "Maybe I can make something like myself." Out of the mud he made something that looked like himself, but now, in some way, he found that he had a spirit in his body and he wanted the thing he had lying on the ground to have a spirit too. He wanted to give it some of his own but didn't know how. At last he bent down and blew into its mouth. He hadn't blown into the mouth of any other creature he had made. The image began to move; the young man raised it up, made it stand on its feet, and told it to whoop.

The new man whooped; he had a fine voice. Then he walked off a little, way and turned and looked at the young man.

The elder brother had a special place to sit when he made all these creatures. About the time he made man, the younger brother found the place and, while watching his brother, he thought, "I will make a man too." He went away alone, made something as nearly like himself as he could and brought it to life. It didn't look like a man. It was a strange creature, and when its maker saw that it wasn't a man, but some ugly, deformed thing, he said to it, "My brother has made a man, he is over there, go and kill him."

The elder brother was watching the younger, for he was afraid he would make some harmful animal. When he heard him tell the creature he had made to go and destroy man, he went back to his own place, caught cherry

When the elder brother came the grandmother said, "You shouldn't frighten your brother."

The first man made was wandering about alone. The young man saw him once in a while and saw that he was lonesome. Then he said to himself, "I will make something like my grandmother." He made it out of mud, breathed into it and told it to walk; then he found the man, and said, "I give you this one, you must always go together."

When the woman sat down by the man he thought that her arm was in the way and his was also. He said, "We will cut them off." They cut them off and laid them one side. When the elder brother came along and saw what they had done he said to himself, "This won't do. I will give them blood and pain," and from himself he gave them blood and pain, then he put their arms on and healed them (before that they had neither blood nor pain).

To the man and woman, he said, "I have made you, you will have children like yourselves. You must hunt the animals I have made, kill them and eat their flesh; that will be your food. I am going above the Blue. You will not live forever. You will die and your spirit will go above the Blue."

When the younger brother found that the elder brother had gone away, he saw the man and woman and talked with them. He said "I am going to make a man." He got earth and formed it as best he could, blew into its mouth and told it to stand up and whoop. It said, "Ho, ho!" pushed it from behind and made it leap. It was a frog, as large as a man. I

The younger brother was angry, and he said "I can't