Iroquois Indian's Belief in Witches and Witchcraft

Iroquois Indian's Belief in Witches and Witchcraft

The Iroquois belief in witchcraft was very strong, and the following tale is supposed to account for the origin of witches and sorcery. A boy who was out hunting found a snake the colours of whose skin were so intensely beautiful that he resolved to capture it. He caught it and tended it carefully, feeding it on birds and small game, and housing it in a little bowl made of bark, which he filled with water. In the bottom of the bowl he placed down, small feathers, and wood fibre, and on going to feed the snake he discovered that these things had become living beings. From this he gathered that the reptile was endowed with supernatural powers, and he found that other articles placed in the water along with it soon showed signs of life. He procured more snakes and placed them in the bowl. Observing some men of the tribe rubbing ointment on their eyes to enable them to see more clearly, he used some of the water from the bowl in which the snakes were immersed upon his own, and lo! he found on climbing a tall tree that nothing was hidden from his sight, which pierced all intervening obstacles. He could see far into the earth, where lay hidden precious stones and rich minerals. His sight pierced the trunks of trees; he could see through mountains, and could discern objects lying deep down in the bed of a river.

He concluded that the greater the number of reptiles the snake-liquid contained the more potent would it become. Accordingly he captured several snakes, and suspended them over his bowl in such a manner that the essential oil they contained dropped into the water, with the result that the activity of the beings which had been so strangely bred in it was increased. In course of time he found that by merely placing one of his fingers in the liquid and pointing it at any person he could instantly bewitch him. He added some roots to the water in the bowl, some of which he then drank. By blowing this from his mouth a great light was produced, by rubbing his eyes with it he could see in the dark, and by other applications of it he could render himself invisible, or take the shape of a snake. If he dipped an arrow into the liquid and discharged it at any living being it would kill it although it might not strike it. Not content with discovering this magic fluid, the youth resolved to search for antidotes to it, and these he collected.

Seneca Iroquois Belief in Witchcraft

Seneca Iroquois Belief in Witchcraft

The Native American,Seneca Indians shared fully in the superstitions common to their race. Belief in witchcraft prevailed, and omens had no little influence in shaping their action both in peace and war. On the gravest occasion a dream 'would secure listeners 'and its teachings seldom went unheeded. At a New Year's festival in Squakie Hill, after the sacrificial dog was killed, an old Indian who lived on the flats below told the following dream at the council-house, the whole village giving thieir undivided attention : "I had got ready with my two sons the previous evening," said he, "to attend the festival, but before starting I fell asleep and dreamed that we had set out. Everything appeared strange along the path. Squakie Hill seemed thrice its usual height and looked as if covered with a deep snow, although there was very little. I stopped a moment when two winged men flew by us, one of whom alight ed on a tree near by. I was frightened and asked ' what means this V 1 We are devils,' said they, ' and are come because Indians are bad men and get drunk.' They told me that unless I stopped whiskey and be came good, they would have me. The figure in thechanged to a great negro, and taking his seat upon a limb, turned toward me with a horrible grin, thrust ing at me a pole six feet long, on which was hung a dead Indian by the feet. The face of the corpse was very ghastly and its mouth widely stretched. The devil remarked that all who quarreled or got drunk would be treated in the like horrid manner. The " body of the dead Indian 'was then whirled at me. The shock awoke me." Instead of a lecture on in temperance, a vice to which the tribe were greatly addicted, the old Indian wisely chose to enforce the moral by availing himself of the regard held by his race for the supernatural. The dream seemed strong ly to impress his audience.