EDWARD CORNPLANTER—SOSONDOWA
Leading chief of the Cattaraugus Wolf Clan and High Priest of the Ganiodaiu religion. Mr. Cornplanter was probably the last of the New York Iroquois who knew by heart every one of the ancient ceremonial rituals. He died in June, 1918, aged 67, and was buried near the Newtown Long House.
Dreams. Dreams are experiences of the soul as it leaves the body during sleep. The dream god guides the soul to its dream experience. Dreams that prompt the individual to certain desires must be interpreted by a chosen person or by volunteer guessers, and the desire must be satisfied, or calamity will befall the dreamer as well as the unsuccessful guesser. Prophetic dreams must guide action and dream demands must not be lightly set aside.
Monsters. There are monsters that men seldom see. These affect the welfare and the destiny of man. They are generally evil and seek to destroy and sometimes to eat human beings.
Wizards. There are such beings as wizards, witches and sorcerers. These beings possess an evil orenda and seek to destroy innocent people.
GODS, MAJOR SPIRITS AND FOLK-BEASTS OF THE SENECA.
1. BEINGS OF THE PRIMAL ORDER.
The first of the God Being was Te‘haon‘hwĕñdjaiwă’´khon’ or Earth Holder. It was he who ruled the sky world and lived in the great celestial lodge beneath the celestial tree. As the result of a dream this chief, who also bears the title, Ancient One, was moved to take to himself as a wife a certain maiden, known as Awĕnhā´i‘, Mature Flower (Fertile Earth). Mature Flower consented to the betrothal, but due to the embrace of her lover inhaled his breath, and was given a child. The attention she gave this child caused the Ancient One to be moved to jealousy, this emotion being aroused in him through the machinations of the Fire Beast, whose invisibility rendered his work the more subtle. Little is known through mythology of Ancient One, since his field is a celestial one, and he seldom interferes with the doings of men of our present order. Of his unhappy wife, who was cast through the hole made by the uprooting of the celestial tree we learn more.[[2]]
The wife of the Ancient One was Iagen’´tci‘, also meaning Ancient One (Body). We recognize her in the Huron myths as recorded or mentioned in the Jesuit Relations as Ataentsic (Ataaentsik). In Onondaga this would be Eiă’tăgĕn‘´tci‘. Her story is given in all versions of the creation myth.
Her personal name seldom appears, but Hewitt gives it as Awĕn‘hā´i‘, this referring to her maturity, or ability to bring forth seed. In some versions the Chief casts his wife into the abyss made by uprooting the celestial tree, Gainiă’´tgä’´hei‘; in others her own curiosity is responsible. The tree in such versions is uprooted as a dream demand and her enraged husband pushes her into the hole made thereby through the crust of the heaven world. After the completion of the earth-world the sky mother returned by way of an etherial path that plainly was visible to her, this having been made by her daughter, the first born and the first to die of earth creatures.