Storm Wind, Dagwanoeient, (Dagwano‘ĕñ´iĕn) is a being of great activity, and he has a whole tribe of subordinates bearing his name. He appears to men as a Flying Head, with long streaming hair, and his exploits are generally discreditable. He is a great wizard and takes delight in destroying things. His friends are generally sorcerers and otgont (evilly potent) beasts. Many legends are related about Dagwanoeient in his various forms, for he has several transformations.
Gä´ha‘, the zephyr, is a softer wind than the stormy Dagwanoeient, and appears to be of a kindlier disposition. While Gä´ha‘ may have done magical things, it was not malign, and there are legends that tell how Gaha wooed some fair forest maid and married her. Gaha helps plant grow and is associated with the warm season when fruits ripen and mature.
THE SPIRIT OF THE FROST
This is Haht´ho, the spirit of the frost who signals by knocking on the trees in winter. Drawing by Jesse Cornplanter.
The Frost god is known as Hă’´tho‘, and he is described as a fierce and relentless old man who lives where frosts and ice abound the year around. His home in the north is called Othowege. It is he who brings the frost and who causes the snows to sweep over the earth. His clothing is ice and he carries a maul with which he pounds the ice on rivers and lakes, making them crack with a resounding boom. He also causes that peculiar knocking sound on trees when the weather is very cold. He has one great enemy, it is the spirit of Spring, who assisted by Thaw drives him from the region that he has invaded and sends him grumbling back to the northland. The Frost god has as his friends Dagwanoeient, the Storm Wind, and Falling Hail.
The Hail spirit is called Owisondyon. He loves to startle people by coming unexpectedly in the warm months of early summer and to pelt the growing crops with his icy missiles. Sometimes he is given the name, Dehodyadgaowen, meaning Divided Body.
The Spring god is Dedio‘s‘hwineq´don, and he is young and very muscular. He loves to wrestle with the winter winds and even enters Ha’´tho’s lodge and teases him to desperation while his faithful ally, Thaw, plays havoc with the ice and the drifts outside. Spring tortures the Winter god with a medicine made of blackberry juice, for Winter god knows that when blackberries grow winter is beyond the power of injuring the world. At last Spring and Winter have a wrestling match in which Winter is overcome and his bodily form melts upon the ground, while his spirit whines away, driven north by the south winds. Spring lives in Onē´nan’ge‘, Sunshine land.
The Thaw god is Dăgā’ĕn‘´dă, the faithful ally of Spring. When he comes, in mid-winter he appears suddenly and begins to wreck the icy blankets that winter has placed over the earth. Winter then knows that Spring is coming and exerts all his magic to freeze the world again and to make his reign even more terrible. Time passes and Thaw comes again bringing his master, Spring, and then there is a fight to the finish, and Spring is supreme, while Thaw pursues ever to torment Hă’´tho‘, on his frontiers.
The spirits of sustenance are known as Dion’he´kon, and they are represented as the inseparable spirits of the corn, the bean and the squash. They are sometimes referred to as “the three sisters.” The ceremonial dance in their honor is called Goñdă‘goñwi´sas. There are many legends of these spirits of sustenance and the wise men and women of ancient times tell of hearing them talk together in the fields where they grow together.
Tide spirit is known as S‘hagowe´not‘ha, and it is he who controls the rising and falling of the great waters, twice in each day. It is said that he controls the lifting of the sky’s rim in the land of Gaenhyakdondye (the horizon), which allows the sun to emerge in the morning and depart at night. Sometimes he tempts canoemen far out to sea and then crushes them under the edge of the sky’s rim. He sometimes lures disobedient boys to lonely islands where witches and wizards live on human flesh. Altogether, aside from certain functions, he is an evil monster.