Death song—It seems to have been a chivalrous custom among the eastern tribes to give to the condemned prisoner who requested it a chance to recite his warlike deeds and to sing his death song before proceeding to the final torture. He was allowed the widest latitude of boasting, even at the expense of his captors and their tribe. The death song was a chant belonging to the warrior himself or to the war society of which he was a member, the burden being farewell to life and defiance to death. When the great Kiowa war chief, Set-ängya, burst his shackles at Fort Sill and sprang upon the soldiers surrounding him, with the deliberate purpose to sell his life rather than to remain a prisoner, he first sang the war song of his order, the Kâitseñ′ko, of which the refrain is: “O earth, you remain forever, but we Kâitseñ′ko must die” (see the author’s Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians, in Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau American Ethnology, part 1, 1901).
[97.] Origin of the Yontoñwisas dance (p. [365]): This is evidently the one called by Morgan (League of Iroquois, p. 290) the Untowesus. He describes both this and the Oaskanea as a “shuffle dance” for women only. The spelling of the Seneca names in the story is that given in the manuscript.
Not to go after—Morgan, in his work quoted above, asserts that the Iroquois never made any effort to recover those of their people who have been captured by the enemy, choosing to consider them thenceforth as lost to their tribe and kindred. This, if true, is doubly remarkable, in view of the wholesale adoption of prisoners and subjugated tribes by the Iroquois.
Blazing pine knots—Torches of seasoned pine knots are much in use among the Cherokee for lighting up the way on journeys along the difficult mountain trails by night. Owing to the accumulation of resin in the knots they burn with a bright and enduring flame, far surpassing the cloudy glow of a lantern.
Wild potatoes—As is well known, the potato is indigenous to America, and our first knowledge of it came to us from the Indians. Many other native tubers were in use among the tribes, even those which practiced no agriculture, but depended almost entirely upon the chase. Favorites among the Cherokee are the Cynara scolymus or wild artichoke, and the Phaseolus or pig potato, the name of the latter, nuna, being now used to designate the cultivated potato.
Sky people—These spirit messengers are mentioned also in the story of Hatcinoñdoñ ([number 94]), another Seneca tradition. Every tribe has its own spirit creation.
Must do all this—Every sacred dance and religious rite, as well as almost every important detail of Indian ceremonial, is supposed to be in accordance with direct instruction from the spirit world as communicated in a vision.
[98.] Gaʼna’s adventures among the Cherokee (p. [367]): This story, from Curtin’s Seneca manuscript, is particularly rich in Indian allusion. The purificatory rite, the eagle capture, the peace ceremonial, the ballplay, the foot race, and the battle are all described in a way that gives us a vivid picture of the old tribal life. The name of the Seneca hero, Gaʼnaʼ, signifies, according to Hewitt, “Arrow” (cf. Cherokee gûnĭ, “arrow”), while the name of the great eagle, Shadaʼgea, may, according to the same authority, be rendered “Cloud-dweller.” The Seoqgwageono, living east of the Cherokee and near the ocean, can not be identified. They could not have been the Catawba, who were known to the Iroquois as Toderigh-rono, but they may possibly have been the Congaree, Santee, or Sewee, farther down in South Carolina. In the Seneca form, as here given, ge (geʻ) is a locative, and ono (oñnoñ) a tribal suffix qualifying the root of the word, the whole name signifying “people of, or at, Seoqgwa” (cf. Oyadageono, etc., i. e., Cherokee, p. 186).
Go to water—This rite, as practiced among the Cherokee, has been already noted in the chapter on stories and story tellers. Ceremonial purification by water or the sweat bath, accompanied by prayer and fasting, is almost universal among the tribes as a preliminary to every important undertaking. With the Cherokee it precedes the ballplay and the Green-corn dance, and is a part of the ritual for obtaining long life, for winning the affections of a woman, for recovering from a wasting sickness, and for calling down prosperity upon the family at each return of the new moon.
Get the eagle feathers—The Cherokee ritual for procuring eagle feathers for ceremonial and decorative purposes has been described in [number 35], “The Bird Tribes.” The Seneca method, as here described, is practically that in use among all the Indians of the plains, although the hunter is not usually satisfied with a single feather at a capture. Among certain western tribes the eagle was sometimes strangled before being stripped of its feathers, but it was essential that the body must not be mangled or any blood be drawn. The Pueblos were sometimes accustomed to take the young eagles from the nest and keep them in cages for their feathers. A full tail contains twelve large feathers of the kind used for war bonnets and on the wands of the Eagle dance.