[158.] The Seneca words signify “Now, it has returned, that by which he lives; so now again he shall stand upon the earth.”
[159.] The expression “blew into the mouth” indicates how closely life and breath were connected in the minds of the story-telling ancestors of the Seneca.
[160.] The expression “of stone” is probably an exaggeration of the clay or mud shelters of the crawfish or lobster.
[162.] The expression “end of the earth” evidently can mean the horizon only; it could not mean aught else here. This expression perhaps strengthened the tendency to belief in a limited earth. And this is, too, a good example of the reification of an illusion.
[163.] The word Tsodiqgwadon, correctly written Tsodĭqʹgwãdoⁿʼ, is the name of a species of copperhead snake.
[164.] The question to be decided with all sorcerers is that of the potency of the orenda or magic power possessed by them.
[165.] The reference here is to the implied challenge in the contest just ended with the life of the loser as the conceded prize of the winner. So Doonongaes having lost in the test of the power of his orenda must make, if possible, composition for his life with his vanquisher.
[166.] This struggle continuing “day and night for one month” is probably a reference to the fact that the moon once a month waxes and wanes and yet is not overcome or destroyed.
[167.] The expression “people of orenda, or magic power,” signifies that these are people who make a business of sorcery, and so the line should begin, “We sorcerers,” etc.