[298.] Otho for Otʹʻhoʼ signifies “It is cold.”
[299.] Onenonhge for Onēʹnaⁿʼgeʻ signifies “At the place of sunshine.”
[300.] Dedioshwineqdon for Dedioʻsʻhwineqʹdoⁿ is the name of the “Warm spring wind.”
[301.] Ongwe Honwe for Oñgweʹ-ʻHoñweʻ signifies “real, or native, people,” people in contrast with pseudohuman beings, or beings that assume or have had the human form and attributes belonging to the myth-making epoch. In modern times, the name was applied to the native Indian person in contrast with the European person.
[302.] Gaasyendietʻha for Gaăʻsioñdieʹtʻhăʼ is the name of the firedragon, or the meteor. See note [260].
[303.] Stone Coats is the legendary name of the sons of the Winter God. This brood of harmful fictitious creatures owe their being to an erroneous folk-etymology of the word Tawiskaroⁿʼ, the name of the Winter God. Cf. Introduction.
[304.] Ongwe Hanyos for Oñʹgweʻ Hāʹnioʻs signify “He is in the habit of killing human beings,” sometimes meaning a cannibal.
[305.] There is a well-known Wyandot tradition that in some former country of their ancestors the winters were very severe and the snows fell excessively deep—so deep sometimes that the poor people had to dig their way out of their wigwams in quest of sustenance. Consequently, food was often scarce and famine rife, because the hunters were unable to go out on account of the great depth of the snow. And, in some instances, it is said, the pangs of hunger were so pressing that some famishing persons were driven to kill and devour some of their own neighbors and friends. Others, more fortunate, learning of these cannibalistic acts, decided to leave the country at once. So, digging their way out through the drifted snows, they finally reached, southward from their former homes, a river which they crossed and, continuing their journey some time, they at last reached a land in which they found a much milder climate. But those who remained became monsters—man-eaters, giants, stone coats, stone giants—and were very strong in body. This is the popular explanation of a lost myth incident—the activity of the Winter God.
In later times, it is said, one of these Stone Coats found his way to the river which the fugitives had crossed and stood on the farther bank, where he was seen by one of the fugitive hunters. The Stone Coat would not attempt to cross the river for he was afraid of water, but he called out across the river to the hunter, who had escaped from the northern country, saying, “Cousin, come over here.” It is held that he wanted to eat the hunter, who, however, did not obey his summons. But, in a canoe, he went close to the opposite shore of the river, carrying with him a quantity of hot deer fat, which he gave to the Stone Coat, telling him to drink it. When the Stone Coat drank it his coat or skin of stone fell off from him, and he ceased being a man-eater, and he then was willing to cross the river with the hunter, whom he called his cousin. In the course of time the shows melted in that northern country and the Stone Coats dispersed in various directions. [[807]]
Afterwards, an old Stone Coat woman came to the village of the fugitives on the south side of the river (which is said to be the St. Lawrence River), and the people dwelling there at once surmised that she came there with the desire of eating some one of its inhabitants. But a young man and his wife took a basswood paddle (basswood is reputed in legendary lore as having the power of depriving a Stone Coat of strength and life) and they beat the old Stone Coat woman until she fell, exclaiming, “The Little Turtles are killing me.” Then the Stone Coat woman arose and fled northward and escaped. The other Stone Coats also departed northward, going to their native home, which was in the far northland.