Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/131

 Notes on the Folk- Lore of the Wyandots. 1 19

they were anciently descended. Of the animals, the Big Turtle stands in first place. He caused the Great Island (North America) to grow on his back, for a resting-place and home for the Woman who fell from Heaven. He is supposed to carry the Great Island on his back to this day.

The Little Turtle is second in rank and importance in the list of animals. By order of the Great Council of these animals, he made the Sun ; he made the Moon to be the Sun's wife. He made all the fixed stars ; but the stars which " run about the sky " are supposed to be the children of the Sun and Moon. The Sun, Moon, and stars were made for the comfort and convenience of the Woman who fell from Heaven. To do this it was necessary for the Little Turtle to go up to the sky, and this difficult matter was accomplished by the aid of the Thunder God. The Deer was the second animal to get into the sky ; this he did by and with the assistance of the Rainbow. And afterwards all the other totemic animals except the Mud Turtle went up to the sky by the same way, and they are supposed to be living there to this present time. The animals seem to have gov- erned the world before the Woman fell from heaven, and for some time after that important event.

J. The Woman who fell from Heaven.

The Woman who fell from Heaven is an important personage in the mythology of the Wyandots. I have no space here to dwell upon the cause of her falling into this lower world, her peculiar place in the mythology of the Wyandots, etc.

8. The Twins.

According to the mythology of the Wyandots, the Twins were begotten in the country from which the Woman fell, and which the myth calls heaven. I pass over their parentage, the great work they wrought in this world, and the destruction of the Bad One by the Good One, the destruction of all the works of the earth, and their recreation by the Good One.

9. Tah'-teh-kch'-ah, or The Little People.

The Tah'-teh-keh'-ah, or The Little People, occupy an important place in Wyandot mythology. Their name signifies " The Twins." They are very diminutive in size, but they possess marvelous super- natural powers. They lived (and they are supposed to yet live) in stone caves in the bowels of the earth, made by the Mud Turtle, when he was digging the hole through the Great Island for the pathway of the Sun at night when he was going back to the east to rise upon a new day. In these caves are forests, streams, game,

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