Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/269

 Water-Monsters of American Aborigines. 257

council with the old men of the tribe, who agreed among themselves upon killing the snake, or trying to do so. For this purpose they induced the young woman to go to the lake again, when her next courses should come on. Twelve old men accompanied her, singing and carrying a drum, taking along their shamanic "medicines" with them. They camped out that night, and next morning sent the girl into the lake to erect a tent-like structure or trestle in its midst. When they sang their magic songs many kinds of snakes appeared and laid their heads upon the (horizontal) cross-poles of the struc- ture. The conjurers told them, "You are not the ones (wanted)," and the waters became excited and boiled. But when a certain snake came and put its head on the cross-poles, they said, "You are the one." The girl was then ordered to enter the water again and to strike its surface four times with her underwear. This she did, and the effect on the snake was so weakening that it could be killed by the conjurer without any exertion. The snake was brought to the shore, cut up, and the assembled tribe voted as to the use to be made of the snake's body. They resolved to cut it into pieces and to give a piece to every person (to serve as talisman, physic, or amulet), and then a name was given to the snake, calling it Msi Kinepikiva, or " great reptile."

The Potawatomi Indians, when settled along Wabash River, had a tradition that there was a monster serpent in Lake Manitou. "Their superstitious dread of this lake was such that they would not hunt upon its borders nor fish in its waters for fear of incurring the anger of the evil spirit that made its home in this little woodland lake. When the government officers were about erecting the Potawatomi mills, the Indians strenuously objected to the erection of a dam at the outlet of the lake, lest its accumulated waters might disturb and overflow the subterranean abode of the serpent, the exasperated demon rush forth from his watery domain, and take indiscriminate vengeance on all those who resided near the sacred lake." 1

Among the Peoria Indians, who formerly lived in Illinois and are now in the Indian Territory, the Lenapicha or "true tiger " is an awe-inspiring animal of the dragon species and of enormous dimen- sions. Although it can live on dry land, it is mainly seen on the water, and there it shines in its brightest colors. It is a phantom representing the lightning striking a lake or river, and the ebullition of the water consequent upon the stroke causes it to appear as a fire-dragon. In the popular idea it also stands for any huge ani- mal, and its name serves as a personal name of totemic origin, cor- responding to the Shawnee tnanetuwi msi-pissi, " great miraculous

1 From Cox's Recollections of Wabash Valley, p. 136, as quoted in R. M. Dor- man, The Origin of Primitive Superstitions, Philadelphia, 1SS1, p. 283. VOL. XII. — NO. 47. 17

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