The Onondaga is the longest and the Seneca the shortest version. I will give you, however, a condensed rendering of the Mohawk tradition. It says : " In the sky above were man-beings, both male and female, who dwelt in villages, and in one of the lodges was a man and woman, who were down-fended, that is, they were secluded, and their lodge was surrounded by the down of the cat-tail, which was a sign that

CONCERNING THE MOHAWKS. 95

no one should approach them, nor were they allowed to leave this precinct. The man became ill and stated that he would not get well until a dogwood tree standing in his dooryard had been uprooted. So when his people had uprooted the tree he said to his wife, ' Do thou spread for me something there beside the place where stood the tree.' Thereupon she spread something for him there and he then lay down on what she had spread for him, and he said to his wife : ' Here sit thou, beside my body.' Now at that time she did sit beside him as he lay there. Then he said to her: 'Do thou hang thy legs down into the abyss.' For where they had uprooted the tree there came to be a deep hole, which went through the sky, and the earth was upturned about it. " And while he lay there he recovered from his illness and turning on his side he looked into the hole. After a while he said to his wife : * Do thou look thither into the hole to see what things are occurring there in yonder place.' Arid as she bent her body to look into the hole he took her by the nape of the neck and pushed her and she fell into the hole and kept falling into the darkness thereof.