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THE INDIAN'S NEW RESURRECTION
MYTH
The waking of animals from their winter sleep, the
breaking up of the ice on the rivers, the loosening of icicles
from the trees, and the return of the sun to the northern
part of the sky, all represent certain stages in a terrific war-
fare waged each year between the Winter God and the Life
God, according to an ancient legend of the Iroquois tribes.
And quite recently a Government employee who spends much
of his time among the survivors of these tribes has come upon
a hitherto unknown version of the Indian myth of the coming
of spring, with a suggestion in it of resurrection for all hu-
mankind and all living things.
Life, according to Iroquois cosmology, began on the other
side of the sky. One day He-who-Holds-the-Earth became
jealous of his wife, the Daylight, and tore a hole in the vault
of the heavens and pushed her through. Down, down she
tumbled, with her baby daughter on her back. The creatures
floating on the surface of the primal sea saw her coming, and
the water birds caught her and landed her unharmed on the
back of a great turtle.
On earth, the baby daughter, the Air, grew to woman-
hood, married the Wind, and bore twin sons, the Winter God
and the Life God. Unfortunately, she died in giving them
birth, and the grandmother (Earth) asked the twins which
one was responsible for the calamity. The Winter God quickly
accused his innocent brother, who was immediately seized by
the angry grandmother and cast into the grasses. From that
time forth the Life God had a continual struggle against the
machinations of his brother and grandmother. But he went
right on preparing the world for man, raising corn, learning
how to roast it, creating birds and animals for game, and at
last creating man and breathing the breath of life into him.
As recounted by Nell Ray Clarke in the Philadelphia Public
Ledger, the myth runs on this way:
But the grandmother became angrier at each successful
accomplishment of her grandson, and in order to punish him
she stole from its fastening the head of his mother, which
had been cut off at her death, and carried it away with her