Native American Legends
The prophecy of the two Serpents
A Mohawk Legend
The story is told that a long time ago, before the time that Europeans
arrived in the Americas, two hunters went out over the Great Water
to look for a new hunting territory. Game was scarce in Kanienkehaka,
and they hoped to find more food beyond the horizon in the east.
These two hunters set out in their canoe for richer game. After
they had gone out beyond the horizon's edge, they noticed a glowing
in the distance. They quickened their paddling and came upon a very
strange sight. There in the water were two small serpents, one gold
and one silver. These serpents were glowing and turned the sky into
wonderful colors.
The two hunters were amazed at the beauty of the serpents. They
did not want to leave them in the water for fear they would drown
or else be eaten by a large fish. They knew if they brought these
serpents back to their own nation, the people would admire the serpents
and call the two hunters men of great skill and daring. They paddled
up close to the serpents and scooped them up into their canoe.
Before the two hunters returned to their village, the people could
see them approaching from the great light that glowed from the serpents.
When the hunters reached their homes with their prize, the people
were impressed by the catch. Everybody crowded around the serpents
to watch the beautiful light that they gave off.
The people kept the serpents in an extra canoe. They were fed daily,
and soon began to eat 24 hours a day. They grew too large for the
canoe, and had to be moved to a stockade especially built for that
purpose.
At first the serpents were fed mosquitoes, flies and other insects.
As they grew larger they ate small animals like rabbits, raccoons
and muskrats. Soon they grew so large that they needed to be fed
deer and finally moose.
One day the serpents grew so large that they managed to escape
from their stockade pen. They attacked the children and swallowed
quite a few of them whole. The people were in terrible circumstances.
They could see the children squirming around in the bellies of the
huge gold and silver serpents.
They attacked these serpents with clubs, with arrows and with spears,
but to no avail. The serpents continued to ravage through the village,
killing more and more of the people and swallowing more of the children.
Finally they left the village and headed for the woods.
The people fought among themselves as to what to do. They couldn't
agree as to what was the best way to stop the serpents. They fought
until it became too late and the serpents disappeared. The gold
serpent went south, and the silver one headed north.
These serpents left trails wherever they went. They cut through
mountains and blocked up the rivers. They killed all of the animals
wherever they went, not always stopping to eat the meat. When the
serpents approached a mountain, instead of going around it or over
the top, they burrowed through the middle. The serpents left trails
of filth and destruction wherever they went. They poisoned the waters,
killed the forests, and made the earth an ugly and barren place.
One day a hunter from the land of the Kanienkehaka happened to
see the golden serpent. It had grown to be the size of a mountain,
and it had turned around, and was heading for the Mohawk country
once again. Similarly word came down from the north that the silver
serpent had grown and it too was heading for the land of the Kanienkehaka.
One day, the two serpents could be seen from the original village
from whence they had come three hundred years earlier. Again the
people argued and argued. They could not agree as to the best way
to kill the serpents off. The people remembered the legends of the
serpents, and how they had eaten the children of their ancestors,
and they fled to the mountains.
Once in the mountains the people were told by the Creator that
the day would come when a small boy would show them the way to kill
the two serpents. The boy would make a bow from willow. He would
string the bow with a string made from the hair of the clan mothers.
An arrow would be made of a straight sapling and tipped with the
white flint of the Kanienkehaka.
With this arrow and this bow, the people were told, the Kanienkehaka
would protect themselves from the two serpents of the United States
and Canada.
Native American Legends
Back to Top
Other Native American Legends
|
Native American Legends A-B