He threw himself into
every imaginable shape, and with wonderful contortions and agonizing
pains, rolled his ponderous body down along the declivity of the mountain,
uttering horrid noises as he went, prostrating trees in his course, and
falling finally into the lake below.
Here he slaked his thirst, and showed signs of great distress, by dashing
about furiously in the water. Soon he vomited up the heads of those whom
he had swallowed, and immediately after expired and sank to rise no more.
[Footnote: As related to the author by Col. Wm. Jones.]
From these two children, as thus preserved, the Seneca nation are said to
have sprung.
So implicitly has this tradition been received by the Senecas, that it has
been incorporated into the solemnities of their worship, and its
remembrance continued from one generation to another by the aid of
religious rites. Here they were formerly in the habit of assembling in
council, and here their prayers and thanksgivings were offered to the
Great Spirit, for having given them birth, and for rescuing their nation
from entire destruction.
In speaking of this to the whites, they point to the barren hillside, as
evincing the truth of the story, affirming that one day the forest trees
stood thick upon it, but was stripped of them by the great serpent as he
rolled down its declivity. The round stones found there in great
abundance, resembling in size and shape the human head, are taken as
additional proof, for they affirm that these are the heads disgorged by
the serpent, and have been petrified by the waters of the lake.
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