Notes on the Iroquois: or, Contributions to the Statistics, Aboriginal History, Antiquities and General Ethnology of Western New-YorkSchoolcraft, Henry Rowe
History
Notes on the Iroquois: or, Contributions to the Statistics, Aboriginal History, Antiquities and General Ethnology of Western New-York
Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
Indians of North America -- New York (State); Iroquois Indians
My inquiries were answered one evening at the mission house at Buffalo,
by the Allegany chief, HA-YEK-DYOH-KUNH, or the Woodcutter,
better known by his English name of Jacob Blacksnake. He stated that
the Kah-Kwahs had their chief residence at the time of their final
defeat, on the Eighteen-mile creek. The name by which he referred to
them, in this last place of their residence, might be written perhaps
with more exactitude to the native tongue, Gah Gwah-ge-o-nuh—but as
this compound word embraces the ideas of locality and existence along
with their peculiar name, there is a species of tautology in retaining
the two inflections. They are not necessary in the English, and besides
in common use, I found them to be generally dropt, while the sound of G
naturally changed in common pronunciation into that of K.
Blacksnake commenced by saying, that while the Senecas lived east of
the Genesee, they received a challenge from the Kah-Kwahs, to try their
skill in ball playing and athletic sports. It was accepted, and after
due preliminaries, the challengers came, accompanied by their prime
young men, who were held in great repute as wrestlers and ball-players.
The old men merely came as witnesses, while this trial was made.
The first trial consisted of ball playing, in which, after a sharp
contest, the young Senecas came off victorious. The next trial
consisted of a foot race between two, which terminated also in favor of
the Senecas. The spirit of the Kah-Kwahs was galled by these defeats.
They immediately got up another race on the instant, which was hotly
contested by new runners, but it ended in their losing the race. Fired
by these defeats, and still confident of their superior strength, they
proposed wrestling, with the sanguinary condition, that each of the
seconds should hold a drawn knife, and if his principal was thrown, he
should instantly plunge it into his throat, and cut off his head. Under
this terrible penalty, the struggle commenced. The wrestlers were to
catch their hold as best they could, but to observe fair principles of
wrestling. At length the Kah-Kwah was thrown, and his head immediately
severed and tossed into the air. It fell with a rebound, and loud
shouts proclaimed the Senecas victors in four trials. This terminated
the sports, and the tribes returned to their respective villages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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