As regards this subject, the supernatural actors of the Iroquois, this book doesn’t have room for what could have been obtained. Ten this size couldn’t hold what has been lost. This chapter is only a profile of some bogies from Iroquois tradition. Some of the garish characters may have spun off the high divinities, figures from Iroquois religion. They are clearly separate from that now. Some are pure figures of folklore that haven’t been heard from otherwise in centuries. Some of them are as real and immediate as a contemporary paranormal report.
THE FEARSOME FOURSOME
Stone Giants, Flying Heads, Vampire Corpses, and Little People: Folklorists have found this supernatural quartet the dominant characters in the Iroquois forest tales.
Other beasties have come and gone. The Mohawk made offerings to this near Lake Champlain. The Seneca steered clear of that along the Allegheny. But all Iroquois nations—even North Carolina newcomers the Tuscarora—talked about these four, and variants are found in Iroquoian groups as far-ranging as the Cherokee and Wyandot. Most folklorists think these cycles are quite old, predating European contact.
Note that all are variants of the human form, and many, such as the Iroquois giants and vampires, have counterparts all over the world. Their Little People look even more like the elves and fairies of Europe. Only the curious Flying Heads lack off-continent parallels.
We don’t know a living Native American who claims to have seen or encountered Stone Giants, Flying Heads, or Vampire Corpses. They seem figures of folklore, and we’ll discuss them in this chapter. The Little People may be different. They have their own chapter.
THE STONE GIANTS
The Iroquois nations have legends about a tribe of ancient enemies whose name is usually translated as the Stone Giants. They were monstrous cannibals in skintight coats of weapon-proof scales.
Once the Stone Giants were a northeastern tribe content to live and let live, but they endured famine in their wanderings in the cold of the north. They turned to raw meat for sustenance and came into New York with a taste for fresh Iroquois. It was the source of a serious culture clash, and the then Five Nations were getting the worst of it when the tide turned. There are two versions of the matter.
One starred the famous Skunni Wundi, or “he crosses the creek.” Skunni Wundi was a trickster hero who’d grown from an impressionable boy into a resourceful young man. He’d made a legend for himself in his own village, but his fame was not yet international when he made his vow to rid his nation of the trolls. He had been doing some scouting in their territory and had left his belongings on the bank of a creek. He came back to them to find a woman of the Stone Giants inspecting them. She picked up his tomahawk as if it was a marvel, even licking the edge with her tongue. Then she set out to see what it could do. The weapon shocked her by splitting a boulder at just a touch.
One of the fundamentals of world myth is the premise that talents or qualities can sometimes be transferred by touch. Unaware that her own act—and her saliva—had given the weapon some of the special powers that protected every member of her tribe, the Stone Giantess presumed that the weapon’s owner could whip them all. At that point, the Iroquois hero showed himself, in no hurry to correct her. He added that he’d give her folk some of the boulder’s medicine if they troubled his people again. The giants packed up and left Iroquois territory for good.
In another version of the Stone Giants’ demise, the Creator disguised himself as a studly young Stone Giant and persuaded his new colleagues to gather into a single army in a valley at Onondaga. The avalanche he started from above overwhelmed them. When the elaborate hoax called the Cardiff giant—a ten-foot man carved out of a block of stone—was found and exhibited in 1869, the Onondaga were not surprised that it was unearthed in this valley so near the site of their legend.
Like the Little People, the Stone Giants display a number of powers. The Stone Giants had several types of magic, including the ability to bestow luck in hunting. Healers as well as fighters, the Stone Giants are sometimes associated with the lesser caste of False Face masks. Transferring magical power to a human artifact is another common motif. Most storytellers agreed that the being inside the flinty coat might be a normal looking, if large, human. Though statuesque, Stone Giant women could also be seductive, doffing their armor coats piece by piece in a mineral striptease by a young hunter’s fire.
The giants have peculiar weaknesses, though. Individual Stone Giants who went to live with human families were often chased by members of their own nation and needed human help to win a titanic duel. Though normal clubs, spears, and arrows couldn’t hurt the Stone Giants, certain types of wood were said to pierce or shatter their flinty armor. Red willow osier (a type of bush) and basswood (the lime or linden tree) were among these.
Another weakness involved the stiffness of their armor. The Stone Giants couldn’t tilt their heads back to look up. A good way to befuddle them was to climb a tree. The trickster hero Skunni Wundi pulled a move on a couple of them near the Oatka Creek near Leroy. Some Stone Giants had snuck up on him and his sister as they played by Buttermilk Falls. Skunni Wundi hid himself under the falls, snuck up behind them, and gave a sudden yell. As they turned their heads, their necks snapped.
The last of these Stone Giants lived for many years in the region of today’s Allegany State Park. A Seneca hunter took shelter from a blizzard in a cave and found the giant, who took pity on him. He taught the young man about the history of his nation, then let him depart as a friend.
