OWAHONTON: MAID OF THE MIST: AN ANCIENT ONGIARAS TRIBAL LEGEND

I lost my husband and my hope at a young age.

Though beautiful, I could not find way through the sorrow upon sorrow that was my lot in life.

So I stepped one day into my canoe, singing a death song softly to myself, and paddled out into the current.

When I heard the distant roaring of the great falls, my hands began to tremble, and the peace I had felt when I first set foot in my canoe fled. It was, I think, the realization that there would be physical pain before death that made me shiver and shake. I prayed to the Thunderer that my death would be swift and that my courage would remain with me until the end.

Then I threw my useless paddle away as the canoe entered the rapids and I watched the falls growing nearer, the sky reaching down to touch the very edge of the water as it plunged into the abyss.

I gripped the sides of the canoe as the current heaved the small craft to and fro, moving me swiftly to my end... But as it pitched over and I fell, Heno, God of Thunder, who lived in the falls, caught me gently in his arms and carried me to his home beneath the thundering veil of water.

Heno and his sons ministered to my emotions, and I stayed with them until my heart healed within me.

Then the younger son spoke words of love to me and we married, to the delight of the God of Thunder.

A young son was born to us, and he followed his grandfather everywhere, learning what it meant to be God of Thunder.

The only shadow on my happiness was a continual longing to see my people one more time. My chance came in an unexpected and unwelcome way. A great snake came down the mighty river and poisoned the waters of my people. They grew sick and were dying. Soon the snake would return to devour the dead until my people were all gone. It was Heno himself who gave me the news, and I begged that I might return for one hour to warn my people of the danger.

The God himself lifted me through the falls and set me down among my people to give warning about the evil snake that was causing such pestilence among them. I advised them to move to a higher country until the danger was past, and they agreed. Then Heno came and took me back to my husband and my home.

In a few days, the giant serpent returned to the village, seeking the bodies of those who had died from the poison it had spread. When the snake realized that the people had deserted the village, it hissed in rage and turned upstream to search for them. But Heno heard the voice of the serpent and rose up through the mist of the falls. He threw a great thunderbolt at the creature and killed it in one mighty blast. The giant body of the creature floated downstream and lodged just above the cataract, creating a large semi-circle that deflected huge amounts of water into the falls at the place just above the God's home. Horrified by this disastrous turn of events, Heno swept in through the falls and did his best to stop the massive influx of water, but it was too late.

Seeing that his home would soon be destroyed, Heno called for me and his sons to come away with him. The younger son caught me and our child up in his arms and followed Heno through the water of the falls and up into the sky, where the Thunderer made them a new home. From this place, they watch over the people of the earth, while Heno thunders in the clouds as he once thundered in the vapors of the great falls. To this day, an echo of the Heno's voice can be heard in the thunder of the mighty waters of Niagara Falls.

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