Iroquois and The Flying Head
The legend states that the problems brought on by the Flying Head did not stop with this group alone. The Flying Head chose to terrorize neighboring peoples as well, apparently for no particular reason.
Many of the Iroquois were supposedly troubled by the Flying Head which, when it rested upon the ground, was taller than a man. This supposed monster was coated in thick black hair, it had wings like a bat, and talons.
One evening after they had been plagued a long time with fearful visitations, the Flying Head came to the door of a lodge occupied by a single female. She was sitting before the fire roasting acorns which, as they became cooked, she took from the fire and ate. Terrified by the power of the woman, who he thought was eating live coals, the Flying Head left and bothered them no more. An alternate version of this part of the legend says that, rather than seeing a woman eating acorns and thinking she was eating live coals, the Flying Head stole live coals from her and tried to eat them, thinking they were acorns. The results of course disastrous, the Flying Head flees in agony, never to be seen again.
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Famous quotes containing the words iroquois, flying and/or head:
“While the very inhabitants of New England were thus fabling about the country a hundred miles inland, which was a terra incognita to them,... Champlain, the first Governor of Canada,... had already gone to war against the Iroquois in their forest forts, and penetrated to the Great Lakes and wintered there, before a Pilgrim had heard of New England.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“You’ve always reminded me of a seagull, Jo. Strong and wild and fond of the wind and storms. And dreaming of flying far off to sea. And Mother always said that I was like a little cricket. Chirping contentedly on the hearth, never able to bear the thought of leaving home.”
—Victor Heerman (1893–1977)
“The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long
That it had its head bit off by its young.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)