The author of this collection of Seneca folk-tales can-
not remember when he first began to hear the wonder
stories of the ancient days. His earliest recollections are
of hearing the wise old men relate these tales of the myster-
ious past. They were called Kắkāā, or Gắkāā, and when
this word was uttered, as a signal that the marvels of old
were about to be unfolded, all the children grew silenti,--
and listened. In those days, back on the Cattaraugus reser-
vation, it was a part of a child's initial training to learn why
the bear lost its tail, why the chipmunk has a striped back
and why meteors flash in the sky.

Many years later,--it was in 1903,--the writer of this
manuscript returned to the Cattaraugus reservation bring-
ing with him his friend Mr. Raymond Harrington, for the
purpose of making an archaeological survey of the Cattar-
augus valley for the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, of
Harvard University. Our base camp was on the old Sil-
verheels farm, which occupies the site of one of the early
Seneca villages of the period after the Erie war of 1654.
Here also is the site of the original Lower Cattaraugus of
pre-Revolutionary days.

To our camp came many Indian friends who sought to in-
struct Mr. Harrington and myself in the lore of the ancients.
We were regaled with stories of the false-faces, of the
whirl-winds, of the creation of man, of the death panther,
and of the legends of the great bear, but in particular we
were blessed with an ample store of tales of vampire skele-
tons, of witches and of folk-beasts, all of whom had a

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