Intends to recreate the milieu in which the Seneca legends and folktales were told and discusses their basic themes and components before going on to relate more than seventy of them that the author heard as a boy. This title presents the magical Senecan world populated by unseen good and evil spirits, ghosts, and beings capable of transformation.

Here is the magical Senecan world populated by unseen good and evil spirits, ghosts, and beings capable of transformation. Included are creation myths; folktales involving contests between mortal youths and assorted powers; tales of love and marriage; and stories about cannibals, talking animals, pygmies, giants, monsters, vampires, and witches. In a new introduction to this Bison Book edition, William N. Fenton, an emeritus professor of anthropology at SUNY-Albany, writes about Parker's unparalleled contribution to the preservation of Iroquoian folklore.