SNAKE-MAN

A myth, widely diffused in the Great Plains area, narrates how a young man was changed into a water monster. According to a Cheyenne variant, a couple of youths went away from their village searching for eggs and came to the shore of a lake. One of them found some eggs of an unusual aspect, such as he had never seen alike. Despite his companion’s advise, the young man ate one of these eggs. Suddenly, he began to feel strangely, and had an impulse to stay near the water. His companion observed with disappointment that his behaviour was changing. When they came to another body of water, the young man turned into a monster, a mihn, similar to a huge lizard, with one or two horns on its head. These beings were regarded as responsible for the drowning of people into rivers or lakes  (Grinnell 1923 [1972, vol.2: 97-98]).

 

Painted robe from a Kiowa tipi, with the representation of two water monsters, in the shape of horned snakes. Collected by James Mooney between 1891 and 1904 (National Anthropological Archives, Washington, D.C.)

 

The variant recorded by G. Dorsey among the Arapaho is quite similar, but it quotes the speech that the man changed into a water snake addressed to his comrade: “I am going to stay in that deep water against the bank, and so please tell my folks of the place. Whenever they wish to cross the river, either above or below, tell them to throw intestines into the river, for remembrance of me. I shall see that they cross it in safety. Tell my folks that I came this far with you, that you saw me start off and dive into the water, out of your sight” (Dorsey-Kroeber 1903: 151). This means that the water beings, however they had a monstrous aspect, were not so radically set apart. At least some of them had been humans before, and they showed to be helping and benevolent towards their former companions, giving them power and protection in exchange for offerings and sacrifices.
An old Lakota version narrates, instead, of the transformation of a woman into a water being, after a quarrel with her husband. She took the form of a siren, that is a being with a woman’s body above her hips, and with the lower part like that of a fish. The woman appeared on the shore to suckle her infant, but was deceived and killed by her cruel husband (Dorsey 1889). In this case it seems that the story could be interpreted as a particularly bloody version of the Melusine motif, which one finds in several French and German medieval texts.