Lelawala
In
thunder god Hé-no then saved her, as Hé-no was the one who lived behind the falls. At the time, her canoe was broken so Hé-no offered to build a new one. On the day he finished building the canoe, a huge snake with venom so powerful it could kill a whole village, was headed towards the village of Lelawala, but Hé-no then threw a lightning bolt at the snake. The snake landed on top of the falls, creating the curved shape of Horseshoe Falls
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Lelawala is known as the original Maid of the Mist.
Adaptations
Henry Hadley composed a cantata entitled Lelawala: A Legend of Niagara in 1898, in which the maiden Lelawala sacrifices herself to appease the "Thunder Waters" and save her tribe from a famine.[1] Charles Wakefield Cadman's three-act operetta Lelawala: The Maid of Niagara (1926) is based on the story of Lelawala. The libretto includes a number of colonialist plot points, including Lelawala learning about Christian forgiveness from a white missionary.[1][2]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-520-95202-7.
- S2CID 143690230.