IROQUOIS — FENTON 407 



on the formal character of spirits. Thus, it is highly probable that the False-face 

 spirits of the Iroquois are the projections into the spiritual world of the grotesque 

 wooden masks worn by the members of the False-face Society, . . . 



Mask types depend on the use to which they are put. They are 

 not rigidly definable on the basis of form alone because to a large extent 

 use determines type. This is the old argument of form vs. function, 

 of native theory and native practice which flies in the face of all over 

 nice taxonomic distinctions based on form alone. Aside from the fact 

 that a carver may be guided by the mythological incident of hadii'i' 

 breaking his nose on the mountain and intend his mask as a repre- 

 sentation of that being, a subsequent owner may disregard this in 

 using the mask. Conversely, a mask which was never intended to 

 represent more than a common face of the forest may in time perform 

 the curing role of the great world-rim dweller in the doorkeeper ritual. 

 Thus all the old masks do become ultimately "doctor" masks. And, 

 occasionally, even some of the more potent "doctor" masks get into 

 the hands of small boys who impersonate the beggars of the forest at 

 the Midwinter Festival. Therefore, only within certain limits and 

 allowing for such exceptions will an informant even attempt to assign 

 a series of masks to specific functions and categories. 



The dramatic behavior of the wearers of the masks counts more in 

 the roles in which the masks appear than the form of the mask itself. 

 Here individual talent in acting and dancing constitutes much of the 

 effectiveness of ceremony. Certain individuals in every Iroquois 

 community are known to be good prospects for the role of doorkeeper. 

 Sometimes a good actor possesses a fine old mask that is suited to the 

 role, and in time both he and his mask come to be associated with 

 this role. But as he grows older he may be selected as conductor and 

 he easily finds a yoimger man to wear his mask, but the community 

 ordinarily has little difiiculty in distinguishing the mask and its owner 

 and in identifying the new actor. 



In general, the masks have deep-set eyes, rendered bright by metal 

 sconces, and large, frequently bent noses. The arched brows are 

 deeply wrinkled and sometimes divided above the nose by a longitu- 

 dinal crease or a comb of spines, which only one Seneca calls "Turtle- 

 tail," because they resemble the processes on a mud turtle's tail. The 

 mouth is the most variable feature, and runs through a whole range 

 of contortions depending on mood, function, or locality. Both 

 mouth corners may be upturned in a smile, or a grimace showing 

 teeth; or the mouth is distended ovally for blowing ashes, sometimes 

 with protruding tongue; or it is puckered as if whistling, or puck- 

 ered with conventionalized tongue and spoonlike lips, which may be 

 again bifunnelate for blowing ashes, or once more revealing teeth; 

 then others have large, straight, distended lips, which may be twisted 

 up at one corner to accompany a bent nose, or down at the other 



