412 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



Three techniques of manufacture produce as many types of husk 

 masks. Most commonly long strips of corn husk braid are sewn in 

 three coils which form the eyes and mouth, and the nose and fringe 

 are added. The females of the species are designated by appending 

 little knobs of covered husk to the fringe, eyes, and nose. The 

 rougher looking ones are considered old men and the smoother ones 

 are youths (pi. 13). Usually the mouths are small and round, but 

 again they take on the mouth shapes of the Wooden Faces. At 

 Grand River, husk faces are more coarsely braided and more com- 

 pletely cover the wearer (pi. 14, fig, 2). 



Twined husk faces were until recently made by old Seneca women 

 at Allegany, and at Cattaraugus only one old woman still makes 

 them. The technique of twining involves twisting a pair of wefts 

 around each radiating warp as it is passed until one reaches the rim 

 of the mask. Twined masks are commenced at the nose (pi. 14, fig. 

 1). The poorly made ones with stubble on the cheeks are grand- 

 fathers, and the smooth-faced "bushy-heads" with a round red spot 

 painted on each cheek are young people bound for religious festivals 

 at the longhouse. 



Among the Onondaga of Grand River, Canada, besides the masks 

 made entirely of corn husks or wood, there is a third variety Icnown 

 as wooden .bushy-head (ow^'^ga gadji*'sa'). This is a natural wood 

 mask with undistorted human features having only ceremonial face 

 painting confined to a round red spot on 'each cheek or a series of 

 vertical lines beneath the lower lip. It has corn husk fringe as hair, 

 and is credited with more power than the other husk faces (pi. 15, fig. 



Miniature masks. — For all the larger varieties of masks there seem 

 to be miniature masks which take the characteristic types and art 

 styles of the localities where they are made. These are either kept 

 as personal charms or they are hung on the larger masks and "ride 

 along" in the ceremonies (pi. 15, fig. 2). 



HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 



Archeology. — Stone faces and faces on pots and pipes occur in 

 suflficient abundance throughout the historic area of the Iroquois to 

 lead one to suspect that the prehistoric Iroquois entertained concep- 

 tions of supernatural beings like those which their historic descend- 

 ants associate with the False-faces. The appearance of some of the 

 human and animal faces modeled on the bowls of earthenware pipes, 

 usually to face the smoker, suggests that they were intended to 

 represent wooden masks. However, the archeological evidence 

 further confirms an inference that we can make from the accounts 

 of early travelers below, namely, that the False-face rituals made 



