416 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



Probably a custom as widespread over the world as dressing in 

 masks to impersonate other beings permits us to assume that the 

 Iroquoian custom of wearing false faces sprang from their own or 

 Huron culture whence it spread to the Iroquois after 1648, where 

 it became so firmly imbedded that, despite 300 years of buffeting by 

 white contact, the masks have maintained standards prescribed in the 

 origin legends. The masks show little fundamental change from 

 generation to generation, except that they become increasingly ornate 

 and grotesque when influenced by the adoption of better tools or the 

 degeneration of the wood-carver's art; and masks portraying a pig, 

 the devil, and such amusing figures as Mickey Mouse, Felix Cat, and 

 Charlie Chaplin have encroached only on the group of faces designed 

 to elicit laughter — the class of beggar masks — which is the most 

 plastic. 



THE SOCIETY OF HUSK FACES OR BUSHY-HEADS 



The Husk Faces are a race of agi'iculturists. They dwell on the 

 other side of the earth in a ravine where they till their fields amid 

 high stumps. Coming from the east every new year, they visit the 

 Seneca longhouses during 2 nights of the Midwinter Festival. Pre- 

 ceded by runners, they finally arrive amid a great din of beating the 

 building with staves, stop the dances, and kidnap a chief for inter- 

 preter. As messengers of the three sisters — corn, beans, and squash — 

 our life supporter, they have great powers of prophecy. The inter- 

 preter relates the message of the old woman, their leader, that they 

 are hurrying westward to hoe their crops. In fields about their 

 houses they grow huge squashes ; the corn has giant ears, and string 

 beans climb up poles to heaven. Some of their women have remained 

 home to tend to crying babies. Recently in their country there is 

 employment on public works projects. These statements are ac- 

 cepted as an augury of fertility. They request the privilege of danc- 

 ing with the people. All their company may be men, but some dress as 

 women and participate in the dances as if they were women. 



The Husk Face Society is by no means as well integrated or 

 prominent as the False-face Society, although they share certain 

 functions. Unlike the False-faces, they are mutes and only puff as 

 they run with great leaps. They have tlieir own tobacco invocation, 

 a medicine song, and they dance about the staves which they carry. 

 They also have the power to cure by blowing hot ashes ; but in Canada 

 they sprinkle water on their patients. They like tobacco, but they 

 prefer popcorn at Allegany and dumplings at Newtown and Tona- 

 wanda, instead of mush. \Vlien four suddenly appear racing between 

 the houses, they may be signaling the approach of the False-face 

 Company. They will loiter, policing the premises imtil the Common 

 Faces depart. Relatively few Indians belong to their society, and 



