IROQUOIS — FENTON 417 



set a kettle down for them to renew an old dream, but many put on 

 their masks for the public longhouse rituals, and others join them 

 in social dances at the end of the line. 



Origin of the Onondaga Husk Faces. — Hadji*'sa (for Gaji*'sa'), 

 the Man-being of the Com Husk Likeness [Mask] — a Tradition 

 of the Olden Time.^^ 



(It is said) that in ancient times it thus happened that a man who was hunt- 

 ing in the forest saw there while on the hunt something. He was surprised to 

 see there a deer standing at the bottom of a valley. He killed it. When he 

 had completed dressing the carcass he looked as he turned around and saw 

 standing there nearby a male Husk Face and he asked him, saying, "Where do 

 you come from?" He replied, "From the place where the uprooted tree trunk is." 



Again the hunter asked, "Where then are you going?" He answered, "Only 

 thy person too do I come seeking. I am bearing corn. Expressly for thee[you] 

 am I bringing it." He had brought two ears of corn. The hunter then asked, 

 ''From what place do you bring it?" He replied, "On the farther side of the 

 bushes one has planted it. Odendonni"a' (The Sapling or Sprout: a name for the 

 Life God or the Master of Life) has planted that. 



"He planted it for you (human beings). It belongs to you (people). I have 

 come bringing it for thee. You must mix it with what you are hunting, when 

 you do eat 



"He himself, gaende"sQ'k (Moving Winds) sent me from there, and also 

 OtcgQwendef'ha' (The Tempest)." He said, "You go deliver the corn. The 

 hunter will carry it back to the i)eople when he returns home ! That is the reason 

 I deliver it to you. You must take it home. 



"Whole Face Man-being ( gaende"sQ"k ), accompanied me. Customarily, I go 

 there [about the houses] when again as usual [whenever] the humpbacked man 

 beings (hoiidu"i') again go about from place to place. 



"I have my dwelling place where berries are wont to grow. There in that 

 place usually I pick up corn bread, when [once more] you human beings are 

 gathering berries again. Ordinarily, I take the corn bread which Is brought there 

 as provisions. But you [people] never see me. 



"Understand that I have dwelt on the earth from the beginning with the Master 

 of Life. I am independent (wild). You must tell your people that you and 

 they must prepare something with corn husks which shall be a likeness of the 

 form of my body. And it shall be that when they wear this husk mask that 

 wearing the mask will enable me to aid them. Understand that it is I who will 

 bring to you [people] all the seeds which you will plant — seed corn, seed beans, 

 and squash seed. All the various kinds of seeds will I deliver in full. I will 

 bring them from the many planted fields of the Sapling (or Sprout — Odefidofini'a' — 

 a name for the Master of Life). So then don't let anyone complain of the 

 amount of the seeds which I shall bring (to maturity). Understand also that 

 it is Diyos'a^'di' (i. e.. Producer of all Things), the Mother of the Sprout, who 

 brought them here for us to gather. 



"Therefore, appropriately (customarily) when one will have thoughts con- 

 cerning me than one shall usually say 'Djohgwe"yani' Hadji'^a' (Mr, Partridge 

 Bushy-head).' 



"So now you alone must carry home with you all the things which I have 

 given you." 



"The native Onondaga-Iroquolan text was dictated June 1916 by Joshua Buck, a 

 Tntelo-Onondaga, of the Six Nations Grant on the Grand Biver, Ontario, and later revised 

 and translated with notes by J. N. B. Hewitt. 



