420 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 40 



THE CLASSES OF AIEDICINE MASKS 



Rationalizing from the two types of origin legends, the modem 

 Iroquois conceive two main classes of False-faces: First, their leader, 

 the great fellow who lived on the rim of the earth, and secondly, his 

 underlings, the common forest people whose faces are against the 

 trees. The great one, called shagodyow6hgo*wa* ihadjd'dot'a', "Our 

 defender the doctor," in Seneca, and "The great humpbacked one 

 (hadu"i'go'na')" by the Onondaga, is the greatest 'doctor. He is 

 earth-bound and traverses the earth from east to west following the 

 path of the sun. He is tall and carries a great staff, made from a 

 giant pine or shagbark hickory tree with its branches lopped off to 

 the top. He walks with great strides, bumping his cane and shaking 

 the earth. He carries a huge mud-turtle rattle, and he stops at noon 

 to rest and rub his rattle on the giant elm or pine which stand in 

 the center of the earth and from which he derives great strength (pi. 

 17, fig. 1) . His face is red in the morning as he comes from the east, but 

 black in the afternoon as he looks back from the direction of the 

 setting sun. He controls high winds and has a wary eye for pesti- 

 lences which might destroy the people. He has a song which refers 

 to his power over winds and pestilence. Few have ever seen him. 

 He dances, kicking out his feet and sparring, his thumbs pointed in 

 the air as if he were about to fall over backward. He makes the 

 people imitate him, organizes them in a round dance, and watches 

 the door to see that no one leaves or enters. Masks representing him 

 have long hair. They are painted red or black and portray the 

 broken nose and pain he suffered when the mountain struck his face. 

 A few masks have liigh-bridged noses, and all have protruding lips, 

 which are twisted with the nose, straight, hanging, or flaring like 

 two funnels or flattened like spoons, for blowing ashes. 



The second class are the Common Faces, who live everywhere in the 

 forests (pi. 17, fig. 2). They are deformed, either hunchbacked or 

 crippled below the waist. Some carry rattles, made by folding a 

 rind of hickory bark; a few possess turtle rattles, but others have 

 only a stick. They crave mush and beg for tobacco. They have a 

 dance and a song, and they will cure by blowing hot ashes. Masks 

 of this category are ill-defined and include a great variety. Fre- 

 quently new masks make their debut with the Common Faces; but 

 after they have been worn in many rituals, borrowed and passed 

 through the hands of several owners, they will have accumulated 

 several bags of tobacco offerings, attained an antique color, and 

 achieved sufficient prestige to graduate into the class of great doctor 

 masks where their sanctity is preserved by reputation. 



