IROQUOIS — FENTON 425 



he has no children of his own. He will sing for them and they will 

 dance and depart. 



A rattle borrowed from a dancer or a stick of wood is good enough 

 to beat time for the dances. But despite the Indians' ingenuity to 

 makeshift of anything at hand the False-face Company sometimes 

 possess dance-tempo beaters. They range in design from wooden 

 cudgels to elaborately carved wooden turtles that have been hollowed 

 to house noisy pebbles. These wooden replicas of the genuine turtle 

 rattles exemplify the transfer to an artistic medium of a design 

 originating with a structural invention. 



Miniature masks, — Boys sometimes leam by carving miniature 

 masks. The mask may make the owner ill and then he joins the 

 society. Masquettes are also charms to protect dwellings against 

 witchcraft, or they hang on larger masks. A man may carve one in 

 response to a dream and carry it for good luck. At Cattaraugus, the 

 leader of the society carries a striped pole on which a tobacco basket, 

 a small wooden face, a tiny husk face and a diminutive mud-turtle 

 rattle hang near the top. This is her staff of office when she leads 

 the masked company from house to house exorcising plagues. 



Spring and autu7nn house cleaning. — In the spring and fall, when 

 sickness lingers in the settlements, a great company, wearing both 

 classes of medicine masks, go through the houses frightening disease 

 spirits. At Coldspring, two groups start at opposite sides of the 

 settlement. They are preceded by Husk Face runners. Members 

 take down their masks and rattles and join the procession as it passes. 

 The masked exterminators frequently strip to the waist and go 

 armed with rattles to scare the spirit of sickness and carry pine 

 boughs to brush away malefic influences. A believer is said to suffer 

 no injury from plunging his bare hands into the fire nor become sick 

 from exposure while traveling in cold weather. One winter at Al- 

 legany the company afforded a wild spectacle as they sped up the 

 valley road in open Fords with their hair whipping in the chill 

 winds; they grated their rattles on the car body and uttered their 

 terrifying cries whenever they swerved to pass a stranger. Ap- 

 proaching houses occupied by members of the society, an unmasked 

 leader sings : 



A long voice, A long voice 

 yowige yowige wige 



and on again entering the longhouse: 



It might happen, It might happen 

 ha i ge ha i 



From the mighty Shagodyoweh 

 ha i ge he i 

 I shall derive good luck 

 ■!•• =1 i ' . ha 1 ge he i 



