IROQUOIS — FENTON 427 



So presently you will stand up (they crawl in) and help your grandchildren, 

 since they have fulfilled your desires. Fittingly, they have set down a full 

 kettle of mush for you. It is greased with bear fat. Now another thing is 

 fulfilled: on top there are strips of fried meat as large as your feet. (Here 

 the False-faces roll In ecstacy on their backs, grasping their feet, peering at 

 them, and attempting to put them in their mouths.) Besides, a brimming 

 kettle of hulled-corn soup rests here. 



Now it is up to you. Arise and help your grandchildren. They have ful- 

 filled everything that you requested should be done here. In my opinion we 

 have these ashes here for you to use. Arise and make medicine. 



Here the priest summons those who wish to be cured to come 

 forward and stand near the fire to receive the administrations of the 

 False-faces. 



The masked waiters pass the medicine water. Every one drinks all 

 he can. Two Husk Faces watch the doors to insure that no one 

 leaves or enters during the imbibing. However, they can sometimes 

 be bribed with a pinch of tobacco. 



There are dances for each class of Faces. An appointed singer 

 straddles a bench, and borrowing a rattle, sings for the Common 

 Faces alone. They stand up and dance and apply hot ashes to any 

 patients whose dreams have required that they be cured on this 

 occasion. Frequently, little boys who are wearing masks have to be 

 held up by their elders in order to blow ashes on the patients' heads. 

 Sometimes, a clever little fellow will puff the ashes at the patient 

 from his upturned hand. At Tonawanda, the masked dancers cure 

 each other. A matron distributes tobacco and they depart with their 

 kettle of mush. 



Next the Husk Faces perform, receive popcorn, and bound out 

 of the room. 



The second part of the ritual, named "They place one foot ahead 

 of the other" for one of its component dances, includes the Dance of 

 the Doorkeepers. The song commences. Two men, who are ap- 

 pointed from opposite moieties, appear wearing the medicine masks 

 representing the great world-rim beings. They dance with the 

 matrons, each facing the woman of the other moiety. A couple 

 dances in unison, hopping on the left foot while bending the right 

 knee and then kicking out the right foot. At the same time they spar 

 at each other with the extended left hand, pointing the thumb up- 

 ward. The turtle rattles dangle by the loop on the handle. Now 

 the matrons pair the men and women in couples who dance imitating 

 the False-faces. They spar at each other and a bold woman will 

 sometimes back a bashful man from the floor. A doorkeeper looks 

 inside once during each song (pi. 24). 



Then they return and compel everyone inside to join a round 

 dance, from which the ritual takes its name, since a dancer lifts 

 his foot, bumps his heel and sets it down again ahead of the other. 



