428 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



One doorkeeper directs the dance, while his cousin watches the door 

 to see that no one escapes the ritual. 



The member who wears the mask to impersonate the doorkeeper is sup- 

 posed to know the members of the society. You can pick out the members. 

 They look scared. They look at you hard, or they pretend to be busy about 

 some other business of their own. You can discern them through the mask. 

 If any are reluctant to join, you have the power to force them, a strength 

 against which they dare not resist Sometimes fights occur. If one is not 

 able, his partner, the other doorkeeper, will help him. Members must dance. 

 Those who resist become possessed. 



The round dance continues until certain songs request them to 

 blow ashes. They repeat their square dance with the two matrons, 

 blow ashes on their heads, receive tobacco, and depart. The feast 

 is hulled-corn soup. 



Although I have outlined the great public ritual, the same gen- 

 eral pattern holds for private medicinal rites. The only difference 

 is that the priest mentions the person's name in the tobacco invo- 

 cation. Then the complexity of the ritual depends on the number 

 of orders to which the patient belongs. 



The simpler ceremony of the Common Faces alone has been vividly 

 treated by Ernest Smith, a Seneca Indian artist of the Tonawanda 

 reservation (pi. 25). 



The Blowing Ashes Rite 



The setting is the interior of a bark house, common among the Iroquois 

 a few generations ago, and the time is presumably an evening of the Mid- 

 winter Festival. In response to a dream, the host has prepared a kettle of 

 mush, or False-face pudding, and summoned the False-faces. The announcer, 

 who is painted sitting on the bench, has returned thanks to all the Spirit- 

 forces, explained the purpose of the feast, and invoked the Faces-of-the-forests 

 with burning tobacco. They have entered. The singer straddles the bench 

 to beat out the tempo for their dance, which they energetically commence, 

 scattering ashes everywhere. They hasten to finish curing the patient, their 

 host who stands before the fire, since they crave tobacco and hunger for the 

 kettle of mush which he has set down for them. A tall, red-faced fellow 

 vigorously rubs the patient's scalp before blowing the hot ashes into the 

 seat of the pain. A dark one moans anxiously while rubbing hot ashes be- 

 tween his palms prior to pouncing on his victim's shoulder and pumping 

 his arm. Across the fire, a red face stoops to scoop live coals, while another 

 impatiently shakes a turtle rattle. They are naked above the waist, but 

 wearing the masks is said to protect their bodies from cold and their hands 

 from the burning embers. 



Although the real Faces are seldom seen now, modern Iroquois, 

 especially little children, fear them. A being which has the power 

 to control diseasie, who can also cause the same ailment which he 

 cures, is a subject for concern. The degree to which the False- 

 faces dominate the lives of the Iroquois is well illustrated in the 



