I«2 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



to the Wind or Disease Gods. Owing to the efficient aid of Chief 

 John Buck, a Tutelo-Onondaga mixed-blood, this work was very 

 successful. These Disease Gods are Man-Beings, the offspring of the 

 exuberant creative faculty of the human mind. They are represented 

 by means of likenesses in wood or corn-husks, which are universally 

 miscalled masks and even falsefaces. Both these designations convey 

 ideas absolutely contrary to the native Indian conception of these 

 likenesses. The purpose of the likenesses in wood and corn-husks is not 

 to conceal or to hide — to mask, so to speak — anything or person, but 

 to represent directly the Man-Being in mind. Furthermore, it is 

 learned that the ugly and misshapen features of these Disease Gods 



Fig. 159. — Mr. and Mrs. John Buck. Mr. Buck is a chief of the Tutelo 

 (Siouan) remnant among the Six Nations of Ontario, Canada. 



are the result of their defeat and subjection by the Life God or Master 

 of Life, and are therefore the everlasting token of such subjection. 

 Through a number of fortunate circumstances I was able at this 

 time to secure what in use and purpose was the Mace of the Great 

 Federal Council of the League of the Iroquois ; it consists of five 

 white strings and one purple string of wampum, each of which is 

 three feet in length. The five white strings represented the right 

 and authority of the original Five Iroquois tribes, and the purple 

 string of wampum that of all other tribes adopted into the jurisdiction 

 of the League, legally to hold and to participate in the sessions of the 

 Federal Council. So in opening and in closing the sessions of this 

 Council the Firekeeper or the Speaker of the Council held suspended 

 from his hand this symbol of delegated authority. 



