Tooker] ETPINOGRAPHY OF THE HTaRON lOQ 



the women secure and able to work peaceably in their fields. On the 

 12th, early in the morning, the man [the host] again threAv some 

 tobacco into the fire with the prayer that his family be preserved. 

 Toward evening, a third oifering of four cakes of tobacco was pub- 

 licly made. Then, in all the houses, the men beat upon pieces of bark 

 for a quarter of an hour making a terrific din to frighten and drive 

 away the disease. The man [the host] then asked the wooden masks 

 and straw men that had been hung over the houses to keep a good 

 watch, and threw a piece of tobacco into the fire for them ( JK, 13 : 261- 

 267). 



Those villages which had mummers or maskers invited other 

 villages to come see them and attempt to win their utensils, if they 

 could (C166).» 



At least some of these dances belong to fraternities [medicine so- 

 cities], all of which had chiefs ( JR 17 : 139) or masters ( JR 17 : 197) .» 

 After a person had had the dance or feast of a society performed for 

 him, he became a member of that society and, after his death, was 

 succeeded in membership by one of his children. Some members of 

 the society had a secret or a charm and a song that had been given to 

 them in a dream. These gave them power, for example, to handle fire 

 (JR17:197;cf.JR30:23). 



Each family had certain illnesses and thus certain cures (JR 15: 

 181). The heads of most families had ceremonies that cured disease 

 or insured success in certain activities.'* [The Jesuit Relations do not 

 state whether or not the head of the fraternity must be from a partic- 

 ular family.] These ceremonies were given by a spirit who appeared 

 in a dream in the form of an animal such as a raven, other bird, or a 

 snake, or were given in a dream of which the spirit was the author 

 (JR17:153). 



In addition to controlling certain diseases, each family had a distinct 

 armorial bearing: a deer, snake, crow, the thunder (a bird) (JR 15: 

 181) . [This may refer to clan symbols.] 



At least some of these dances should not be danced by children. If 

 children danced in play the dances they had seen at the ceremonies, 

 they were immediately reprimanded as though they had profaned 

 some holy thing ( JR 17 : 163) . 



* Champlain's association of maskers witli betting games is obscure : Iroquois False Face 

 and Husk Face rituals do not involve games. The statement would be consistent with the 

 Iroquois data if Champlain was thinking of Midwinter ; its rituals now Include the appear- 

 ance of the False Faces and the playing of the Bowl Game. 



3 This is the only statement in the Relations that specifically states the Huron had medi- 

 cine societies. They were probably more important than this single reference implies (see 

 notes above, passim). 



Although membership in an Iroquois medicine society Is often the result of having had a 

 dream, membership also may be based on inheritance (Shimony 1961 a : 178-179, 231-232; 

 Fenton 1953 : 119). Sickness also may run in certain families and this amounts practically 

 to inheritance of membership in the medicine society (Fenton 1953 : 121). 



* There are statements in the literature that Iroquois (Hewitt 1918 : 532-534 ; 1932 : 486) 

 and Wyandot (Powell 1881 : 65) clans also owned certain rituals. 



671-292—64 8 



