134 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



walked in front and remained in the cemetery until the Feast of the 

 Dead. At night, it walked through the villages and entered the 

 houses. There it took part in the feasts and ate what was left at 

 evening in the kettle. ®® For this reason, many did not eat the left- 

 over food the following morning and some did not attend feasts given 

 for the souls of the dead because they thought they would die if they 

 ate of the food for the dead (JE. 10: 143). Feasts to honor the 

 dead were given from time to time throughout the village (JE, 10: 

 275; S 84).^^ [For giving the name of the deceased to another, see 

 above under "Chiefs".] 



The greatest insult that could be said to a man was, "Your father, 

 mother, or kinsmen are dead-" Merely to say, "Your dead," was the 

 most horrible of all curses and was capable of bringing one person to 

 blows with another. As to speak a dead man's name was a cruel 

 insult, if he had to be mentioned, "deceased" was added at the end. 

 For this reason, when someone died in the village, the chiefs promptly 

 announced the fact in a loud voice through the village, so that he 

 might no longer be named without "the late." If anyone in the same 

 village had the same name as the deceased, he changed it for some 

 time in order not to irritate the wound of the afflicted relatives 

 (JR39:33). 



FEAST OF THE DEAD ^^ 



The Feast of the Dead was given approximately every 8, 10, or 12 

 years ( JR 10 : 143, 275 ; JR 39 : 31 ; C 161 ; S 211) .^» At this time the 

 bodies of those that had died since the last Feast of the Dead were 



™ The dead among the Iroqiiois are supposed to attend dances and feasts, especially the 

 'ohglwe ceremonies given for them (Fenton and Kurath 19511 : 161-162 ; Shimony 1961 a: 

 229) ; and Waugh (1916 : 47-48) reports that food dropped during a meal Is not picked up ; 

 it Is for the dead. 



^ These feasts were probably the feasts for giving the name of the deceased to another. 

 But It is also possible that a ceremonial similar to the present Iroquois 'ohgiwe ceremony 

 which is given annually or semiannually for the dead (Jackson 1830 b : 28 ; Fenton and 

 Kurath 1951 ; Shimony 1961 a: 231-233)i or to other rites for the dead (Shimony 1961 a : 

 279-281 ) is being referred to. The Wyandot also held feasts for the dead (Finley 1840 : 58) . 



6' The Feast of the Dead in connection with ossuary burial was a distinctively western 

 Iroquoian (Huron and Neutral) custom and was not an eastern Iroquoian (the Iroquois 

 proper) one. The best evidence for this distribution is archeological : ossuary burials are 

 found in the territory occupied by the western Iroquoians and are not found in the terri- 

 tory formerly occupied by the Iroquois. 



Various students of the Iroquois have suggested Iroquois ceremonials that are compar- 

 able to the Huron Feast of the Dead. Hale (1888 : 73 ; see also Fenton and Kurath 1951 : 

 143 for a similar suggestion by Simeon Gibson) states that the Iroquois Condolence Cere- 

 mony replaced the "wasteful" Huron ceremony, a contention that seems unlikely in view of 

 the fact that the Huron apparently also had a Condolence Ceremony and that the two cere- 

 monies were given for two different reasons. The object of the Condolence Ceremony is 

 to "raise the dead," to transfer the title of a deceased person to his successor, and the 

 purpose of the Feast of the Dead was to collect and rebury together the bones of those who 

 had died since the last ceremonial. However, both rituals are concerned with the dead and 

 they share certain symbols. For example, when the chiefs chant the Eulogy of the dead 

 chiefs and the Roll Call of the Founders of the League in the Iroquois Condolence Ceremony, 



(Footnote continued at bottom of next page.) 



