THE DANCE CYCLES 

 RITUALS ADDRESSED TO THE CREATOR 



Great Feather Dance ('ostd-we'go-wa')"- 



Function. — The first of the four rituals of thanks to the Creator 

 for all benefits and in particular for crops. 



Occasions. — Coldspring: Midwinter Festival circuit on third day, 

 twice on sixth day; Green Corn first day, twice on second day; 

 Planting and Strawberry Festivals, every morning of meetings and 

 councils of Six Nations. Tonawanda: Midwinter circuit third day; 

 twice on fifth day, also seventh; Green Com first and third days; 

 other occasions like Coldspring. 



Songs. — ^Accompaniment by two singers, face to face astride a bench 

 in the center of the dance space, both beating turtle rattles against the 

 bench. ^ 



(a) Antiphonal call: leader, "hyo"'; crowd, "yo hee'"; twice re- 

 peated. 



(6) 2 introductory chants with free voice and rattle tempo. 



(c) 32 dance songs, as recorded, from a repertoire of over a hundred. 

 For each song, a gradual rattle acceleration till the vocal entrance, then 

 a fast iambic beat; on repetition a slow even beat and again the fast 

 beat, always opening and concluding with the antiphonal call — two 

 terminal beats. 



Melodic character distinguished by pulsation, long sustained note;6, 

 and syncopations alternating with even quarter notes, on predomi- 

 nantly triad scales with much play on intervals of a third. 



Dance. — (a) To the first dance song, a few male leaders, with a step- 

 pat to the slow even rattle beats and a vigorous feather dance step to 

 the iambic beat: a powerful stamping two-step with raising of the free 

 knee and improvisatory arm gesticulation up or to the side, wing- 

 fashion or in charging postures. 



(6) With each song, an increasing number of men, lined up behind 

 the leaders single file and circling counterclockwise ; increasing anima- 

 tion with pivots, foot twists, interpolated yells. 



(c) About the foiu"th dance, a few leading matrons, back of the men, 

 facing center and gliding to the right, shoulder to shoulder with the 

 women's feather dance step: a smooth swivel twist of parallel feet. 



' The construction of the instruments is not described here, but can be found in Fenton, 1942, pp. 9-11 , 

 also field notes; Mason, 1938, pp. 143-146, 171-173, 187, 189-191 ; Conklin and Sturtevant, 1953. 



