58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 187 



leYel. In False Face and somewhat less so in War Dance, torso stooped 

 or swayed from side to side. Knees raised high only in Feather, 

 Drum, and solos of men. Few gestures — ^women's arm swings and 

 wrist twists, improvised war-type gestures in Feather and War dances, 

 shown on stick figures. Angular gesticulation of False Faces. Special 

 motions — ^False Face roll and crawl, Eagle dance deep lunge with 

 extended arms. Turn out in False Face jumps and at tunes in Eagle 

 hep only exceptions to consistent forward position of knees. (Fig. 19, p. 97.) 



Focus. — The steps are adapted to the bodily direction, to preserve 

 the counterclockwise direction. Or perhaps the adjustment is re 

 versed. Consequently the sideward steps are most highly focused 

 on the center of the ellipse, that is, side stomp and women's steps, but 

 all stomp types relate to the center by virtue of their shoulder action. 

 The gyrations and pivots of expert fskanye and male Feather dancers 

 temporarily break this focus but reestablish it on return to the funda- 

 mental step. 



Distribution. — The ground plans have been arranged in such a 

 way that all rounds on pages 90-92 represent stomp-type choreography. 

 This constitutes a large and homogeneous group from the simple 

 medicine rites to the more elaborate social dances. The Fish type is 

 even more homogeneous, belonging exclusively to the social category. 

 Some steps reach over into other types, thus cskanye threads through 

 much of Iroquois ceremonialism, recurring in Drum, False Face 

 Round, Striking-the-stick and, if desired, in Fish Dance. Again, Fish 

 step is introduced whenever a fancy variant is desired. Again, 

 several longer rituals combine a number of choreographic types, as 

 the False Face succession of Maskers, Pairing, Round, and Husk 

 Faces. It is noteworthy that the most elaborate and individualistic 

 gestures belong to the war dance type, never to women. This in 

 eludes Eagle Dance but not Striking-the-stick. The connection 

 between the ground plans and the steps is clearly indicated on the 

 figures by the samples of dance script written into each diagram, 

 along with the instrumental beat. 



RELATIONSHIP OF ACTION TO MUSIC 



As the steps follow the instrumental beat, it is sufficient to limit the 

 musical representation to this item in the diagrams. In addition, the 

 fundamental steps are included with the musical transcriptions when 

 necessary. For instance, in Raccoon Dance there is no dancing during 

 song 1. During song 2 the men stomp slowly, so their step is written 

 along the corresponding musical phrase. During song 3 they continue 

 stomping with crossover. During songs 4 and 5, women enter in 

 couples, but stomping continues. In song 6, the regular Fish type 

 step starts. The choreographic notes are held down to a minimum. 



