6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 183 



from that ceremony on the other two Seneca reservations in New 

 York. In a variant form it is also a component of nearly all medicine 

 society ceremonies (e.g., Fenton, 1953, pp. 145-148). 



A fom-th place where a similar content appears is in the Good 

 Message, during the first day of the recitation. As Handsome Lake 

 lies ill, he observes the things around him and is thankful for them. 

 This passage is abbreviated in Parker (1913, p. 22). In the current 

 version of the Good Message more than half a dozen items for which 

 Handsome Lake expresses gratitude are taken up, but the list still 

 does not compare in extent with that found in the three rituals just 

 described (see below). 



Both texts presented here are based on tape recordings made in 

 August 1959. The speaker for both was Chief Corbett Sundown. 

 The singers for the Thanksgiving Dance were Chief Ellsworth George 

 and Delahanty George. For the two singers to be brothers, as in 

 this case, deviates from the ideal pattern according to which they 

 should belong to opposite moieties. The recording of both rituals 

 was done in a private home, and thus in an artificial situation. Nota- 

 tions of the syllables used in the songs, originally written down by 

 the late Simeon Skye, were used as a memory aid by Ellsworth George, 

 the lead singer. The initial song group of the recording contains 43 

 songs, as compared with the 35 of the longhouse performance described 

 above, where George was again the lead singer. 



The Thanksgiving Speech consists of 16 sections which are clearly 

 distinguishable by their content and, in the longhouse, by the utter- 

 ance at the end of each of nyoh, expressing assent, from the men 

 and a few old women. Each section is focused on a particular natural 

 or supernatural item of the environment. Each item has a fixed 

 place in the sequence, which, according to Sundown, corresponds to 

 an order observable in nature and represents the sequence of creation. 

 The rationale of this order is stated in the Good Message: "Now when 

 thanks are rendered begin with the things upon the ground and thank 

 upward to the things in the new world above" (Parker, 1913, p. 51). 

 The sequence followed by Sundown is as follows : 



1. The people 9. The wind 



2. The earth 10. The Thunderers 



3. The plants 11. The sun 



4. The water 12. The moon 



5. The trees 13. The stars 



6. The animals 14. The Four Beings (messengers to 



7. The birds Handsome Lake) 



8. The Sisters (corn, beans and 15. Handsome Lake 



squash) 16. The Creator 



