2 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 183 



rituals. Kituals can be classified as speeches, dances (songs), games, 

 etc. Lists of Iroquois ceremonies and rituals can be found in Morgan 

 (1901), Fenton (1936, 1941), and Speck (1949). There are three 

 Seneca rituals directed in whole or in part at thanksgiving that are 

 very similar in content, although one is a speech, one a combination 

 of speech and dance, and one a speech accompanied by the burning 

 of tobacco. It is the first two of these that are presented in detail 

 here. 



The first is called in Seneca the kan6:nyok, morphologically an 

 imperative: 'let it be used for thanksgiving!' But the word is used 

 nominally in syntax and can be translated 'thanks' or 'thanksgiving'. 

 I shall use the English equivalent 'Thanksgiving Speech'. This is 

 the most ubiquitous of all Seneca rituals, for it opens and closes 

 nearly every ceremony. The only exceptions are the Funeral Cere- 

 mony and the ^ohki:we:h 'Dance for the Dead', where its omission 

 is sometimes explained by sajdng that "it wouldn't make sense to 

 give thanks" in matters concerning death. A myth of its origin can 

 be found in Hewitt (1928, pp. 568-570), and a charter for its per- 

 formance is given in the kdiwi:yo:h, the 'Good Message' of Hand- 

 some Lake: "It is said that when these rites are performed one person 

 is to be selected to offer thanks to the Creator" (Parker, 1913, p. 51). 

 The speaker stands to recite in front of his seat. The speech consumes 

 from 15 to 25 minutes, depending partly on the speed of the speaker 

 and partly on whether he "gets ever3^thing in." Speakers are sometimes 

 criticized for leaving something out or for adding extraneous material. 

 A short version, in which a number of the sections of the complete 

 speech are lumped together in one, is frequently given and is common 

 particularly at the end of a ceremony. 



The name of the second ritual, the koneoo^, cannot be satisfac- 

 torily analyzed on the basis of Seneca alone. Evidence from other 

 Iroquois languages suggests that the meaning at one stage was 'they 

 are covered with hide .* The same stem with a masculine prefix, 

 honeoo?, refers to a man who does the chores for the ^ohki:we:h 

 ceremony.^ Perhaps the best English equivalent is 'Thanksgiving 

 Dance'. ^ This ritual is one of the ke:i niy6iwa:ke:h, the 'Four 

 Rituals' which were singled out in the Good Message as being of 



» Speck (1949, p. 138) translates the cognate Cayuga name 'covered with skin'. The term has been taken 

 to refer to the drum which Is used (Fenton, 1947, p. 6), although the feminine prefix, translatable as 'they', 

 might suggest that it referred to the dancers, perhaps to their feet. 



' Of. Fenton and Kurath, 1951, p. 143. The corresponding masculine nonsingular is honeneoo*, showing 

 that the stem contains the reflexive -(«)-, which has a zero allomorph with the singular objective prefix. 



' Parker (1913, p. 41) calls it 'Harvest Dance', a term which is used by others for one of the calendrical 

 ceremonies. Speck says ' Skm Dance'. Fenton uses the term Thanksgiving Dance, but also sometimes 

 ' Drum Dance'. On the reservations the Seneca word is generally Interpolated Into English, but I have 

 also heard ' Worship Dance' (at Cattaraugus). 



