358 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 191 



by the Iroquois, played a prominent part in these sessions and, along 

 with the games, feasts, and dances which always accompanied them, 

 made a council meeting a time of social and ceremonial, as well as 

 political, importance. 



The central themes of Iroquois religion were fertility and health. 

 A pantheon of deities, headed by the Great Creator and representing 

 the beneficent and reproductive forces of nature, was opposed by the 

 evil spirits who brought disease and destruction to mankind. Fol- 

 lowing the harvesting of each of the principal crops, an annual 

 series of public ceremonies gave thanks to the deities through prayers, 

 songs, dances, and offerings of food. Tobacco was used in most rites 

 since it was a sacred plant, and smoking or burning it was regarded as 

 a pledge of sincerity. The Keepers of the Faith, an elected priest- 

 hood, were responsible for the preparation and conduct of these 

 celebrations, the most important of which was the Midwinter or New 

 Year's Festival (also called the Feast of Dreams). Occurring in 

 February and lasting a week. New Year's was a time of revelry when 

 people, often in masquerade, went from house to house, demanding 

 gifts and asking others to interpret their dreams. The carnival 

 spirit was combined with religious solemnity in the games between the 

 phratries, the dances, and the curative rites. The festivities culminated 

 in the burning of a white dog, the spirit of which ascended to heaven 

 carrying the prayers of the faithful to the Creator.^ 



A number of medicine societies, many of them secret, were dedi- 

 cated to the art of healing and the exorcism of evil spirits. Each 

 society propitiated a special class of supernatural beings and had 

 its own rituals and characteristic paraphernalia. The Bear Society 

 appeased the spirits of bears with offerings of tobacco; the Otter 

 Society drove out sickness, caused by water animals, by sprinkling its 

 patients with water; the False Faces cured with masked dances and 

 hot ashes rubbed or blown on the body; the Little Water Company 

 knew the songs and dances to revive the dying. Some societies 

 restricted their membership to those who fell sick and called upon 

 them or who dreamed of joining; others encouraged participation by 

 anyone who wished to help in the curing process. 



Witchcraft was another source of evil and was punishable by death; 

 persons in positions of power, such as matrons and chiefs, were often 

 suspected. Witches were thought to roam about at night, sometimes 

 taking the form of animals and injm-ing their victims by charms or 

 mere volition. 



The plastic and graphic arts of the Iroquois did not attain the 

 degree of complexity that was evident in other aspects of their cul- 



» At Onondaga the Burning of the White Dog has been obsolete for more than 70 years (Smith, 1888, p. 189). 



