"*°NJ!"74r^^' IROQUOIS MASKS AT ONONDAGA — HENDRY 369 



A second variety of Iroquois masks not previously mentioned is the 

 husk faces which symbolize the three spirits of agriculture — corn, 

 beans, and squash — who taught men the art of cultivating. These 

 masks are by no means as numerous as the wooden type, since the 

 medicine society in which they are worn is almost extinct; a few, 

 however, are used for curative purposes in the False Face rituals. 

 Made of braided cornhusks, which are woven or sewn into crude 

 human faces with holes to represent the eyes and mouth, these masks 

 are quite flat and look somewhat like animated doormats. Other 

 masks that occasionally appear among the Iroquois are those depicting 

 animals — bears, pigs, and birds — which are carved in a naturalistic 

 fashion and may be survivals from ancient medicine societies, and a 

 buckskin mask with a long nose that is used to frighten disobedient 

 children. Maskettes in wood or cornhusk resemble their larger proto- 

 types to which they are often attached. They are also kept as personal 

 charms, used as tokens of membership in the society, and made for 

 children when they are cured by the False Faces. 



The first attempts to classify the wooden masks were made in terms 

 of function with little regard as to how this might determine variations 

 in the forms or the treatment of details. Converse recorded a number 

 of types among the Seneca which were named according to use: Live, 

 Doctor, Wind, Scalp, Clan, Harvest, Maternity, Night, Completing, 

 and Counselor masks. This classification has been accepted by 

 Keppler, the friend and protege of Converse, but it has not been 

 substantiated by any other investigator. Morgan, Harrington, 

 Parker, and Fen ton have found only four classes based on function: 

 Doctor, Doorkeeper, Beggar or Dancing, and Secret masks. ^° Since 

 these students worked among the Seneca both before and after Con- 

 verse, it seems likely that she overinterpreted her material. 



Formal characteristics as a basis for segregation were not seriously 

 considered until Fenton began his series of systematic studies among 

 the Seneca in 1936. Finding that the descriptions of collectors and 

 museum curators were at odds with one another as well as in disagree- 

 ment with the ideas held by the Indians themselves, he undertook 

 to group over a hundred masks according to certain formal criteria 

 and then checked this classification against the concepts of his in^- 

 formants (Fenton, 1941, pp. 397-429). He discovered that the 

 mouth, which as the most variable feature is a likely base for dis- 

 tinguishing formal types, is the criterion most frequently used by the 

 Seneca who divide their masks into the following groups: crooked- 



10 According to Fenton, Doctor and Doorkeeper masks are the most sacred and take the leading parts in 

 the curative rituals as they symbolize the first False Face. Those of the Beggar class represent the Common 

 Faces of the forest and are less powerful though they are also used for curing. Secret masks never appear in 

 public ceremonies; their function and symbolism are unknown. 



