468 IROQUOIAN COSMOLOGY [eth. ann.43 



things in terrestrial nature. His peculiar character as one of the 

 great primal earth powers of the second great cosmical period of the 

 genesis myth is best defined in terms of the manifestations and the 

 activities of the various forms of floral and faunal life, reproduction, 

 germination, budding, and growth, on the earth. His parentage 

 was noble, although seemingly not definitely fixed. This interpre- 

 tation and definition of the mythic concept embodied in the domi- 

 nant character of De'hae°'hiyawa"hko°' is given here as that which 

 most satisfactorily accounts for the motives and activities mani- 

 fested in his life, notwithstanding the fact that he has been connected 

 in an indefinite way with the sun or light and the sky by such well- 

 known writers as Lafitau, CharlevoLx, Le Jeune, Brinton, and others. 

 These writers were probably misled by regarding the derivation of 

 the name as conclusive evidence of the reason for its imposition on 

 him. In the most definite of the cosmic mythical traditions of the 

 Iroquois people De'hae°'hiyawa"kho°' was a twin brother of O'ha'cl', 

 although other and perhaps earlier and more primitive accounts 

 made him a quadruplet along with his brother mentioned above, the 

 number four being probably suggested, however, by the well-nigh 

 universal cult of the four quarters. 



De'hae°'hiyawa"kho'" has been erroneously identified by different 

 authorities with Hiawatha, one of the founders of the League of the 

 Iroquois and a Federal chief of its first council; with Agreskwe 

 (Aregwe°s'kwa', "The Reason or Cause for Absence"), the Iroquoian 

 war god; and with Agatkonchoria, "Mask-Face," the Mohawk name 

 of a society whose members are professed exorcists of disease, deriv- 

 ing their authority from Hadu'i" (Onondaga) or Shagodiiowe"g6wa 

 (Seneca), the primal man-being of disease and a contemporary of 

 De'hae°'hiyawa"kho'". Megapolensis gives Athzoockuatoriaho as 

 another Mohawk epithet of De'hae'"hiyawa"kho'". The meaning 

 of this term is not known. 



One of the most important and significant of the final labors of 

 De'hae°'hiyawa"kho°' on this earth was in winning his great victory 

 in a contest of orendas over the hunchback man-being Hadu'i", the 

 unborn primal being Disease and Death, and whose forfeiture of life 

 by his defeat was redeemed by his promise to aid mankind by curing, 

 on certain conditions, diseases arising from the infection of the earth 

 with the malign potency of the body of Hadu'i" by his having first 

 wandered over it. To this event the important masked-face societies 

 of exorcists of disease among the Iroquoian tribes owe their origin. 

 At the festival of the New Year the members of these societies essay 

 to exorcise and banish disease and death-causing agencies from the 

 several communities. 



The great and most important festival of the New Year among 

 the Iroquoian tribes, in accordance with their ancient faith and 



