560 IROQUOIAN COSMOLOGY Ieth. ann.« 



on at certain appointed times. So then the first shall be when the 

 season will change, so soon as all that upon which you live will mature, 

 at that place and time will be marked the occasion for the Grand 

 Pleasure, which shall be called the Sharing of the Grand Foods. 

 Then customarily all the things, though small in quantity, all the 

 kinds of things upon which you live, shall be collected from all the 

 several families of the people; and cooked things shall be gathered; 

 and, next in order, the flesh of game, that also shall be present. 

 Now at that time the ceremony, the Great Feather (Dance), shall 

 start. So then it will come to pass thus that all persons shall rejoice; 

 they must keep thinking, 'I am thankful that I am still alive and in 

 good health, and that I have again seen that on which we live; 

 that I also have again seen the performance of the Ceremony that 

 he ordained for us.' And in the next place one shall say, 'I thank 

 thee repeatedly, thou who hast formed my body, thou that abidest 

 in the sky. I am thankful that it was still possible for me to perform 

 the ceremony which thou hast ordained for us.' Thus, then, will you 

 who live upon the earth continue to do. Customarily you must per- 

 form all the ceremonies, and you shall make a circuit of the fire. So 

 then you shall habitually make a circuit of the fire in one certain 

 direction. Do not ever let anyone make a circuit of it in the opposite 

 direction; and, in the next place, do not even let it be that the left 

 side of the body be on the outside (of the circle). When one makes 

 a circuit of it the right side of the body shall be on the outside of the 

 circle. And all persons shall make a circuit of the place where the 

 two who shall sing will sit. So then the feather headdress shall be 

 the principal thing. It is that that you will be in the habit of using, 

 and then it will be evident what kind of persons j'ou are. And also 

 when the Four Ceremonies will have past all should be happy. 

 Now, another time is when the condition of the earth, and also of the 

 days, will be changed, when it will again be cold, and when one will 

 say, 'It is wintertime.' So then at that time will the matter of the 

 Four Ceremonies be again marked; the game animals in then form 

 of life, and upon which you live, shall be one of the principal things. ^^ 

 Verily it is even so, that the game animals change themselves; that 

 when customarily it again becomes warm and the spring season 

 comes upon the earth, they two customarily come together, that is 

 that then the lives of the game animals become weaker; as soon 

 customarily as the summer season ends and the earth again becomes 

 cold, then they two again go together customarily, when agam their 

 meat becomes fine; the lives of the game animals become new again; 

 so then that is the reason that it shall continue thus to be, so that 

 when the life of the game animals becomes new again, then cus- 

 tomarily one will fell their bodies, and it is the meat thereof that will 



See note on p. 610. 



