174 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



gestures that would have made saints laugh, had he forgotten that 

 he was in a place of worship ; but the women looked meek and 

 humble while they moved in concert in the dance, sliding their feet 

 sideways, looking at the same time steadfastly on the ground, inclin- 

 ing their heads to the left. Proctor, 4 : 578 



A larger figure was mentioned in an account of Cold Spring, 

 Cattaraugus co., published in 1841 : " A few years since, a portion 

 of the Indians in this town were in the practice of collecting around 

 a log about 30 feet long, worked into a resemblance of the human 

 form, to which they performed a kind of worship. The son of 

 Cornplanter subsequently persuaded them to throw it into the river." 

 Barber and Howe, p.83 



The large wooden images over the gate of Oneida, in 1634, were 

 probably ornaments. The wooden masks had a different purpose. 

 In all New York the Senecas alone had a worship of this kind, and 

 it was of recent date with them. When dogs were sacrificed, they 

 were often hung on poles for several days, and were conspicuous in 

 some towns in Sullivan's campaign. In colonial times this also 

 seems purely a Seneca custom. 



In Col. Daniel Brodhead's report in 1779, he said " at the upper 

 Seneca Towns we found a painted image or War post, clothed in 

 Dog skin," Conover, p. 308. This may fall under either head, but 

 the Senecas were evidently partial to images. The other Iroquois 

 paid no reverence to them, but did to certain stones. An Onon- 

 daga ini 1753 brought the Moravians to the Seneca river, " where 

 were two stones, which, he said, had once been an Indian who had 

 been petrified, and these were his head and body. They offered 

 sacrifices to him, so that they might catch much fish, and we found 

 tobacco lying there that they had sacrificed." Zeisberger, mss 



Musical instruments 



The drum was as exciting to the Indian's feelings as to those 

 of his civilized successor, though his was a ruder affair and some- 

 times quite unlike our own. The Jesuits described one used by 

 the Canadian Algonquins, in these words : 



This drum is of the bigness of the drum of Basque ; it is com- 

 posed of a ring three or four fingers wide, and of two skins tightly 



