ABORIGINAL USE OF WOOD IN NEW YORK 1 89 



In both the papers mentioned are some of the curious stories 

 connected with these masks and their supposed originals, such as 

 trials of strength, the twisted mouth, the husk masks and other like 

 things. These have nothing to do with their use and will be 

 omitted here, for they open up the whole subject of the extravagant 

 or beautiful tales of the Iroquois. The writer has had from the 

 Onondagas the same stories which Boyle and Smith record. 



Neither of the writers mentioned met with masks which he had 

 any reason to think ioo years old. On the contrary, Mrs Harriet 

 Maxwell Converse found some to which she ascribed a great age, 

 apparently from their rude character and worn appearance. Due 

 weight should be given to all such evidence, but it is uncertain 

 because affected by the skill of the maker and the care of the owner. 

 Traditions of age are also of little value, though not to be disre- 

 garded. In Indian history there is no more uncertain element than 

 time. On the whole, it seems probable that wooden masks were 

 first used in New York in the last half of the 17th century, and 

 apparently not then in public ceremonies. They certainly were not 

 used in the New Year's feast in 1656 at Onondaga. 



As might be expected, the Senecas attach to masks many mean- 

 ings which are not found elsewhere. Mrs Converse found among 

 them some of which the Onondagas know little or nothing. This 

 seems the case in Canada. Any society of False Faces would par- 

 tially develop its own ritual and symbols, and, in studying these, 

 Mrs Converse had the advantage of adoption by the Senecas and 

 membership in a medicine society. In procuring the valuable collec- 

 tion of masks which she made for the State Museum, possession 

 of the article was subordinated to the question of its use. What 

 did it mean? How and when was it used? 



The answers will not be uniform, for ceremonies and meanings 

 vary. In a New York newspaper of 1899, Mrs Converse describes 

 corn husk, night, laughing, wind, winter and summer, war and 

 scalp, good and evil, bird, fish and game, medicine or doctor, exor- 

 ciser, clan, small and large maternity, and women masks, and adds : 

 ' These are but a few of the varieties of the Iroquois masks, but they 

 serve as illustrations of the service." The names of the 10 masks 



