THE CODE OF HANDSOME LAKE 123 



carved wooden mask having no eyeholes, by finding various things 

 about the lodge; he causes a doll to appear as a living being, and 

 mystifies the company in other ways. It is related that new mem- 

 bers sometimes doubt the power of the mystery-man and laugh out- 

 right at some of the claims of which he boasts. In such a case he 

 approaches the doll, and though his face be covered by a wooden 

 mask, cuts the string that fastens its skirt. The skirt drops, expos- 

 ing the legs of the doll. Then the doubting woman laughs, for 

 everyone else is laughing, at the doll she supposes, but shortly she 

 notices that everyone is looking at her, and to her utmost chagrin 

 discovers that her own skirt-string has been cut and that she is cov- 

 ered only by her undergarments. Immediately she stops laughing 

 and never afterward doubts the powers of the medicine-man,' who, 

 when he cut the doll's skirt-string by his magic power, cuts hers 

 also. 



The T'dos is said to have been introduced among the Seneca 

 by the Huron. The ritual, however, is in Seneca, though some of 

 the words are not understood. The principal ceremonies are : 

 (a) Gai'yowe n/ ogowa, The sharp point; (b) Gahadi'yago", At the 

 wood's edge; (c) Gai''do n , The great Gai'Mo 11 . Other ceremonies 

 are: 0'to'do n gwa'', It is blazing; and Tci'gwawa, The other way 

 around. During ceremonies b and c only individual members sing. 

 The chief of the society is said to be a man who is able to see 

 through a wooden mask which has no eye-openings. By his magic 

 power he is able to discover hidden things previously concealed by 

 the members, probably by some particular member. He discovers 

 the ceremonial, no matter where hidden, and juggles with a hot 

 stone drawn from the fire. When the ceremonies are finished the 

 members feast on a pig's head. In early times a deer's head was 

 used. As do the members of the Medicine Lodge upon such an 

 occasion, the members tear the meat from the head with their teeth. 

 The ceremonies of the society are now considered an efficacious 

 treatment for fevers and skin diseases. The rites are supposed to 

 be strictly secret. 



The writer has transcribed the entire text of the T'dos ritual in 

 Seneca and has translated it. Three masks are used in the rites — 

 the Conjuror's mask, the Witch mask, and the Dual-spirit's mask. 

 These masks are never used in the rites of the False Face Company, 

 and difTer from them in that they have no metal eyes. A flash- 

 light picture of a corner of the T'dos lodge was made by the writer 

 in January 1909, but the session of the lodge was not one of the 

 " regular " ones. 



