THE CODE OF HANDSOME LAKE I3I 



IROQUOIS SUN MYTHS 1 



The Iroquois of New York and Canada still retain vestiges of 

 their former adoration of the sun, and observe certain rites, very- 

 likely survivals of more elaborate sun ceremonies. 



The writer has witnessed several so-called " sun dances " among 

 the Iroquois ; but in every case the dance was the Ostowa v gowa, or 

 Great Feather Dance, the prime religious dance of the Gai'wiio' 

 religion. This modern religion was originated about 1800 by 

 Ganio'dai'io' ("Handsome Lake" the Seneca prophet) and almost 

 entirely revolutionized the religious system of the Iroquois of New 

 York and Ontario. Few of the early folk beliefs have survived the 

 taboo of the prophet; and these beliefs are not easily traced, or even 

 discovered, unless one has before him the Gai'wiio' of Handsome 

 Lake and the Code of Dekanowi'da, the founder of the Confed- 

 eracy. 



The Seneca sun ceremony, Endeka Da'kwa Dannou'dinonmio' 

 ("Day Orb-of-light Thanksgiving"), is called by any individual 

 who dreams that the rite is necessary for the welfare of the com- 

 munity. The ceremony begins promptly at high noon, when three 

 showers of arrows or volleys from muskets are shot heavenward to 

 notify the sun of the intention to address him. After each of the 

 volleys the populace shout their war cries, " for the sun loves war." 

 A ceremonial fire is built — anciently by the use of a pump-drill, 

 modernly by a match — and the sun-priest chants his thanksgiving 

 song, casting from a husk basket handfuls of native tobacco upon 

 the flames as he sings. This ceremony takes place outside the long 

 house, where the rising smoke may lift the words of the speaker to 

 the sun. Immediately after this, the entire assemblage enters the 

 long house, where the costumed Feather dancers start the Osto- 

 wa"gowa. 



Among the Onondaga of the Grand River reserve in Ontario, the 

 leader of the sun ceremony carries an effigy of the sun. This is a 

 disk of wood ten inches in diameter, fastened to a handle perhaps a 

 foot long. The disk is painted red in the center, and has a border 

 of yellow. Around the edge are stuck yellow-tipped down-feathers 

 from some large bird. The New York Iroquois have no such 

 effigies, and the writer seriously doubts that the preachers of Hand- 

 some Lake's Gai'wiio' would permit such a practice, it being a viola- 



1 A. C. Parker in the Journal of American Folk Lore, October-December 

 1910. 



5 



