NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Onondaga houses small ones are often seen. These are for children. 

 When a child is sick, the aid of the False Faces may be asked ; and, 

 if it recovers, a small wooden mask is made, which it keeps, and 

 which is to aid it in future trials. This is called ho-yah-dah-nuh' '~na, 

 an assistant. Small stone masks were sometimes used as tokens 

 of membership. At the more important dances from two to four 

 wear husk masks, called kah-je'-sah. Their duty is that of door- 

 keepers or policemen. They are to suffer none to go out during 

 the dance, but a plug of tobacco usually opens the door. 



The False Faces throw ashes. Another medicine society is com- 

 posed mostly of women. These sprinkle water over the sick with 

 corn husks, and are called Wat-na-ko-ah'-gue, Throwing water at 

 each other. There is still another, the members of which take water 

 in the mouth and spurt it over the sick in the ancient way. 



The masks themselves are supposed to have each its own spirit, 

 and these must have due attention. If long neglected, they make 

 trouble. They should attend dances when possible ; at least be taken 

 out and talked to from time to time. Tobacco pleases all spirits, 

 and a little bag of this tied to a mask keeps it good-natured. Such 

 a bag was tied to one owned by the writer, and it was a very quiet 

 mask, though not canny in its looks. This tobacco should be of the 

 native species, Nicotiana rustica, having a yellow flower. 

 The writer has grown this. 



In a second article on Onondaga demonology Mr Smith added 

 some particulars, and among them the following, which owners of 

 masks should heed : " When masks are not in use, they are laid 

 away, out of sight, face downward. Leaving them with the face 

 up, like a corpse, thus intimating that they are dead, would dis- 

 please the Ho n -do'-T, while, if hung up with the face out, they will 

 be noisy at night and cause trouble." Smith, 2: 280 



David Boyle found that there were two False Face societies 

 among the Six Nations of Canada, one being well known and the 

 other secret. He calls the society Ah-k'on-wchrah, and gives rules 

 for admission quite different from those found in New York. This 

 depends on proper qualifications, and not on a dream. According 

 to him the initiation is very simple. Boyle, 1898, p. 158 



