190 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



illustrating her paper are the cornhusk or doorkeeper's, Canadian 

 beggar, exorciser or witch, laughing, dancing buffalo, maternity with 

 small mask, mystery, wolf, guardian of the harvest, and big breath or 

 wind masks. Her accounts of these are of great poetic interest at 

 least. She adds : 



Among the Iroquois of today there are several mask carvers, but 

 these fail to reproduce the singular features of the ancient mask. 

 Their delineations are grotesque only, and the old art of mask carving 

 has passed away with the passing Iroquois. There are but few of the 

 old masks left, and the State Museum has secured the largest num- 

 bers of these old relics of the Iroquois carvings. Converse 



Wooden masks are made of basswood, often termed whitewood by 

 early writers. This cuts easily in the spring, and one Onondaga does 

 a thriving business in making them. There are several leading types, 

 and, to illustrate one tradition, some have the mouth awry. Modern 

 features are moustaches and projections on the forehead, mouth and 

 nose. 



Cornhusk masks are braided very smoothly as far as the face goes, 

 and around this some coarse and loose ends project to represent hair. 

 These are worn by doorkeepers. 



Mr Boyle said that the common False Face society is not a secret 

 one in Canada, nor is there much reason for calling it such in New 

 York. Certainly the members are well known. Mr Boyle adds: 

 " The fiction is maintained of having two women to act as mediums 

 of communication between the society and outsiders, but these women 

 are only the cooks of the feast." 



While those who wear the corn husk masks are only doorkeepers 

 in New York, in Canada they form a society of 30 persons, the 

 invisible corn husk people numbering the same. The society differs 

 from that of the False Faces, meeting thrice a year and using cold 

 water instead of ashes. The number is always maintained. But one 

 person at a time is able to see the original corn husk people, and this 

 power is confined to one family. The society is called Ra-tsisa, and 

 the leader's title is Sha-go-na-den-ha-weh. Boyle, 1898, p. 163 



Farther details of use and meaning may be omitted for the present, 

 as this paper deals more with the material than the psychic features 



