74 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



GA-NUS-QUAH AND GO-GON-SA, THE STONE GIANTS AND FALSE 



FACES 



Tall, fierce and hostile, they were a powerful tribe, the Stone 

 Giants ! 



They invaded the country of the Iroquois during the early days 

 of the Confederation of the Five Nations, the Mohawks, Onondagas, 

 Oneidas; Cayugas, and Senecas, who had sent their warriors against 

 them only to be defeated, and they threatened the annihilation 

 of the Confederacy. 



They were feared, not because of their prodigious size, but they 

 were cannibals as well, and would devour men. women and children. 



The Shawnees have a legend of these Giants which describes 

 them as at one time living in a peaceful state, and although power- 

 ful, were gentle, and hospitable in their 

 intercourse with the neighboring tribes ; 

 but from some disturbing cause they 

 became restless, abandoned their home, 

 and migrated to the far northwest 

 snow fields, where the extreme cold of 

 the winters " froze away their human- 

 ity," and they became " men of icy 

 hearts." 



Unable to withstand the severity of 

 the climate, or provide themselves with 

 sufficient food, the spirit of restless- 

 ness again controlled them and they be- 

 came wanderers, enduring all the dis- 

 comforts and hardships of a nomadic 

 life; and subsisting on raw meat and 

 fish, they finally drifted into canniba- 

 lism, reveling in human flesh. 



In the summer they would roll in the 

 sand to harden their flesh, and their 

 bodies became covered with scales which 

 resisted the arrows of an enemy. For generations they had devas- 

 tated nations before they swept down upon the Iroquois. There 

 they found caves wherein they concealed themselves, and would 

 sally forth, destroying some village and feasting on the people. 



The Iroquois were being rapidly depleted in their numbers, 

 when Ta-ha-hia-wa-gon, Upholder of the Heavens, who had be- 

 stowed upon them their hunting grounds and fisheries, beholding 



i 



XI. 



Wit 



1 



Mask representing Spirit of the 

 Harvest 



