302 
of gratitude to the three sister goddesses, Corn, Bean, and Squash. 
Songs and dances followefl the opening ceremonies and continued 
throughout the duration of each festival, with intervals for feasting 
and games. The Iroquois had also a Feast of the Dead, which must 
have been closely analogous to the Huron feast of the same name. 
None of the early writers, however, has actuall}^ described the Iroquois 
rites, and we have definite proof of their existence among the 
Mohawk, Onondaga, and Oneida alone. ^ 
Every individual in the tribe participated in the harvest festivals, 
and presumably also in the Feast of the Dead; but only members 
could take part in the elaborate ceremonies of the various medicine 
societies. The best known of these, and the only one that persistefl, 
with slight changes, down to modern times, was the False-Face 
Society, whose members every spring and autumn covered their faces 
with grotesque masks, raided tlie houses to drive away tlie demons 
that caused disease, then adjourned to the “ long ” or council-house 
of the village to hold their dances. More influential than the False- 
Face Society, however, were the Medicine, the Dark Dance, and the 
Death Feast, even though women controlled the last two societies 
and comprised more than half the membership. Undoubtedly these 
organizations had a very prominent place in the lives of the Iroquois 
before and for some time after the coming of Europeans, although 
the obscurity that still envelops them tends to mask their real 
importance. 
The Iroquois seem to have regulated marriage much more 
strictly than the Ilurons, who permitted their youth to select their 
own wives, subject to the approval of the girls’ mothers. Among the 
Iroquois, on the contrary, it was the young man’s mother who chose 
his brifle, and arranged the match with the girl’s mother without 
reganl to the young couple’s inclinations or wishes. The two families 
then exchanged food and presents, and the youth was informed that 
henceforth he and the girl were man and wife, that thev must live 
together in the hut of her family and provide for each other, he by 
hunting and fishing and she in the cornfields. Fathers had no juris- 
diction whatever in the match and were usually not consulted, but 
1 “ Jesuit Relations,” vol, 53, p. 213 (1669-70). W. .J, Wuitomberg unearthed nearly a hundred 
graves in a prehistoric village site at Roebuck, Ontario, left by an eastern group of Iroquois, probably 
the Onondaga; yet he found no trace of scaffold burial or of o.ssuaries. Possibly these customs were 
adopted later from the Hurons, or they may have been sporadic only among the Five Xations. 
