Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1910-06-24
{ THE FALSE FACE DANCE.
An Iroquois Custom Which isurvivea'
s in New York State.


An Iroquois Custom Which survIvea|
in New York G Sta STATE.
There are between f:e thousand and
six thousand IroQuis Indians in the
State of New York and many Of their
ancient customs are still. in existence
Their famous Long House, for exam
pie, once a communal dwelling, is
now council house and dancing hall
and the centre of their ceremonial life.
Usually situated near the ball ia
.crosse). ground and village square, and
surrounded by a.eluster. of log cabins,
the Long. louise is always found in the
pagan IS section Of the reservation. Here
at various seasons Of the year the
yreen corn dance, the. New Years fes-
'tival and IT'S attendant ceremonies,
the war and great feather dances are
held, while al, the year round there
are other dances.. councils and pleasure
festivals. OF these perhaps the most
famous .iss the false face dance of the
False Face Society, an interesting &C
count of, which is given by Alanson
Skinner ,in..the Southern Worlma
II. seems, that years ago, before man
was, mage. the earth was created by
Ha-wen.i-yu. AS he was walking about
his new domain monster. like
Aying head with staring eyes anG
flowing. hair came into view.
'"What do you do on my earth?"
cried the monster.
1T is not your earth but mine," re-
torted Ha-wen-i-yu.
you lie," said the monster. 81 have
livedshere ever since the world began"
But l made the world" cried Ha-
wen-i-yu.
prove it," said the monster, and tn
show his force he turned and called
to a mountain which stood beside
them
The mountain approached and stood
near by, but Ha-wen-i-yu babe the
monster turn about, and as it did so
he caused the mountain to come up
so swiftly and so close that it struck
the monster upon the side of his face
and knocked his mouth awry, just
as you sometimes see it carved on
false faces nowadays.
The monster saw that the myster-
ious power of Ha-wen-i-yu was far
greater than his, so he begged for
mercy. Ha-wen-i-yu told him that he
must die. for race Of beings called
men were about to appear on the earth
and the monster was so horrible he
would brighten them. ae
The monster begged ito be per-
mitted to live and offered if mankind
would keep his memory and that of his
people sacred and do them honor, to
aid them in the curing of the sick. So
| Ha-wen-i-yu permitted the false face
people to live at the ends of the world
where they may never be seen, and
the Indians keep up a society in their
honor, which holds great dance for
them every New Year.
The dancers are clad in ncndescript
clothes with hideous wooden masks.
The organization is semi-secret, but
almost every one knows pretty well
who the dancers are. They go through
their dance with luddcrous antics to
the time of turtle shell rattle and
blow ashes upon and doctor sick peo-
pie as are present and desire 1t.
At other times when they practise
medicine" the whole company is not
necessarily present, perhaps only one
or two. Mr.. Skinner was told by one
Of the Senecas that there are among
the Indians many secret medicine So
cieties Of which the whites know alb
solutely nothing.
The Ircquois still keep up many
primitive customs besides the cere-
monial life. Corn is still ground in
huge wooden mOrtars with long, heavy
double ended pestles, and it is very
amusing to see in a well regulated
Iroquois house the mortar in one cor
ner and the ice cream freezer in the
other. Almost as amusing is it to
stand ON the ball ground and hear
Caruso singing from a monograph
while not 100 yards away the Long
House rocks and swings to the stamp
and yell of the war dance.-New York
Sun