Bluegrass Messengers

AFS L 6:
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE
Recorded and edited by William N. Fenton in New York and Ontario, 1941.

1."The Great Feather Dance"
2."Dream Song of our Two Uncles, The Bigheads"
3."Dream Song of the Creator at the White Dog Sacrifice"
4."The Tracker's Boasting Chant"
5."Individual Thanksgiving Chant"
6."Throwing Songs of Four Individual Medicine Men"
7."Introductory Songs of the Medicine Men"
8."The Medicine Dance" (Selections)
9."Marching or Dream Song for the Winds"
10."Onondaga Address to the Hunchbacks"
11."Song of the Hunchbacks or False-Faces"
12."Song of the Bushy-Heads or Husk-Faces"
13."Corn Song"
14."The Iroquois War Dance"
15."The Scalp Dance"
16."Eagle or Striking Dance"
17."The Warrior's Stomp Dance or Trotting Dance"
18."Women's Shuffle Dance"
 

PROGRAM NOTES
Page Introduction ..................................... ,., .. " ..... , ....... .
The people of the longhouse ................. ' , . " ............ " ... .
Recording the songs of their grandchildren. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Voices that echo on the hills...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Rattles and drums........................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
An album for "pale faces" ..................... , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. II
The Creator's songs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. II
Great Feather Dance..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. II
The great Festival of Dreams 'at midwinter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15
The dream song of Our Two Uncles. the Bigheads... .. .. .. .. . .... 15
The White Dog Sacrifice................. '.. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 16
Individual Chants ................ . ......... .... ......... . . ........ 18
An Oneida tracker's boasting song. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Personal thanksgiving ............. . .... ... ..... , . ... , ....... . . ~
Medicine Societies .............................. . ...... . .. ... ......... :KI
The Society of the Medicine Men and their celebration...... ' . . . . . . . .. 20
Throwing songs .............. . .......... . ........... . ....... " 2:2
Beginning songs .................................... , .. ....... 23
The Medicine Dance........ .. . .......... . ..................... 24
The False~face company ................. , ................ , . . . . . . . .. ~S
Songs of war and peace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 27
War dances. , . . . . . . . .... .. . . . . .. . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 27
The s~called Scalping Dance: a modern show song. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 28
The Eagle Society and the Striking Dance................. , ....... " ~
Social dance! ............ . .............................. . ...... ,...... 30
The Warriors' Stomp Dance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3D
Corn Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 32
Women's Shuffle Dance......... ... ... . .. .. ...... .. ........... ..... 33
LIST OF THE RECORDINGS 1. The Creator's songs. A. The Great Feather Dance ('osto'we'gowa)-Seneca. Sung with turtle rattle by Chancey Johony Jonn at Allegany Reservation, N. Y .• 1941. B. Midwinter Festival chants. 1. Dream song of Our Two Uncles. the Bigheads-Seneoa of Canada. Sung by Joshua Buck at Six Nations Re!erve, Canada, 1941. ~. Dream song of the Creator at the White Dog SacrificeOnondaga of Canada. Sung by Chief loseph Logan with assistance of Simeon GiblOR at Six Nations Reserve,' Canada, 194I.
iii
iv
CONTENTS
.]. Tht: tracker's boastmg chant-Oneida. Sung by Simeon Gibson at Six Nations Reserve, Canada, 1941. 4. Individual thanksgiving chant (Adon'wen')-Seneca. Sung by Chancey Johnny John, Allegany Reservation, N. Y., I94I. II. Medicine Men's Celebration (hadihi'dus)-Onondaga. Sung with gourd rattle by Chief Joseph Logan at Six Nations Reserve, Canada, 1941. A. I. Throwing songs of four ipdividual Medicine Men. 2. Introductory songs of the Medicine Man. B. The Medicine Dance (selections). t. Beginning songs. 2. Dancing songs. 3. Magic songs.
4-Ending songs, as the steam settles down.
111. A. The False-face company-Six Nations, Canada. Sung by Joshua Buck and Simeon Gibson at Six Nations Reserve, Canada, 1941. I. Marching or Dream Song for the winds (Buck). 2. Onondaga address to the Hunchbacks (Gibson). J. Song of the Hunchbacks or False-faces (Buck). 4. Song of the Bushy-heads or Husk-faces (Buck). B. Corn Song-Cayuga. Sung by George Buck with companion at Six Nations Reserve, Canada. H141. IV. War and peace songs. A. War dances. I. The Iroquois War Dance (wasaa'se') as of 18I2-Cayuga. 2. The Scalp. Dance, a modern show song. Sung with water drum and horn rattle by George and Joshua :Suck, at Six Nations Reserve, Canada, 1941. B. Eagle or Striking Dance (gane'gwa"t:')-Onondaga, a variant of the calumet dance. Sung with water drum and horn rattle by Chief Joseph Logan at Six Nations Reserve, Canada, 1941. V. Social dances. A. The Warrior's Stomp Dance, or Trotting Dance-Seneca-Onondaga. Sung by Joshua Buck and Simeon Gibson at Six Nations Reserve, Canada, 1941. B. Women's Shuffle Dance-modern, Cayuga. Sung with water drum and horn rattle by George and Joshua Buck at Six Nations Reaerve, Canada, 194I.
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE:
PROGRAM NOTES FOR AN ALBUM OF AMERICAN
INDIAN MUSIC FROM THE EASTERN WOODLANDS
By WILLIAM N. FENTON Bureau 0/ American Ethllology With 9 Plates
lNTRODUCTION THE PEOPLE OF THE LONGHOUSE
Fierce warriors and able statesmen, the Five, Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy were the acknowledged lords of the eastern woodlands of North America. Proud of their position, they loved singing only less than they exalted bravery and respected chiefship as attributes of superior men. Within the upper caste of ongwe'onwe, "men preeminently/' they included only themselves: the Mohawk, Oneida. Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes, less than 10,000 souls who occupied a dozen villages along the trail leading across central New York f rom Schenectady to Rochester. When the Europeans arrived, the five tribes had banded themselves into a league of nations which they called "the completed longhouse,'" likening the member t~ibes to adjacent fireside families that lived as blood relatives beneath a single, extended roof. Their communal household had become a symbol for society.
It was the woman who counted in Iroquois society. An old matron's house sheltered her children and her daughter's children, as well as those who had married in to form the joint household; but the children of the matron's sons belonged to the families of their wives' mothers. The matron and the earth were "mothers"; women and the cropsmaize, beans, and squashes-were sisters, and the women of the household formed a work party that labored at planting, hoeing, and harvesting and wood gathering under the supervision of the matron. Therefore, to woman belonged the land, the village, the house and its furniture, and all the fruits of her horticulture and gathering; even the venison which a man brought home was his wi fe's to distribute.
Men who were hunters and warriors were also the singers. In the village they played at lacrosse or attended councils to ensure the
2 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
peace or advance a war. Moreover, when at home a man's place was on his bunk. Here he had no especial duties other than mending his gear, and he was always glad to put his work overhead and take down a drum and bag of rattles to entertain his friends with singing. The visitor would relate the latest tale; the host would offer his latest songs.
The singing Iroquois thanked the Creator for life, children, and the growing crops. Going about his work or on the hunt he whistled or sang to himself, and in this way he frequently thought of a new series of songs. However, he did not carelessly sing the songs of his animal familiars, for their singing might bring him ill fortune. Possessed sometimes by supernaturals-animals or gods that appeared to him in dreams and taught him powerful songs with the understanding that he should sponsor feasts for them-he sang the songs which had been entrusted to him and put up a feast lest neglect of his familiars make him ill. He renewed these associations annually, usually at midwinter when people were home from the fall hunt subsisting on stored grain. A good crop which had yielded many strings of white corn to hang from the rafters meant that one's kin and friends were also in town for the winter. Then a propensity for organization which marked Iroquois society came into operation, for there was a chance to celebrate group rituals and form dancing associations of individuals who had had similar religious experiences and therefore had similar ohligations. This seems to have been the origin of the Dream Feast or Midwinter Festival.
Moreover the Iroquois boasted his pedigree in song, and he ridiculed the ancestors of his rival. Song gave him courage in war, rhythm for dancing, a tune to hum on the warpath, and power to cure his wounds. Warriors frequently brought home captives. If tortured, captives sang their death songs; but if adopted to replace a lost clansman, as frequently happened, these naturalized Iraquois continued to sing songs from their homeland which sooner or later became current in Iroquois towns and are now in the song bag of their grandchildren. Since the warrior's path led Iroquois warriors far into the southeastern United States, and the Iroquois adopted many captives from the southeastern tribes, we should naturally expect Iroquois songs to resemble Muskhogean and Siouan songs. We know, for example, that the Striking Dance of the Eagle Society (S id e B, 4) j spread to the Iroquois as a variant of the calumet ceremony from tribes living south of the western Great Lakes during the eighteenth century. So also the social dances (8 ide B, 5 )which the Iroquois still love to
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE-FENTON 3
perform, resemble the Iistomp dances" of other eastern tribes now living on reservations in Oklahoma. Although both men and women participate in the dances, it is a str*ing circumstance that in longhouse society of women farmers and men hunters, where descent and political power pass in the female line, Iroquois men are preeminently the singers.
RECORDING THE SONGS OF THEIR GRANDCHILDREN
Iroquois songs are among the earliest annotated music from the Americas. Father Gabriel Sagard who visited Huronia in 1623 attempted to write down the songs that he heard. We recognize them as characteristically Iroquois because then as now a preponderance of nonsense or burden syllables recur in regular meter, and Sagard was perplexed as all Europeans are at first when they discover that Indian song texts largely do not say anything that one can translate into ordinary speech. But if one remembers the tra-la-Ia or boogeywoogey jargon of his own song styles, then the Indian idiom does not seem so outlandish.
Iroquois music has long merited seriolls consideration. The children of the longhouse have persisted in singing their old-time songs without much attention from white people, and we must thank the modem generation of Iroquois for their willingness to put them on records. Although several collections of records have been made in the past, the collectors generally have not bothered to take the song texts from the native singers, and this is the first attempt to make the recordings available in album form. Nevertheless, the album is, as it were, a byproduct of an academic study. As early as 1933 when I first went among the Seneca of Allegany Reservation, N. Y., I found the music as much alive as the language, and learning to sing Seneca songs proved much easier and more fun than learning to speak Seneca. I can recommend no better way to master the phonetics of an exotic language than learning to sing with the natives. The Senecas were eager to put their songs on wax cylinders, and at the end of the summer some of their best songs were Iitaken away in a packing box." Again, in 1936, the Salt Creek Singers of Tonawanda made electric recordings on aluminum disks, but these fine records have languished in a laboratory awaiting study. A chance to complete existing collections of Iroquois music came in January 1941 when Simeon Gibson (pl. 3, fig. I) invited me to visit the Six Nations on Grand River, Canada. I accepted, thinking that I could stop on the way home with myoid friends, the Senecas of Coldspring longhouse on the Allegheny
720088 0 - 46 - 2
4 SMITHSONIAN JNSTITUTION
River in southwestern New York. It was the season of the Midwinter Festival which is the best time for collecting music because this festival marks the new year when in renewing "their societies" individuals go over the whole stock of songs.
The expedition was sponsored jointly by the Library of Congress and the Bureau of American Ethnology, Dr. Harold Spivacke, Chief of the Division of l\lusic of the Library, solved the problem of where to borrow a recording machine by providing sound-recording apparatus and a stock of blanks with the understanding that the original field recordings would go into the Archive of American Folk Song in the Library of Congress. I am indebted to Dr, Spivacke for his continuing interest in our project; and Jerome Wiesner, Chief Engineer, and John Langenegger of the Recording Laboratory, who assembled the' equipment and instructed me in its use the afternoon I left for the field, were my companions in labor during many hours of copying the records for transcription and dubbing the good songs onto master copies for the album. In all, 62 double-face records were filled and the song texts were transcribed phonetically at recording and corrected with the Indian singers.
Ohsweken is the hearth of the Six Xations council on Grand River.. (pI. 2, fig. I). Arriving there, I set up the recorder in the home of Ike Hill, late storekeeper and horsetrainer to the people of the longhouse, My erstwhile interpreter, Simeon Gibson, found the recording machine no more baffling than a machine gun which he had operated effectively in World War I. He assumed responsibility for operating the generator and rounding up the singers, and he assisted them by singing responses, interjecting cries of supernaturals and devising other appropriate sound effects while I operated the controls and took the texts. Occasionally we moved the machine down the road to George Buck's log house for a particular ceremony for which a private place was better adapted (pI. 3, fig. 2), And later, while working with Chancey Johnny John at Allegany, we made a recording studio out of the library of the Friends Indian School at Quaker Bridge, N. Y.
VOICES THAT ECHO ON THE HILLS
A line of brush marks the entrance to a modern Iroquois reservation. From the chimneys of scattered plank and log houses and an occasional farmstead, plumes of smoke rise straight to heaven through the clear upland air. One is reminded of the Medicine Men's Song, lithe houses of my grandchildren stretch out in a thin line." Where
SONGS FROM THE IROQuors LONGHOUSE-FENTON 5
the houses cluster, a frame or log house that is longer than the others and has a chimney at either end stands on a common which is also the playing field. This is the longhouse or cOllncil hOllse of the conservative Iroquois (pI. 2, fig. 2). Hard by stands the public cookhouse. Here the faithful men and women kindle their fires to deliberate public issues, to return thanks for bounti fu! crops, and to dance for their own enjoyment. At such times the regular singers are men who, like the ancients, have "voices that sound the length of the house, their song carries over the fields, and it echoes f rom the hills." Particularly is this true at Coldspring, where the hills, great piles of dirt left over by the Creator when he made the world, mount straight up from the Allegheny River. From long habit of glancing up the slopes when hunting deer, the people of Ohii'yo', "beauti ful stream," are said hy those at Cattaraugus to have upturned eyelashes.
Among the Senecas of Coldspring lives Chancey Johnny John, whom the longhouse people call hau/no'on, "Cold-voice," of the Turtle clan of the Cayuga,(pl. 4, fig. I). Chancey has been singing the Great Feather Dance at Coldspring longhouse for most of the 50 years since he moved from Cattaraugus. His Seneca father was a great singer before him. No Iroquois singer that 1 have known has a greater command of the song style of his people. Chancey's knowledge must approach a thousand verses of two score ceremonies and social dances. For some of them he sings several tribal versions. His singing ability is his hold on fame, for he holds no public office at the longhouse, although he makes the best baskets at Coldspring, is an excellent carver of masks, and knows upward of 200 medicinal plants. Rather his life is in the ceremonies, for the longhouse officers court his services, and when he is not mad at them he will sing for them. On some important occasions he fails to appear, as if to put officials at a disadvantage and underscore his own indispensability. Moreover, He-strikes-the-rushes, of Tonawanda, relates that once when he and Chancey were invited to sing Great Feather Dance together at Coldspring he had loaned a new turtle rattle to Chancey for the occasion. "He beat that rattle hard enough to break it. and an old lady said afterward that he was just jealous of my singing ability.J)
Chancey's musical instruments are made with a care and precision that results from mastery of technique and patient, leisurely handling. Besides tu'rtle rattles, he makes Aageolettes, water drums, and gourd rattles; ~nd his horn rattles for singers of Women's Shuffle Dance and Fish Dance are recognized among Iroquois singers by their waisted octagonal handles (pI. 4. fig, 2).
6 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
Chancey is a true artist. Although not asocial, he is more interested in his art and himself than in what others think of him, except that his singing remain indispensable to the longhouse people. Rather than thrust himself forward, he patiently waits to be coaxed, and sometimes goes home in a peeve when slighted. But actively engaged in ceremonies, he is sincerely emotional and deeply moved by his own singing and its symbolism within the ritual. More than once I have seen tears course down his cheeks as singing Great Feather Dance or the Dream Song reminded him possibly that his father had sung this many years ago at Midwinter Festivals.
Singing is not all serious with the Iroquois; they also sing for fun. This I discovered was true in 1933 when living among Chancey Johnny John's neighbors at Coldspring, where as in other conservative Iroquois communities the longhouse people, followers of Handsome Lake's teachings, still go about helping each other plant. It was June. On the first Sunday of my visit I was told that a group of men and women who passed on the road carrying hoes were members of a mutual aid society en route to hoe an old lady's garden. That evening we stopped at Sarah Armstrong's because they were singing inside. At the back of the house, six men sat facing each other in two rows of chairs. One, who held the drum, sang a verse and the others kept time by bumping their heels and beating cow horn rattles in the palms of their left hands. Then they repeated the song together, vibrating their rattles double time with the drum, and simultaneously maintaining the slower, measured tempo with their heels. Youngsters sat on a nearby bench, hands clasped between knees, gently moving their heels and humming; they were learning the song and attempting to master the difficult rhythm.
My companion said, "This is en'si'da'ganye' oenon', 'the women shuffle their feet song'; the songs belong to the Women's Dance (S ide B, 6)'. The men I ike to si ng them. They are a society who meet to help each other, and when they have finished working they sing for pleasure."
Presently a speaker arose. He thanked the men and women who had helped Sarah Armstrong, our hostess. In return, he announced, she had set down a full kettle of hulied corn soup for the society. The speaker asked the men to assemble next week to cut brush in the tribal cemetery. Finishing in the cemetery, they were to go in a body and put roofing paper on an old woman's house. Meanwhile the women served the singers first with bowls of com soup which Sarah ladled out of the kettle. Then Sarah passed me a brimming bowl of soup, a spoon, and a salt shaker, saying, "His face is white, but
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE-FENTON 7
maybe he likes soup. Perhaps later on he may learn to sing." The leader soon gathered the cow horn rattles and the drum and put them in a hand basket. At the door he paused to say to me, "We are all glad that you came. You are welcome to sit with us. We will let you know where we meet next Tuesday." At midnight I walked down the road; I had found the Seneca as described-a charitable people. High in the north the Indian hunter and his dogs chased the great bear on its diurnal round of Polaris. My Seneca companion lit a match to check the time with his railroad watch as the Erie limited sped through the valley, leaving only its whistle to die on the hills like the whoop of a passing war party. My Indian friend was thinking of his morning job on the section: the songs of his ancestors were still ringing in my ears. I
A m'utual aid and singing society has ordinarily affiliated societies of singers on other Iroquois reservations. At the annual Six Nations meetings of Handsome Lake's followers the societies meet to exchange new groups of songs which members have composed during the year. Therefore when I visited Tonawanda a year or so later an entree had already been prepared for me among the affiliates of the Coldspring Singers. There were in 1935 two societies that met "down below" near the Tonawanda longhouse, and I was invited to join liThe Salt Creek Mutual Aid and Singing Society" (gajikhedon' adanide'onshe') which had recently been formed. Their nllmber included some principal chiefs of the reservation and such notable figures as Jesse Cornplanter, the Seneca author and artist, and it was in these meetings that I first heard Joshua"Billy" Buck, who later recorded for me at Ohsweken, Canada (pI. 5. fig. 2). Billy was currently living at home with his mother, a Tonawanda Seneca, who had gotten him years ago while on a visit to the Six Nations of Canada. Joshua Buck, his father, was a famous Onondaga chief, and in years of migrating back and forth to visit both families Billy, a natural singer, has picked up the songs of both communities.
It was my good fortune to find Billy Visiting his half brother George when I arrived at Six \:ations with a recording machine.(p!. 3, fig. 2) The brothers Buck had been singing mates for years, and George, whose voice is peculiarly adapted for recording, was at his best with Billy's support. Together they recorded George's most recent songs for the Women's Shuffle Dance (S ide B, 6), typical examples of groups composed by modern singing society members; and the Iroquois War Dance and Scalp Dance (Record I V A), which have long
1 Journal of a field expedition to the Seneca Indians at Coldspring on the Allegheny River, June to September, 1933 (ms.).
8 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
since become standard repertoire of the Indian Medicine Show, carry the listener back to the 'vVar of 1812. With little support George Buck carries both parts of Corn Song for which the responses are usually sung by a long column of dancers· (S ide B, 1). Billy Buck with the help of Simeon Gibson swings the listener into the short step of Warrior's Stomp Dance ' (S id e B, 5) just as he has led off hundreds of social dances, and he ends on a humorous note that Ohsweken is full of good-looking unmarried women. However, before the latter began to occupy his whole attention, Billy Buck and Simeon Gibson collaborated in recording the sound effects of a complete ceremony for the False-faces, those awsome yet ridiculous supernaturals of Iroquois dream Ii fe, which are impersonated by men wearing wooden masks that are credited with great healing power (S ice A, 8.3).
Not every Indian is a chief, but Joseph Logan as Tadoda'ho' is principal chief of the Onondaga nation and as such was the "hook'· or executive officer of the grand council of the Six Nations Confederacy on Grand River until the system of life chiefs was abolished in 1924 (pI. 3. fig, I). Nevertheless, he has continued as speaker for his side of the Onondaga nation at the ceremonies in Onondaga longhouse. My project to record Onondaga songs received an enormous boost when Chief Logan commended me to his people who had assembled in their longhouse to celebrate the last day of the Midwinter Festival. I had known Chief Logan several years since we first met at Tonawanda where he had come to attend a Six Nations Meetings, and twice I had eaten corn bread at Chief Logan's house where I had accompanied a messenger from the Tonawanda council to the Six Nations in Canada. Chief Logan is a powerful speaker with a splendid voice. The Iroquois respect him as a great athlete who at an early age was appointed to occupy a position of responsibility in the government of his people. Before the old men had all gone the long trail, young Logan conscientiously learned from them the lore of the longhouse, and it is this thorough knowledge of his people's ceremonies and ritual chants that make his recorriings of the Creator's song at the White Dog Sacrifice'(S ide A J 3) ~ the Medicine Men's Celebration (S ide A, 7) , and Eagle Dance (5 ide B) 4) unique documents. The first of these is now obSOlete slli'ce whlte dogs are no longer sacrificed at midwinter, and although Logan had once recorded hadi'hi'lduus for Alexander Goldenweiser, the cylinders are no longer available. Only one who has worked with him through a solid day of recording can appreciate Chief Logan's painstaking effort to put the songs on the record correctly, for in final analysis the ethnologist's materials are only as good as his sources.
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE-FENTON 9
RATTLES AND DRUMS
A word should be said about the instruments that singers "use to prop up the songs." They are turtle, gourd, and horn rattles, and the water drum. Individuals and stomp dancers sing unaccompanied, but most dances and medicine society rites require metronomes for the dancers to follow.
In Iroquoian cosmology the very earth rests on the back of a snapping turtle, and rattles made from its whole carapace and plastron with the head and neck stretched over a stick inserted to form the handle were described by seventeenth-century explorers who observed the Iroquois. Turtle rattles are still being made and singers consistently employ them to beat out the tempo for the two dances that are characteristically 1 roquois-Great Feather Dance and the Dance of the False-faces with whom the turtle rattle is standard equipment. .'\. turtle rattle about 10 inches to a foot long, including the handle, is considered best for singing. The singer sits astride a wooden bench and beats out the measures between his knees, striking the board on which he sits with the edge of the turtle's shell. It takes a good singer to raise his voice above the din.
Gourds are still raised among the Six Nations for containers and especially to make rattles for "pumpkin shakes." as meetings of the Medicine Men's fraternity are colloquially called. A summer squash will do almost as well .
The horn rattle and the water drum are the instruments for social dances. The head singer is the drummer, and although his present drum may be a cut-down paint keg with a head from an old shoe top, or even a bell jar with a rubber head from a discarded inner tube, the original drums were pots or wooden vessels burned out of tree knots and the head was of woodchuck skin. The drums for the Feast for the Dead are relatively large, but social dance drums are a convenient size to hold in the left hand, about 41 inches in diameter at the base; Seneca drums are somewhat larger across the head, but in Canada among the Six Nations the head is stretched over the smaller end. The pitch of the drum is raised by tightening the head. and this is accomplished by driving down the hoop. But there is a plug in the side of the drum where water is inserted, about a mouthful a day, and the plug must be removed first to prevent bursting the head. When not in use the drum should be kept in an inverted position to keep the head wet. Blowing a mouthful of water into the drum every day will insure a uniform water table and accurate pitch, for if the drum should dry out the staves of the modern keg drums will colSMITHSONIAN
INSTITUTION10
lapse. Seneca drum sticks are usually the length of the extended thumb plus the width of the hand and one or two fingers more---S to 10 inches over all. Frequently they are cut from white ash, and sometimes pine. One type has opposite grips for thumb and forefinger and a second type has a slight extension or fluke, as on the handle of barbers' scissors, to serve as a lever for the little finger when rolling a fast rhythm. There is almost as great a variety of drum sticks as there are individual preferences among singers. Occasionally drum sticks have ornately carved animal or geometric forms on the handles, and some carvers whittle a wooden ball which gyrates in a slot, setting up an echo beat.
The horn rattles which the drummer's helpers shake are a section of steer's horn mounted on a stick by pegging the horn to two flanged wooden heads through which the handle passes. A few lead shot provide the percussion. Although the modern horn rattle may be derived from similar rattles of Buffalo horn which the Iroquois acquired from prairie tribes, contemporary singers consider it a modern invention qating from the introduction of cattle, for traditions say that in olden times the cylinder was of hickory bark containing some chokecherry seeds. It was similarly made and produced about the same sound.
In each community a few men are noted rattle makers, and their instruments are recognized everywhere by Iroquois musicians. In a restricted sense the craftsman's position in society is not unlike that occupied by the old violin makers of Cremona. In Coldspring, Jonas Snow and Chancey J ohnny John make instruments. Horn rattles with octagonal-shaped handles deri ve from Cattaraugus Reservation where Chancey formerly lived: Chancey's rattles have long handles that are waisted near the head, but James Crow of Cattaraugus prefers to make them short and squat with short handles that are waisted at the middle and octagonal in cross section. Horn rattles made at Tonawanda have light heads and long, slender handles that are sometimes double waisted, as they taper and flare from near the middle to a knob at both ends.
Regular singers prefer to use their own ml..ls1cal instruments but they do not always have them. Just as in our own society, the group provides for talented artists by furnishing the instruments where they are requested to perform. The Jonghouse community owns a complete set of drums and rattles which are in the care of one of the longhouse officials. His duty is to see that they are set out for the singers and that the correct instrument is at hand for the particular ~remony. Likewise the leader of the mutual aid and singing society ordinarily has a drum and bag of horn rattles of assorted sizes which
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE-FENTON II
he brings to meetings, and these are regarded as somewhat the property of the group. He empties the bag on the floor and the singers pick up the rattles and shake them, trying them for weight and balance and passing them around until each individual has one which suits him. There is usually a dud in the bag which goes to some youngster at the end of the bench, much to everyone's amllsement. The Medicine :Men's Society also has a bag of assorted gourd rattles which the appointed keeper carries to meetings. When an individual joins the society he is given a rattle and a song of his own which is said to repose in the rattle that he takes home from meetings and hangs overhead.
AN ALBUM FOR "PALE FACES"
Ordinarily ethnologists reduce their observations and descriptions of our primitive contemporaries to the printed page. BlIt even illustrated publications do not convey quite the idea of how a language sounds, the atmosphere of a ceremony, or what the music is really lik~. No amount of writing or talk about Iroquois esthetic culture offers as convincing evidence of its actual survival as sound recordings of the songs from the longhouse. There is something in them that is more than the shuffle of distant dancing feet, the faint cries of dancers, and a glimpse of feathers passing the firelight. What there is is a living part of the tradition of American civilization-the powerful voices of Indian neighbors who dance in rubber boots, chew snuff, and dress as other workers, the grandchildren of the noble Redmen who have fired the imagination of school children in every land. These are the songs of the old-time Indians in record form so that children can learn them and adults can play them as examples of exotic music from out the fires of their native land. After friends in Washington had urged me to publish an album from my collection of Iroquois records, when I suggested t-o the singers of the longhouse that some such use might be made of their songs, they all expressed satisfaction that Indians in other lands and "pale faces" everywhere might hear their songs.
THE CREATOR'S SONGS GREAT FEATHER DA.NCE
Great Feather Dance Costo'we'gowa) is the grand religious dance of the Iroquois (Side A, 1). Jts name derives from the feather headdress (gasto'we') I the I roqllois buckskin cap with sing1e revolv720088
0 - 46 - 3
12 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
ing eagle feather set in a spindle surrounded by a cluster of split feathers; but now the dancers wear a type of Plains war bonnet which they have adopted for show work (pI. 7, fig. 1). Yet Feather Dance is both the "Star Spangled Banner" and "Adeste fideles" to the people of the longhouse. Although it was once probably associated with war, participating in Feather Dance now is a token of one's religious allegiance to the teachings of Handsome Lake, the Seneca propheta pledge to follow the longhouse way. The tenacity with which the Iroquois have adhered to their dances is no less true today than it was a century ago when Lewis Morgan first described them. The Iroquois sti1\ love the old ceremonies. Three hundred years of missionary effort has not succeeded in obliterating them. However, old men say that they used to sing Feather Dance more slowly, and with greater dignity, so that the old people could join in, but nowadays the young dancers want the tempo fast. Nevertheless, it is now equally true as it was in Morgan's time that the Iroquois will be Indians forever, so long as they hold to their dances.
In the beginning when the world was new the Master of Li fe gave the Iroquois four sacred ceremonies to enjoy in his honor-Great Feather Dance, Drum Dance, Individual Chant, and the Great Wager or Bowl Game. These four rites are the core of the longhouse festivals on earth and they are what they have forever in the hunting grouhd. At great councils, and twice a year at the festivals marking midwinter and the ingathering of crops, at (~reen Corn Festival, the officials clear the longhouse and set a plain bench lengthwise of the room, and on this bench the conductor places two turtle rattles, tail to tail, with the handles pointing toward the ends of the bench where the two singers will straddle. Now the speaker announces the names of the two men whom the officials have selected to help each other sing and the naf11es of the dance leader and his assistant, and he urges all the people from the officials to the smallest child to participate; he says the 01(1 people should atJeast walk around two or three circuits in the dance ;;I.lld If-ad the little children. One who is unable to dance may stand at the end of the bench. They always announce this.
The singers go to the bench and straddle it, facing one another. They pick up the turtle rattles. The leading singer strikes the edge of his rattle on the bench and cries "hyo' .. twice and the crowd replies "yo hee'." Now the song begins. The dance leader takes up the cry and it is again echoed by the crowd. This antiphonal is repeated between dances.
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LUNGHOllSE-FENTON 13
The version from which these selections were taken for the album is the one which Chancey Johnny John sings for the officials of Coldspring longhouse early in the morning while the food is cooking for the feast which follows the Great Feather Dance later in the morning. These songs summon the officials to come in and dance, They enter from the cookhouse and the men doff their hats. The women wipe their hands on clean calico aprons made from goods distributed in annual fulfillment of the Treaty of 1794, and they join the dance a little after the men begin on the third song, when the tempo increases; the women form a column of their own.
These are the words of hau'no'on, Cold-voice, Very few have any meaning.
I) hyo hyo' yoo rCries of the dance leader and the crowd)
wenonya we'nonya
wenonya he he hee
he he hee
heya wenonya wel10nya
heya he hee
he hen'en hen wiyo :1 rrepeat1 yo hooo rend I
2) hyo hyo'
gayowine hayowine
hayowine he' he'e
hiye he' he'e
hayowine he' hc'e hiye yo ho (end J
3) [Dance begins at the faster temr>0]
yode'ha we'nonya
yoda hawenonya hee
yo hawinonya he he' hen'en he huh' [end]
4) wegoyahee wegoyahe' [repeat J
he' hen'en [as above] he huh' [end]
5) onen di ne'ho daodiyonje' honondiondon'
Now then here they :HC enlering t he officials
yahowiyahe yahowiyahe:1[repeat J
G) onen di ne'ho otadidaat honondiondon'
Now right they stand liP tht officials
yahowiyahe yahowiyahe :] rrepeat}2 yo ho'
7) yo' yo' yuh
ganonhsagol1 todiyon heyah
lngjde the tnt'y h:J.vt' gl)ne
bouse
heganonhsayenua hee
The whole length
of tnc house
2 In these two songs the officials ~nter from the cookhouse and their chores of cutting wood and hauling water to remove hats and join in Feather Dance while the kettles of soup boil.
'4 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
todiyon todiyon hee
They hav~ they have
come in come in
heganonhsayenda hee
[They fill] the whole ie.ngth of the housc, elc.3
8) gagwegon ne'ho non' jiye onen ne'ho
Everyone here must participate now in this
yahowiyahe he' hen'en ; yo' ho
9) gagwegon onen jongwa'yon he nigyaj on ne'ho
Everyone now has come back from rcceS9 here'
yahowiyahe yahowiyahe etc. yo' ho [end]
10) The last song is as F ea ther Dance actually sounds to the dancers as they pass the singer's bench. This selection from the last two songs of the dance is from a record toward the end of the song when Chancey really let himself out. During the intervals between songs the dancers walk slowly around the bench, the men in the lead and the slower-moving women forming a column of their own which the men frequently lap in the circuit. The dance leader shouts "hyo' hyo' .. for the singers to resume. This is the most graceful and dignified of Iroquois dances. The men raise each foot in succession as high as they are able and bring the heel down forcibly with the beat of the turtle rattles. In the faster songs youngsters manage to bring one heel down several times before the other. The impact of the foot on Roor and straightening of knees sets the knee rattles and bells to jingling. Older men merely bump their heels in walking. The step of the women is a sideward shifting of toe and heel, coming down on heel in time with the rattles, shoulders erect and swaying with the music. Occasionally an animated matron will leap like the warnors. A great dancer is momentarily given the lead of the column.
wiye he'en he honinen
goya heya heya ho'o ho honinen
ho' ho'o ho honinen
goya he he he' eh honi nen :] yo' ho'
To end the dance the singer beats twice on the bench with his rattle.
3 "Everyone has llOW gone inside of the longhouse.·' In a preceding song, someone was shouting the whole length of the house. One of the chiefs had gOlle outside to call the people in, saying, "Now, come on in! Now they are starting the Great Feather Dance. Everyone inside!"
<I Everyone now has returned from the recess between this and the preceding great festival such as the M idwintcr Fe~tival. if this is sung :It the Green Corn Festival.
SONGS FRUM THE IROQUUIS LUNG HOUSE-FENTON 15
THE GRt::AT FI::STIVAL OF DREAMS AT MIDWINTER
The dream song of Our Two Uncles, the Righc(lds (S ide A, 2). This is the first of the songs for stirring ashes, the rite which occupies the first two days of the annual Midwinter Festival. The Iroquois call the song and the ceremony of stirring ashes, and moreover the whole festival which elaborates on this initial rite, by the single term ganonhwai'wi (Onondaga) or ganoieowi' (Seneca) which are clearly cognate with varioLls forms such as Ganonh8arori t Mohawk of Bruyas) and Annonh8aroria (I-Turon) that appear with descriptions ill the seventeenth-century Jesuit Relations. The idea conveyed in both this and in the term" Bigheads" is that one's mind is distraught or frenzied with an accumulation of ceremonial obligations which have been revealed in dreams that must be fulfilled during the first 5 days of the festival (pI. <t. Ii~. I).
Before the date of the Midwinter Festival the longhouse officials have met to appoint two chiefs who will set Ollt frol11 the 10nghoLlse <ll1d go f rOIll house to house on the first morning. The two heralds arc cal1ed "Our Two Uncles, the Bigheads." Among the Seneca they wear buffalo robes that are tied on with corn-husk braids to which are appended the fruits of the harvest, and they carry wooden corn pounders, but in Canada they merely 'Costume as chiefs, wearing the Iroquois feather headdress with its crown of torn feathers and one erect whirling feather. One who represents the leading side of the community at this festival speaks, and the other waits his turn to sing.
He will say:
Our nephews and nieces [3 times]. Now the ceremony of the great riddle has begun. Now moreover he has made our bodies tremble he who lives upward where there is an earth in the sky who is our maker and has gi ven it to us. And now then you who are chiefs [for one might reside here]. and also you officials, and also our mothers and moreover the young people, and also you children-now all of you shall stand firm. Now the smoke arises from where the officials have kindled a fire and it reaches even to the heavens, for the Holder-of-the-heavens has decreed that the ceremony should be performed on earth as in the skyworld five sleeps [overnights1 after the new moon of Longer Days. Now we two take Ollt of your hands all manner of work and amusements of all kinds which you have and they are set aside to rest. Now moreover all of you shall attend to the ceremonies where the officials have built a fire; everyone must go there, even the children, and you old people shall lead them there by the hand, for now the Dream Rite has commenced. Therefore, if one has had a new dream and also a particular dream, she shall fulfi!1 all of her old dreams; and it is most urgent that she reveal any new dreams or else she: might become ill [for whoever fails to renew his dreams and reveal new dreams brings trouble to the community]; and maybe that
2
16 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
will happen and for that yOll, old woman, are responsible [the matron of the house knows who has had dreams} for if that should happen you will be to blame.
Now then nephews and Ilieces [three ti mes).
Here his partner sings while with long wooden paddles they both stir up the ashes from the depths of the hearth, or in the ash pit of the woodstove. The ashes fly in the air and rlln off the end of the paddle. New fires ~re no longer kindled.
Joshua Billy Buck sings the version he has employed when performing for the Senecas on Grand River.
niyawce honiyawe halle
niyawec honiyawe hane'eh :} [repeat ad lib 1
Now he has sung the dream song of our maker who dwells in the sky, and Il()W he has gone through the Dream Rite. Now then let all of us return thanks, and right now we shall thank the ruler for now he has invited all of us people that are feeling wel1. [With this they go from the house alld return to the longhouse.J
For the next 2 days the whole community repeats this rite after the example of their uncles.
The Whit(! Dog Sacrilice . ..-The whole Midwinter Festival, though made up of the rites of individuals and families, belon.gs nevertheless to the Creator or Master of Li fe and it is his ceremony in the sense that lesser supernatura!s preside over its component rituals. Also, it is his ceremony in another sense that likewise individuals derive protection from charms or guardians that other individuals .who guess their dreams make in miniature for them. Persons having new dreams take them to the longhouse and reveal them to a committee from one's four clans. A reporter crosses the longhouse, cries "kuh !n, announces that such a person has had a dream, and gives a hint as to its content; guessers from the opposite four clans attempt to name items in the culture which may be in the context of the dream. The reporter has said, "It runs on the snow." One guesser says, "Maybe I will make a hand sleigh for her." The reporter says, "No, not that." Another says, "Maybe I will carry her on my back" (a joke, for the False-faces carry their patients). Finally, someone guesses, "Maybe I will ma){e a snowsnake for her," which is the correct guess, and then the reporter cries "kuh!" This was the answer. The guesser must make the miniature and be ready in 3 days to present it on the seventh day of the festival. Then this talisman, a miniature snowsnake of wood, will serve as a guardian for the dreamer throughout her
SONGS FROM THE IROQUUIS LONGHOUSE-FENTON I7
Ii fe. Thereafter she will commemorate the occasion by sponsoring a game of snowsnake at Midwinter Festivals throughout her life.
The white dog which is sacrificed to the Creator then is a dream token from all the people to the Creator and it becomes his guardian. On the fifth day of the festival they burn the decorated dog. The dog must be pure white, although the breed, which survived until it became hybridized in recent years, sometimes had spotted ears. Children who are requested to give up a dog are told that they will meet it in the skyworld. The dog must be strangled before sunrise by pulling two ropes in such wise that no blood is spilt. \,\Then the dog is dead, two appointed dressers decorate its body with a carrying loop which passes from the hind feet to the neck, wampum strings arc placed around the dog's neck, and they daub both cheeks with three fingers of ceremonial red paint, with a half circle toward the ears. Then the dog is uorne into the longhouse and placed 011 a litter in the cellter of the room.
Chief Logan remembers the last time the Onondagas burned a white dog because he participated as messenger to annollnce the Creator who was impersonated by a friend. At this point in the ceremony they retreated to a neighboring house just south of the longhouse. Chief Logan as messenger walked about 200 yards ahead of the appointed singer. The messenger does not sing. bllt whcn he reaches the gate to the longhouse common he cries to attract the attention of the people waiting in the longhouse.
Just once he calls "kuh!" which is the signal for an importallt message. He announces, "Now then, the Holder-of-the-heavens is singing the Dream Feast song. Now then, pay attentiol1 both fire places [Deer and Eel clans1. Pay attention "Iso the fOllr house. corners ·rfour clans on the other side 1. Now. moreover, he is approaching."
Having made this announcement the messenger walks to the longhouse, indicating that the one impersonating the Creator is comingalong. The Creator's impersonator comes to the gate where he CO\))mences to sing. He nears the longhouse singing, enters the building. and circles part way around where the dog has been laid Ollt on the singing bench ill the center (If the rOOl11. He contillues utltil a man taps hilll Oil the shoulder to attract his attention and stop him with a suggestion of what he Illay desire. According to Chid Logan, the first interruptiol1 is al ways a mistake.
Another man interrupts the singer as he goes about the decorated
dog. The speaker taps the singer's shoulder. (The voice and text arc
IB SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
Chief Logan. The Creator's reply is Simeon Gibson; but Logan continues the song. (S id~ A, 3)
hiyaa' oonenh wa'hononhwai'ya' ne' Tainhiyawa"gih.
lodeed now he was singing the the Holder.of.thedream chant heavens.
da naaye' di' newa' de'uiwadoogen naaye' nengen' dayagohe'ikh
So moreover there i~ ~rbaps a certain which is the one that is awaited word
nalire' nengen' ahonwawenna'haa"gwa' ne' gaonhwenj iagweegi
and thiB is his word of protection from all o{ the pC<lple of (guardian) the eartb
naaye' nengen' ne' a'eena'.
namely this very bow an~ arrow.
But ~he Creator replies
hiiyah ne' snijiagen naaye' se' ne'
Not that, do your b~t, and undu!tiind it i,
ganoo'wen' niyawenhsee'.
very how it will turn out.
perplexing
Then the Creator goes on singing
gowenuude'e ye yegen'en nee'e hegenne.
A voice rises upward.
This is said to be the cleath chant Qf the Holder-of-the-heavens.
At last when one guesses, "a decorated dog," which is the word the Creator' has been : awaiti-ng, he cries "kuh!" This word is the name of the tok~n, the decorated white dog which is presented him by all the people of earth, that becomes his guardian. His dream had called for the name of a certain thing which wil! protect him. The present is finally sent up to the skyworld on a column of smoke, together with a burnt offering of tobacco.
INDIVIDUAL CHANTS
The rite of personal chant (adonwen') is ancient with the people of the longhouse, who say it is one of the Four Ceremonies given them by the Creator. There are many accounts, from Lafitau forward, of Iroquois singing the chant of war, which the Mohawks called Katonrontha. The songs range in character from war chants, through a motley series of ridiculous songs that sometimes have sexual reference, to individual thanksgiving songs for members of one's , family or for a ceremonial IIfriend." Each man has his own set of songs which were those of his maternal family, but some songs pass from father to son, and Olen and not women sing them. The songs are somewhat the property of certain families and each clan has its own songs which refer only to it and these are sometimes sung at adoptions or when an individual participates in the name of his clan. Adonwen'
SONGS FROM TH E IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE-FENTClN 19
is the last song which a warrior sings in torture when 011 the point of death, and each individual takes ont: with him ,jon the long trail" to the land of the dead.
The individual stands and sings part of his song, and then hesitatingly places one heel forward, rocks his weight onto his toes while his other foot lags, and then advances in the rhythm of the chant. Thus he traverses the open space in the assembly and returns to his place. With him the men chant in unison, "he' he'," etc., while the women clap their hands in accompaniment.
An Oneida tracker's boasting song . ..:......-There is a story of an old Oneida chief who had a boasting chant. Chief John Danforth of Oneidatown used to tell this story, which explains a song coming down from the olden tlme when the Iroquois were at war with neighboring tribes. According to ~imeon Gibson, from whom I had it, the late Dr. Alexander Goldenweiser learned this song during field work in 1912 and he liked to sing it.
It seems there was an Oneida warrior and he was a great hunter and tracker of men who had escaped through the brush. He possessed a cane that was a magic pathfinder which enabled him to track a person wherever he escaped regardless of brush, swamps, or thickets. The clever tracker would merely probe about in the bush with his magic cane until it struck a track which he c:ould detect by sniffing from time to time at the point of the cane. Even his voice was magic and whoever heard it crying on his trail would become weak and powerless to escape.
rn the longhouse the singer who impersonates the tracker walks along in the usual chant-way, singing and striking about on the floor or ground with a cane. Sometimes he shades his eyes and looks about at the crowd as if scouting for a man at a great distance. Now and again he sniffs at the point of the cane and pretends to peer about in search of a track. Having found the trail he shouts in rapid succession "hai hai1" Even his voice is magic and whoever hears it becomes weak at once. On discovery the tracker cries "shaaaaaaa1" and points his cane which is sllpposed to paralyze the proposed victim, some unsuspecting friend who sits in the crowd. Naturally, this is all quite humorous.
Simeon Gibson renders this act to great advantage .( Side A, 4). Spoken text: onkgenh onenh gohiiya' nengen' engadeno'den' ne' undowasta' This time now indeed then I shall sing the tracking (song) nengen' nc ullgwe'daga'yun naaye' ne' adllllwa'. of the people of old namely the chant.
20 SMlTHSONIAN INSTITUTlON
Chant:
ungwe ungwe 'iyen'se'
A human a human lurks here about
ye' eheee hOlliya' he e e'
[Nonsense words in chant pattern:]
shaaaaa I [The discovery.]
[Goes out singing.]
Personal tha.nksgiving.-Nowadays the chants are sung occasionally at ceremonies of adoption but principally twice a year when the rite of chant is celebrated on the third day of the Green Corn Festival and near the end of the Midwinter Festival. Then every man should return thanks to the Creator that he has lived to see the ceremonies again and that so many people have once again returned to renew the faith of their ancestors. If a man cannot sing he may get another singer to supply for him. This is what Chancey Johnny John of Coldspring usually says (8 ide A, 5):
enswatondeek engadennooden' nee' gadennodahkwa'
You shall all I am going to sing that which I for singing use listen to
degadawanyee heyoendzadaadj e'. it goes allover the earth.
You shall all listen to what I am goillg to ~ing: the one which I use for
singing goes all over the earth. hojiden gwanode giinon howeyo " hiiyaa hoj iden giinon honiyah honode hiiyo honiyah yegennoo honiyah honode hegen hegendi honiyah gwanode higeone ho ho a honode hegenno hegendi honiya gwanode higenne
wa' t [To which the crowd replies "waaaaaa ...."]
MEDICINE SOCIETIES THE SOCIETY OF THE MEDICINE MEN AND THEIR CELEBRATION
Hadi'hi"duus, as the Onondagas calt singing the songs of the Medicine Men's Society, is one of the most exciting of Iroquois ceremonies. The songs of 12 to IS men shaking gourd rattles in unison fill the narrow confines of a log house to overflowing and in the overtones one hears the cries of mystic animals that were the familiars of past generations of shamans. The rites are more or less secret and singing the songs outside of the medicine lodge is still believed by some to bring illness or accidents to the singer who disregards the
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE-FENTON 21
tabu. Therefore, I consider it a great honor that Chief Joseph Logan, out of consideration of my knowing the ceremony among the Seneca, desired to put down the Onondaga songs for future generations of his own people and for scientific study.
Chief Joseph Logan learned his version of the songs from the late John Echo, a famed singer on the Grand River, and old Dave Skye, and ,Chief Logan is· now the leading singer for the ritual. In recording, he remembered the songs by recalling the sequence of key words whjeh he denominated at the same time Oll his fingers, doubling a finger as he recalled the name of a song. He preferred to sing them piecemeal, recording a strip or two at a time, lest he omit anything. He thought there should be 50 songs in all, but we came out with about 45 from which a selection was made illustrating the component parts of the ceremony for the album.
The history of the Medicine Society is shrouded in antiquity. According to Chief Logan, the society is descended from an old society of shamans, or medicine men.
In the old times, perhaps a thousand years· ago, men of each Iroquois nation had these· songs for contesting magic power. Only magicians· belonged to this society, and only magicians danced. All the old songs which they used referred to their. powers. While they were dancing they demonstrated these powers by "throwing," or "shooting· sharp objects," such as "horn~" [antler, which gives to part of the ritual tllc name of "sharp point" (gail/don') 1. or one would si ng "something [I ike a uear] is running around." The magician would then transform himself illto a bear and run around there ill the room. Another would make a twig stand of itself in the center of the room while the other medicine men danced around it. Still another would in turn go to the fi re and remove red hot stones and j uggl e them. A man lacking this kind of power could not do this.
Later they decided to abandon these songs. But the old songs kept continually molesting the people who felt compelled to do somcthing about it; and so the old magicians held council. They decided that they cannot abandon the songs, and that they must carryon. They have continued through all the generations that followed. Now only the songs have power. Now only the one who wears the mask has the power to juggle ·Iive embers when he is impersonating the andents. Noone any longer tosses hot rocks.
·Members are those who have dreamed of the songs or have been cured by the ritual. In holding a feast for the society, the member who wishes to renew his association or the sick person, as the case may be, solicits a member of the opposite half of the tribe to conduct the ceremony; and the conductor receives frol11 the sponsor kernels of corn equal to the number of men he shall invite to the feast. The invited medicine men go where the feast is scheduled on such a night, no matter how severe the weather. If the medicine man is sick him22
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
self, he has to offer tobacco in his own fire and explain to the society, the animal familiars who are tutelaries of the society, that he is ill and cannot meet them. At the feast, meanwhile, the conductor appoints one to make a similar invocatjon enlisting the aid of all the supernatural members to cure the sponsor.
The first part of the ceremony is called "Throwing in a song" (8 ide A, 6). This part of the record includes the "throwing songs" of fOllr individual medicine men, although sung by r_ogan ; and the individual singing is considered prefatory to the introductory or beginning songs which the leading shaman sings before the Medicine Dance commences.
One side of four clans is leading the ceremony, and the sick person is of the opposite four c1an~. The leading side furnishes the song. Properly each individual speaks before singing, mentioning the name of the person who is sponsoring the feast. The individual asks the Creator to help the sick person during his illness. Then he sings. This continues until all the medicine men in the leading half have spoken and thrown in a song, then the conductor hands it over the fire to the leader of the sponsor's side and his men sing individually to the last man.
Throwing 501lg5.-Text of individual shaman to his host (S ide
B, 6).
1Shakes rattle] Da onenh gohiiya' enskcnongohden' So now right here I shall sing for you
nengen ne' songwaniyosgo'yeni. Da onen di' engihwa'nee'ga' who have set down this fenst for us. So now moreover I will speak kindly
nengen'ne' gaya'dagenha' se'awaadon' onenh enwadongoh'da' to thi~ one to help her 3$ he (the Crealor] so that it [the ceremony J said when is finished
nengen' skenon' nengen' onsahen6nhdonniyon' . Da' nen this one well he disposed shall be. So now
di' enyenong6hdon'. then I ~hal\ go through with it.
So now indeed I shall sing for the one who has set down this feast for us. And now moreover I will speak kindly to this one illtending to help him, as the Creator has decreed, in order that when this ceremony is over he shall feel well.
Song text:
enyagoya'dagenhaa ne'ho agenna' I I is going to help her this my song
h~n'he ganyo' Ile/j' engadennooden' hen'enhe !] [repeat] hai'yen'. possibly if I shall sing il. myself
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHQUSE-FENTON 23
Text of second member's song:
yohahahi yohahahii:] [4 times]
(yohohohi) hai yenh.
Third member's song:
hotgan ne'ho joegaa'
He's a that raccoon
witch
yowi'inen'en hee heyawinen
yowi'innen'en he'enhe :] hai' yenh.
He has supernatural power, that raccoon.
The next song says, "I never knew that the raccoon was supernatural." Fourth member's song:
hothayonii ha'adakee gahentenshon' hadakee Male wolf runs, on the open fields he runs'
yowi yowii yowl hi i :] hai' yenh.
Beginni11g So'ngs.-There follow two of the four introductory songs of the medicine man, and sometimes these seem to be sung before the period of throwing individual songs. This is called "going toward the end of the song." The speaker says, Da onenh go'hiiya' nengen/ enskaiwayendah'kwa' So now indeed this rests with you gadano/den' nengen ne' skanonniya"gwen'. to 9ing this the medicine dance. da naaye' di" skasawah/kwa' nengen ne' ongwaena' deyenagaenhe'sta'. And moreover it shall commence of this our song (and 11'0 on) to Ibe end at the beginning of tbe song. So now indeed this is up to you to sing this the Medicine Dance. And, moreover, our song shall commence at the beginning and proceed to the very last song. [There shall be no interruptions.] 5) 1) wegondaya we'egondaya'a
wegondaya yoohinen he e
(a) (b) :] hai yenh. 6) 2) gagwegongi' he'ekeyadele'a'a[: wa'aga'anonhsayendondye' a'a':} All my grandchildren's hOUge! stretched out in a row. The song seems to mean, "All my grandchildren's houses extend in a long line." Medicines are grandparents to the people, and the
Co "The male wolf runs, on the meadows he runs." The running wol f theme is a favorite in Iroquois song style. It occurs in the renewal ritual of the Little Water Medicine Society, and in Feather Dance. Another song says, "Male wolf is running the whole length of a wide valley," and still another, "The male wolf is running on the hilltops."
24 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
line of successive houses through which the shamans may pass extends some distance. The Med'icine Dance.-The second or main part of the ritual
(S ide A, 7) is the round dance, the so-called Medicine Dance (ganonyahgwen'). The singers are seated at first for a dozen or more songs, and halfway of the eighteenth song they stand and sing before the benches, and on the twentieth song, the fourth on .this side of the album record, the dance begins. The songs run in pairs.
J) henhe hoj inowa' deyodih-
Bug~ they are
tadyee de'yodih-:]
convc:rsing
he'enhe :] gwa'heeh.
The bugs are conversing.
2) henhe jiistogeli deyodihGr~at white owls are
tadyee de'yodih :]
conversing
he'enhe :J gwa'heeh.
The great white owls are conversing.
These two animals are familiars of the Medicine Society. They hear the songs afar and are conversing. Soon they know that they are invited, and they come.
3) 19) [The animals having arrived, the melody changes, and now the songs of the round dance begin: I gwah ha yowine ga'a'ayo ho ho :J gwa'hceh.
4) 20) [The round dance starts with this song:]
gahiidohon' 8 yowi'ine
Sharp point is moving(?)
[:heyawi'ine yowi'ine he'enhe:l :] gwa' heeh.
5) 35) wa'ginhen'en wa'ginhen'en
I threw it, I threw it
honges ag ahon' on we
it lodged in my mouth 1
wa'ginhen'en wa'ginhen'hen'en :J gwa'h heeh. I tbrew it I thr"ew it.
6) 44) [These are the last two songs of the ceremony:]
yoonenh yoonenh
Now now
6 gahii'dohon', "sharp point," possibly, is an obscure archaic word which is used as a name for the ceremony. It refers to sharp objects which shamans shoot.
7 A dart thrown by one of the magicians has lodged in his own mouth. Either that or one of the other magicians has turned it back on him, for it is stuck in his mouth.
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE-FENTON 25
ondehongoh'ta it [the ceremony] is over yoonenh yoonenh :) [repeat} gwah heee.
now now. yoonenh yoonenh
Now now
ha'degayenda'hnha'
it is hnished
yoonenh yoonenh :] rrepeat] engwah hee engwah hee' onen gwaa hee' [spokell:] galleyos gwanosta' swachina'gen"shon'. The sturn of hal cooled you shamane. cooking down
THE FALSE-FACE COMPANY
An album of Iroquois music would not be complete without a performance of the maskers who impersonate the original medicine men whose portraits have been done in wood by generations of Iroquois carvers. These wooden masks are well-known collectors' items, and the semiannual rounds of the Society of Faces constitute the most conspicuous feature in Iroquois culture.s We will not dwell on masks here, but let Joshua "Billy" Buck illustrate the song repertoire of a typical feast for the False-faces (S ide A, 8.3).
First is the dream song (ganonhwai'wi') or the so-called marching song when the conductor leads the masked company into the longhouse or a private dwelling. This is the same type of song as is sung at the Midwinter Festival for stirring ashes; it is also called "a disorganized mind," and it appeals to the wind spirits which the masks represent. It is said that no wind ever blows when this song is sung, and that singing it will avert a hurricane.
I) guwennode'e yoowige hanoo :1[Repeat ad lib.]
A voice is rising
2) )\ow Simeon Gibson addresses briefly the masked company who have crawled into the longhouse where they eagerly search amid the embers for tobacco from which they have smelled the smoke of invocations. Tobacco is the means of communication between man and the supernaturals; in order to get tobacco the False-faces will cure sickness by blowing hot ashes on people's heads (pI. 7, fig. 2), He tells them to hold, that someone has been appointed to sing for them that they may rejoice with their grandchildrell. On the record Gibson
8 For a discussion of this subject, see "Masked Medicine Societies of the Iroquois," by William N. Fenlon, Ann. Rep. Smithsonian lnst. for 1940, pp. 397-430, 25 pis., 1941.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
speaks so rapidly that the text is much contracted and somewhat shortened. The translation is,
Now right here you stop and listen a little while until we have finished talking, you our grandparents. And now, moreover, one has been appointed to sing your two songs for you that you may rejoice.
The False-faces are very eager and keep up a continual whining and rubbing of rattles on the staves which they carry and they indulge in all sorts of antics to amuse one another and the crowd. While part of this is in the tradition much of it is just fun.
3) Next are the <..lance songs of the common faces, "belonging to the hunchbacks" (hadu'i'ge'ha'), as the Onondagas say. However, some of Billy Buck's songs have Seneca words.
I) hoii hoi hoi
ho'iyehee he'he' he'en he :I [repeatJ hai hai
[Note the moan of the masker, hon'on'on' ....1
2) hoii ongwe'e yonwe heyongwe heyonwe.
Men preeminently men that are genuine
[the Iroquois].
J) yaa'o gagonhsiyohgoowaa
Mask fine and great
he'e he' hen'en'en
hee hogonhsayondii :J
hi! face is smiling.
The great good mask, etc., has a smil ing face, etc.
4) hai hai hai
he'eyooweni
he' he' he'en he
howeni etc.
hai hai hai
5) he'e gahendayen'don'on
I n the scattered clearings
he'e hen' :] hai hai [end]
In the small patches of open fields the False-faces travel from house to house when they are on their rounds of the settlement driving out disease.
4) The songs of the Husk-faces or "Bushy-heads" follow. These are individuals wearing masks of braided corn husks and they are supposed to represent beings who at an early time brought garden seeds to the Iroquois. They have great curing power as well, but they are mutes and their songs have little meaning to modern listeners.
hun' hun' hun' hun'ga'yen' :] hai hal
This word possibly means "snow that is lying about," but even this is doubtful. It is just a song. The last song has the same text, but it IS sung faster, as the Husk-faces dance at great speed around their staves.
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE-FENTON 27
SONGS OF WAR AND PEACE WAR DANCES
Not since 1812 has the longhouse fought a war for its existence, but over the many years Iroquois generations have not forgotten how to dance War Dance. Before they are 6, boys learn to dance to the water drum, and contests are stilt popular among older men of advancing years. I suppose that \Var Dance was performed this year ( 1942) when the Iroquois 0 f New Y or k declared war on the Axi s powers. In fact, the Six Nations have asserted that they never made peace with Germany; in World War I the Six Nations of Canada sent a battalion to the western front. Simeon Gibson was a member of that company and he tells how once in a pub in Aldershot he settled an argument between French and English Canadian soldiers as to whose ancestors were the original inhabitants of Canada, by saying, "Neither of you is the original Canadian. Only we Iroquois were original Canadians. Real Canadians can whoop and dance War Dance like this." The proprietor of the pub liked Gibson's demonstration so much and was so pleased to meet a real Iroquois that he ordered drinks on the house, but he first asked Gibson where he was bivouacked. "You know," said Gibson to me, "that man was a gentleman. When I awoke next morning I was in my bed."
Morgan is the authority for the statement that the Iroquois had derived the War Dance from the Sioux after whom the dance is named Wasaa'se'. The words and music do have a decided flavor of the Plains Indians. However, the Iroquois themselves associate the War Dance which they sometimes call eni"je' with the Sun and Thunder, the patrons of war, to whom, whenever a serious drought threatens to destroy their crops, they burn tobacco and implore the Thunderers to come water the gardens and they beseech the Sun not to wither the growing plants, and then they dance wasaa' se'.
The songs are sung by George and Joshua Buck ..( Side B, 2): George Buck's introductory remarks are in both reservation English and Cayuga. In his own language he says, onen' ne' dnodeno/den' wasaa'se' enjagon' ne' o'nen' enjadisa' Now we two shill! Sinll War Dance of olden time as when they used -swatgwe'ni' j igaa' gon'. to be fiihting in ancient times. Introductory songs: I) weyaweya weheya'a :] [repeat 4 times] (we'e) weya ya'a hawiya weho weheya yaweho weheya hahee wiya' :J [repeat)
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
2) yawe'ho goyaweho weheyaa hahee' :] [repeat]
yawe'ho yawe'ho wihcya'a hahee
goyaweho weheyaa heya :] [repeat]
3) wiyo'a hogine ya'we'hoo :] hahee goya howiya' goya howiya' hahee heya' :] [repeat from start] (he'a hee heya') [on repeat] This third song is the first of the dance songs, and the dancers in turning from side to side assume various postures suggestive of combat, and as they strike these postures they come down on both heels at once in time with the drum. Between dances individual speakers strike the floor for attention. Speakers used to recite war records. The late Chief David Skye once said that hearing War Dance always thrilled him because it recalled to his mind the last war party of the Cayuga in 1812.
THE SO-CALLED SCALPING DANCE: A MODERN SHOW SONG
For a time the Indian show was an integral part of traveling carnivals and medicine shows which annually visited small towns of western New York and Ontario. Going out among the Whites to take part in activities of this sort, which now includes one-night stands at summer camps, commercial adoptions, and lecture tours, is known among the Iroquois by the single term ga'neho, which stands for "show business." Ga'neho seems to be derived from gaonwan', "boat," plus ne'ho, a demonstrative meaning uhere" or "there" depending on the context. Now ga'neho songs are something apart from the songs of the longhouse which are sacred and not to be profaned by commercial use, but show songs apparently include some songs that were formerly associated with more important activities. My Cayuga friends claim that these songs were part of the old Scalp Dance, but that they are now used only by showmen.
The late Chief William Williams of Six Nations Reserve had a troup that accompanied the Cayuga Lacrosse Club on trips, the actors performing between halves of the game. First, a fleeing warrior appears whlle the drum is beating in the distance, and the fugitive is soon followed by a tracker. Next, during the second song another man enters with a paddle as if paddling a boat, whence the name gaonwan' nel/ho, "a boat here" which has led some to call this the hunting or paddling song, and sometimes the canoeist puts the blade of the paddle in a track and sniffs at the end for scent of the fugitive. During the third song the paddler finds the scent and pursues and scalps the fugitive, and finally, the first tracker returns to help the second dispose of the body. This is all done in pantomime.
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE-FENTON 29
I ) howeya wehayo howeya howeya wehayo:] [repeat] wehayahaa :J [repeat whole three times.] 2) heyaho ho'o 0'0 gayowaneho'o heya gayowaneho:J [repeat) hey a gayowaneho:J [3 times, and repeat wholeJ 3) honiya gwanode hanoo:] [4 times and repeat] 4) howajina wehayo howeya howaj ina wehayo:] [repeat] wehayahaa :] [repeat whole 3 times]
THE EAGLE SOCIETY AND THE STRIKING DANCE
Individuals having large birds as familiars, those who have dreamed of large birds (or chickens nowadays), and individuals who have been cured of "eagle sickness," a neurotic complaint of the shoulders, back, and legs, form a society called lithe fan strikers" (hadine'gwa'is), which is a suborder of the medicine company. However, the Eagle Society has a distinct ceremony elaborated around the Eagle or Striking Dance (pI. 8) which is performed in honor of its tutelaries, certain mythical species of giant eagles that wheel in flight high against the sky dome amid clouds. The Seneca call them Dew Eagles or "cloud dwellers" (,o'shada'ge'aa') and attribute to them powers of restoring life to wilting things and to human beings on the very brink of the grave, but among the Cayuga and Onondaga the giant bird is called ha"guks. Among the Iroquois it is believed that the socidy was founded long ago by a certain youth who in a, typical Roc legend was carried off through a hole in the sky to live in the great bird's nest and after a generation away from home he returned to earth astride one of the young birds. The song which he brought back is called "striking a fan song" (gane'gwane' gaena' (Onondaga)) or in Seneca, "shaking a fan" (gane"ondaadon'); and the dance appears to be a survival of the ancient calumet dance with which Father Marquette was first welcomed among the tribes living south of the western Great Lakes. The Iroquois acquired a variant of the calumet ceremony during the eighteenth century, and the Eagle Dance is its descendant. To the accompaniment of the water drum and horn rattles, pairs of youths or men, holding a small gourd rattle in the right hand and a feather calumet fan in the left hand, cro,uch swaying and advance to bend far forward and pick up objects in their mouths and hop from side to side in imitation of birds feeding on the ground. There are still several dancers who can lean over without touching either hand and pick up a coin in their teeth. Near the end of the song, a speaker, usually an older man, strikes a pole to interrupt the song long enough
30 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
to praise his host, or the dancers, or to recite some record of personal achievement or a humorous anecdote. To appease hurt feelings the speaker distributes presents to his victims,
Chief Logan learned these songs from Tom Smoke, a Seneca chief, and his version is very similar to others I have recorded among the Seneca (S ide B, 4).
Introductory remarks: Da onenh go'hiiya' da nengen' engadeno'den' So now indeed therefore this I shall sing nengen' gane'gwa/'e' en'tgahsaawen' tea' diunsawakhkwa'. the 51 riking a fan slarting frOIll the beginning, 1) wahiyoo waahiiyaahaa heya :] [repeat] wahiya wahiya heya, 2) yonohawee yonohawee yonohawe:J [repeat] The dance begins after the first repeat and continues throughout the song,
3) howeya howiyo'0 ah howey a howeyah : ] [repeat 1 howeyo'o howeya howeya yahoweya howiyoah howeya howeya: j (DC]
4) weganawee heyoonen' weganawee heyoonen'en he'yonen' en wiyonen' en 'en :] [repeat J weganawee heyoonen heyoonen wiyonen'en'en:] [DC]
5) goyahahoo goyahawe goyaho'o ganadiyawee:] (rep<!at] goya'ho'o ganadiyawee :] [DCJ
6) hanigondo yooheei hanigondo ya'a hee yoohee hanigondo ya'a he'e'eh :j [DC]
Last song when the dancers lay down the feather fans,
7) yowajine'e gonoodiya'awe :J [repeat 3 times] we'e ya'a hee hya'a heyo'onen' yowajine hahee we'e ya'a hee' ga'anawe wiyo'onen' :] [DC]
Here the dancers lay down their fans and retire.
SOCIAL DANCES THE WARRIORS' STOMP DANCE
This dance which Morgan called the Trotting Dance clearly epitomizes the social history of the eastern Indians. It reaches back from modern Indians in overalls dancing around a stove to speak of old war parties in feathers traveling on expeditions by land and water, and then harps on an ageless theme-a love affair between a young
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONG HOUSE-FENTON 31
warrior and an older woman who is homely and aggressive. The singer makes fun of fleeting affairs and extols the town of his hosts as being full of attractive unmarried women. The pig's curly tail forms the antiphonal of another euphonious song: "A shoat's tail is tied up," which sounds so well in the song that everyone is amused.
Generally speaking, the woodland tribes shared the habit of forming in single file behind a dance leader who sings the initial song to assemble his followers. The song pattern is an antiphonal between the leader and his helper assisted by all the dancers, who gradual1y form a queue behind them. With the second song the dance starts around a fire, which is the men's stove in the modern Iroquois longhouses, and the dancers keep the short jog step of the leader who shuffles forward hardly lifting his toes from the ground. They walk between songs and swing into the step again with each new song. As others join the end of the line the file gradually expands to include the whole room and overlap the leader. Then this is ((Great Stomp Dance" (ga'da'shotgoowa), a pun on Great Feather Dance, as when "Twenty" Jacobs of Coldspring leads the Six Nations meeting at Tonawanda, for everywhere among the children of the longhouse this dance invariably leads off any social dance, be it a "rubbing of antlers," a reception for visiting chiefs; I'pushing off the canoes," a bon voyage party; or a celebration after a wedding.
In their enjoyment of this dance an old chief will sometimes be moved to remind the modern generation of its history. Chief Solon Skye and Jesse Cornplanter of Tonawanda first told me that ga'da'shot is really an Iroquois dance which goes back to the time when a party on the warpath would customarily break camp by stacking their quivers and arms at the fireside and dance around them behind their leader until the party had gathered momentum for the day's run. The various names for the dance in the several dialects refer to the "quiver bearers" or warriors of the Iroquois longhouse. The songs themselves lend credence to the tale for they describe a traveling party of shouting warriors who are wearing feather headdresses and come paddling a canoe. Here the dancers halfway of the song turn toward the fire and side-step and pretend they are paddling a boat.
Such are the songs of Joshua "Billy" Buck: (S ide B, 5);
Leader R~ply
J) wihoo ; wii:] [4 times]
weha ; weha :J
hahe ; hahe :]
ha'a'a ; ha'a'a :] [3 times]
hahe'ya ; haheya :] [3 times]
huii
32 SMlTHSON1AN INSTITUTION
Leader Reply
2) yohaweye'eha'a. ; haheyaweha'a :] [8 times}
huii
3) haye'eha'a'a ; wiyeha'a'a :] [4 times}
wiye'eha.'a'a ; wiyeha'a'a
wiyohawiyeha'a'a ; wiyeha'a'a :] [DC to end of first line)
huii
4) wigayowa'ha'ne'e ; wi'gayowahane :] [repeat 4 times]
yaha a a ha ho ; wigayowahane :]]
huiii
5) hadigawe'.nond ie'e ; henongwe'e :J [5 timesJ
They are paddling tbose Indians
a boat
dagastowada'ake'e ; henongwe'e :] [twice, repeat whole and DC titer are wearlng those ruen • to end of first line]
feather!
huii
6) yohoonondieha j wiyeha'a
yahonondie'cha ; wiyeha'a : J
yowiganonwiyeha' " :] [repeatJ
huii
7) 'tganah6na' 'ohswe'gen' ; yoweh hiya.'a'a
FUled ia Oblweken
dedjodinyaakon'on yoweh hiya'a'a
wl1b divorced women
wegahhanohiiyo yoweh hiya'a'a :] [repeat]
tilled with a-ood·
\oolcingones
wehoononhiiyo ; yoweh hiya'a'a :] [DC and repeat] fine.looklng ones
,onenh'
Now
[End of the dance.]
This last song is a famous composition of Twenty Jacobs of of Quaker Bridge on Allegany Reservation whom Billy heard sing at a Six Nations meeting at Sour Springs Cayuga longhouse on Grand River. Twenty's song goes, 'tganahdna' ohiiyolJ meaning that Ohiiyo', or Allegheny River, his home, is full of good-looking unmarried women. So Billy changed it for local consumption around Ohsweken on Six Nations Reserve. The situation implies there is a certain amount of opportunity for youths to meet new girls when they go visiting to other reservations.
CORN DANCE
The Corn Song or Dance (S ide B, 1) is one 0 f the dances associated with the food spirits, "the sisters our Iiie sustainers/' as the Iroquois call them, and its performance as I observed it at Onondaga
• This is one of the old warpath songs.
SONGS FROM THE IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE-FENTON 33
longhouse on Grand River occurs on the last day of. the Midwinter Festival at a ceremony known as Iisongs of all kinds" (gaena'sUll'ah). The song is an antiphonal between the leader and his assistant who both carry horn rattles which they beat in the palm of the left hand, and my notes say that the dancers form two paralle11ines behind them. AU the dancers who know how join in the refrain. In step it is a stomp dance, and among the Seneca I have observed a single file of dancers as in the preceding dance. Corn Song usually comes toward the end of a program of Seneca social dances. The men commence and the women enter any time. The course of the dance is counterClockwise like other Iroquois dances, but Seneca dance leaders of Corn Dance sometimes wind in and out around benches and the fire in figures, at times even going momentarily clockwise. The dance is sometimes called Bean Dance and its complexity has some association with the growing habits of beans.
These are the songs of George Buck of Lower Cayuga Band ot:I Six Nations Reserve. I) yo'owajinee yoowajine yowajine :] [repeatj yo ho 2) heyowine; weha' :J [repeat] yo ho 3) yodawa' yodawahiyoo ; hai haa:J [repeat] yoo ho 4) yodawa yodawa hiyoo ; haii haa :] [repeat 5 times] yo hoo 5) yonenne gayonenhiiyoo :] [repeat] yo haa' 6) yodaj iya hanewa he'yo' oho yonenne: J weya'a ahe'ehe yonenne haii ha'a'a :] [DC]
WOMEN'S SHUFFLE DANCE
Enough has already been said of mutual aid and societies of singers who go on composing new sets of Women's Shuffle Dance songs. The following group which George and Joshua Buck sing (Side B, 6) are splendid examples of recent composition. The instrumentsJ of course, are the water drum and horn rattle.
I) lead: heya hoo : finis
ganonhayohane ganonhayohane
heya he en ho nohayoo
ganonhayohane heya he en ho
nohayoo ga'enawiya' :] [DC]
2) lead: heya ho' : finis
nonwiyo hehoo haina howe haweyo hane
[ :nonwiyo hehoo haina howe: J
ga'enawiya' :] [DC]
34 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
J) ltad: [heya] yo'o : finis
ganohenyo howiya yohowiyo hinen'en
nonhayo ganohenyo howiya ~inen'en :]
ga'enawiya' :] [DC]
4) lead: [heya yo]: ("sis
yo'o yohowine yohowine
yo'o ho'ohowine yohowine
yo ho hawiya hinen ga'enawiya' :] [DC]
5) lead: [heya hoo]: 6",is
yo'0 heya he en ho'00 heya he ho
hawiyo hinee heya heya ho
hawiya hinen ga'enawiya' :] [DC]
In the Women's Dance (pI. 9, fig. 2), when either the old-time songs for the food spirits or the modern songs are sung, the drummer who is first singer sings the introductory part alone which is once through the whole song, and then his helpers, from 2 to 20, repeat the song vibrating their horn rattles in time with the drummer's double or quadruple time. After the first few introductory songs, the dancers commence dancing when the body of singers join the drummer and they continue dancing to the end of the song. The singers continue song after song, but usually not more than a group of seven or eight songs, which one of the singer's associates, when there are two drummers, will repeat a fter him SO that each song is gone over twice--as long as the dancers appear eager to continue. When the drummer is tired or the women signify their intention of quitting) the drummf:r beats twice to dismiss the dancers.