New Guinea Masks 9 



were among the spectators. This continued for ten 

 minutes or more. The woman would come out and 

 talk excitedly for some time, stamping the ground 

 with her foot and swinging her arms, and then the 

 men, one or both, would answer, running around the 

 dancers in an excited manner. I was told the woman 

 was scolding the men for killing so many pigs and 

 using up so much taro. She said they had already 

 had enough, and should not kill any more pigs. Short- 

 ly after a man came with a bunch of bananas and 

 made an excited speech while he ran around the pro- 

 cession and beat the bunch on the ground, scattering 

 the bananas in all directions. This was apparently an 

 offering to the masks. 



The ceremonies closed on the evening of the fifth 

 day. After a short performance about 3:30 to 4:30 

 p. m., the masks returned to the enclosure. Then all 

 the women and children disappeared from the village. 

 After ten or fifteen minutes the shell trumpets were 

 heard giving a peculiar wailing sound, and the pro- 

 cession again came out and proceeded with trumpets 

 to the end of the village. Here they stopped, and the 

 trumpets proceeded on slowly down to the lagoon. 

 Meanwhile, a number of men with spears took their 

 places near the masks, and at a certain signal the 

 spears were thrown into the masks which were then 

 thrown down ("killing the masks," so they said). 

 The men declined to give any further information. 

 The trumpets gradually got weaker, to make the 

 women and children think the tamburans ("spirits") 

 were going back to their house in the lagoon, so my in- 

 terpreter said. The masks were then immediately dis- 

 mantled, and the feathers and ornaments put away 

 for future use. The frame was destroyed, so that 

 no sign of the masks remained anywhere to be seen. 

 I left before this was quite completed, and, as I passed 

 the enclosure, there was still one man blowing away 

 on a shell trumpet. No woman or child was to be seen 

 anywhere near the village. 



Ar.i-.ERT B. Lewis. 



[9] 



