Cushing.] *^*^*5 |-Xov. G, 



Masks and Figureheads. 



To me, the remains that were most significant of all discovered bj' us in 

 the depths of the muck, were the carved and painted wooden masks 

 and animal figureheads. The masks were exceptionality well modeled, 

 usually in realistic representation of human features, and were life- 

 size ; hollowed to fit the face, and provided at either side, both above 

 and below, with string-holes for attachment thereto. Some of them 

 were also bored at intervals along the top, for the insertion of feathers or 

 other ornaments, and others were accompanied by thick, gleaming 

 white conch-shell eyes (as in Fig. 2, PI. XXXIII) that could be inserted 

 or removed at will, and which were concave — like the hollowed and 

 polished eye-pupils in the carving of the mountain-lion god — to in- 

 crease their gleam. Of these masks we found fourteen or fifteen fairly 

 well-preserved sitecimens, besides numerous others which were so 

 decayed that, although not lost to study, they could not be recovered. 

 The animal figureheads, as I have called them, were somewhat sm-aller 

 than the heads of the creatures they represented. Nearly all of them 

 were formed in parts ; that is, the head and face of each was carved 

 from a single block ; while the ears and other accessor}^ parts, and, in 

 case of the representation of birds, the wings, were formed from sepa- 

 rate pieces. Among these animal figureheads were those of the snouted 

 leather-back turtle, the alligator, the pelican, the fish-hawk and the owl ; 

 the wolf, the wild-cat, the bear and the deer. But curiously enough, the 

 human masks and these animal figureheads were associated in the finds, 

 and b}^ a study of the conventional decorations or painted designs upon 

 them, they were found to be also very closely related symbolically, as 

 though for use together in dramaturgic dances or ceremonials. On one 

 or two occasions I found the masks and figureheads actually bunched, just 

 as they would have been had they thus pertained to a single ceremonial 

 and had been put away when not in use, tied or suspended together. 

 In case of the animal figureheads the movable parts, such as the ears, 

 wings, legs, etc., had in some instances been laid beside the representa 

 tions of the faces and heads and wrapi)ed up with them. We found two 

 of these figureheads — those of the wolf and deer — thus carefully wrapped 

 in bark matting, but we could neither preserve this wiapping, nor the 

 strips of palmetto leaves or flags that formed an inner swathing around 

 them. The occurrence of these animal figureheads in juxtaposition 

 to the human masks which had so evidently been used ceremo- 

 nially in connection with them, was most fortunate ; for it enabled 

 me to recognize, in several instances, the true meaning of the face- 

 paint designs on the human masks thus associated with these animal 

 figures. I cannot attempt to fully describe the entire series, but must 

 content myself with reference only to a few of the more typical of them. 



Near the northernnuist shell bench, in Section 20 of the plan shown 

 on PI. XXXI, was found, carefully bundled up. as I liave said, the 



