ISyo.] ^»*-L [dishing. 



mood changes, his face changes ; and thej' reason that vice versa accord- 

 ing as his face is clianged liis mood must necessarily change. Further, 

 they believe that not only according as his face changes so does his 

 mood change, but also that his traits or his entire character may, for the 

 time being be changed, by wholly altering, with paint or other marking, 

 with mask or other disguise, the entire expression of his countenance or 

 aspect. Just as a wrathful warrior, with glaring eye and drawn mouth, 

 and alert or deliant attitude, resembles to some extent a mountain lion 

 or a panther at bay, so by the painting upon his face and upon other 

 portions of his person of the characteristic markings of the panther, he 

 may be made to assume still more fully the nature of the panther. 



Xow when we reflect that the peoples who reason thus are also in a 

 totemic phase of development sociologically — largely because they do 

 reason thus — that they are inclined, each according to his tutelary deity 

 or the totem of his clan, to emulate the animal (or supposedly living 

 plant or thing) that is his clan totem, in both behavior and appearance 

 so far as possible — in order to become so far as possible incarnated with 

 his spirit — we find one of the many reasons he has for painting his 

 face with the aspect, or face marks, of some special animal. Moreover, in 

 this reasoning may be found a primal explanation for his supposition 

 that by putting on a mask he can more utterly change for the time 

 being ; can even change his totem or relationship ; can become, to quote 

 rom the Zunis, "That which he thirsts to become," or "Desirously 

 needs to become, what tho' a God," strictly according to the expres- 

 sion (and name) or aspect, of the mask he makes and marks and puts on. 

 Thereby, it is believed that so far as he resembles in facial aspect or ex- 

 pression one kind of being or animal or another kind of being or ani- 

 mal, he will become that being or animal, or at least, be possessed by its 

 spirit. 



Nothing short of a full treatise on this primitive philosophy of analogy, 

 and the relation thereto of maskology or disguise by costuming, paint- 

 ing, tattooing, bodily distortion or mutilation and the like, as a means 

 of becoming actually incarnated with the spirits of ancestors, mythic 

 beings, and animals, or totem gods, would fully explain the significance 

 of the bunched animal figureheads and animistically painted human 

 masks that we found. I may add, however, that one can see how far 

 reaching was this primitive conception of the life-potency of form, or 

 expression, by examining any sorts of ancient vessels that are decorated 

 with maskoids or diminutive representations of human or semihuman 

 countenances. Almost always these maskoids — whether found on 

 mound-builder vessel, Central American jar, ancient Peruvian vase, or 

 even Etruscan urn — are characteristic, according to the style of expres- 

 sion they represent, of some particular kind or use of the vessel they oc- 

 cur on. They have often, indeed, been described as grotesques, carica- 

 tures and the like, usually without any farther explanation ; yet the ab- 

 sence of a humorous conception or intent in their portrayal is demon- 



