THE KWAKIUTL INDIANS. 



491 



Fig.] 37. 



MASKS OF WASP DANCER. 



Height, 61 inches; blue, bhick, red. 



I\' A, Nos. 4-22 and 42.3, Royal EthnographL-al Museui 

 Berlin. Collected by A. .Tai-obseii. 



Ill some (lances the bead of the dancer is cut off, and the person who 

 cuts it shows a carved human head bearing the expression of death, 

 which he holds by its hair. These heads are as nearly portraits of the 

 dancer as the art of the carver will permit 

 (tigs. 153, 154, pp. 503, 501). 



Sometimes the t'o'X'uit is burnt. A 

 box which has a double bottom is i)re- 

 pared for this performance. The dancer 

 lies down flat in the rear of the house and 

 tlie box is laid down sideways, so that 

 she may be pushed into it from behind. 

 At the place where she is lying down a 

 pit is dug, in which she hides, while being 

 concealed from the view of the people by 

 the box which stands in front of her. After the pit has been covered 

 again, the box is raised, closed, and thrown into the fire. Before the 

 box is brought in, a skeleton has been put between its two bottoms. 

 ^Vhile the box is burning, the song of the dancer is heard coming from 

 the fire. From the pit in which she hides a speaking tube of kelp is laid 

 under the fioor to the fireplace, and through it she sings. When the fire 

 has died doAvn, the charred bones are found in the ashes. They are col- 

 lected, laid on a new mat, and for 

 four days the people sing oA^er 

 them. The mat is so placed that 

 it lies over the mouth of another 

 speaking tube. Tlie shaman tries 

 to resuscitate her, and after four 

 days a voice is heard coming forth 

 from the bones. Then they are 

 covered with a mat. The woman 

 crawls up from out of a ditch, 

 into which the bones are thrown, 

 while she lies down in their place. 

 She begins to move, and when 

 the mat is removed, she is seen 

 to have returned to life. In 

 many of these dances, after the 

 performer has been killed, tlie 

 d'E'ntsiq (Plate 39 and fig. 155)-' 

 arises from under ground. It 

 consists of a series of flat, carved 

 ^- ""•"'• boards connected on their nar- 



row sides by plugs which pass through rings of sin-uce root or through 

 tubes cut out of cedar. The joiuts are somewhat loose, so that the whole 

 can be given an undulating motion forward and backward. It has two 



^.^A 



Pig. 138, 



MASK OF qO'LOC. 



Length, 14 inches. 



IV A, No. 6894, Royal Ethnographical Museum 



Rerlin. Collected by 



Page 506. 



