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The model of a ship with a mat sail in Case VI. represents, the 

 kind of boat used for traffic between the numerous islands of the 

 Maldive group. The models in Case VIII. were presented by the 

 Sultan of the Maldives, and do not include a copy of the typical 

 Maldivian buggalow, which is built on characteristic lines unlike 

 anything shown in these cases. In Case VIII. there are two finely 

 lacquered drums, spears, and musical instruments. In Case VI. 

 the chess boards, spilliliug' tops, stands for lace pillows. Nautilus 

 shell spoons, weighing scales, and nautical instruments are 

 among the more noteworthy objects exhibited. 



The lac employed in decorating the fancy boxes, dish covers, 

 drums, sticks, spears, and stands is imported into the Maldives from 

 India. The patterns into which it is worked, as well as the designs 

 followed in wood and stone carving (see below, Maldivian 

 Tombstones), appear to be exclusively Maldivian. 



Many of the objects in Case VI. were presented by H. C. P. Bell, 

 Esq., C.C.S., Archaeological Commissioner. The rest formed part 

 of. a collection of Maldivian articles exhibited at the World's 

 Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, and were presented 

 by Sultan Ibrahim Noorudin Iskander, Sultan of the Maldives 

 from 1882 to 1893. 



Masks aud Musical Instruments. — Masks are used in plays, 

 masquerades, and devil-dancing. Their invention is attributed to 

 the god of curiosities. Those representing various diseases are 

 said to be employed by devil-dancers to exercise the devils who 

 occasion the sickness. Their construction appears to be based 

 upon the principle of eradicating disease from the system by the 

 homoeopathic method of counterfeit presentments. 



In spite of their grotesque character and of the fact that they can 

 be made to order at the present day, these masks possess a profound 

 interest as affording a clue to the origin of the ancient masks used 

 in the Greek plays. The Oriental masks of the demons have been 

 regarded as the prototypes of the Birds of Aristophanes, the 

 Giants of Pollux, and the frightful forms of Lucian [Dpham]. 

 "The mask is the type of the Metempsychosis, the great pivot of 

 Oriental doctrine, exhibiting to the spectator, scenically, the 

 changes and forms which in different stages of mundane existence 



attach to the vital principle." " Had masks originated with 



the Greeks, it is fair to conclude that, instead of such frightful 

 specimens which abound in every museum, they would have given 

 the human form as they have beautifully embodied it in their 

 painting and sculpture ; hence the physiognomical character of the 

 masks may be said to decide their origin and locality to the East" 

 [Upham], 



