222 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. IV. 



The masks'were used only by mimics accompanying by grotesque gestures and jerkings of the 

 head the dance of a privileged few ; but the rattles served a double purpose : they did service in 

 connection with a notable's dance, being then held in the hand by the dancing personage himself, 

 and also as an accompaniment to the incantations of the tPy^n or shaman. No ceremonial masks 

 of genuinely Dene make are now available for illustration : but such objects are, even at the 

 present day, so common among the natives of the Pacific Coast that they hardly need any descrip- 

 tion. It may suffice to refer the reader unacquainted with North American aboriginal parapher- 

 nalia to the plates or figures illustrating. . . . 



Page i8i — After "their occult art" insert : — Let me add that some of these head-dresses, 

 while retaining the name of cyas-krei, were composed of beaver-teeth, sometimes daubed with 

 red ochre. One such specimen recently came into my possession which lacks the double row of 

 dentalium shells usual with crowns made of real bear's claws. 



