BY RONALD HAMLYN-HARRIS. a1 
that if women were to look upon any of the Semese they 
are expected to die. The frame work consists entirely of 
lohia-cane bent and shaped approximating the finished 
articles. A fabric prepared from the ilimo (paper grass 
trees) is then dried and stretched across the entire surface 
and the two sides of the frame. Small dry, stringy-like 
pieces of creeper are then sewn into the fabric imitating 
the design described above and shown in the picture. When 
this is completed the peripheral feathers are added and 
a chief and colour-man finish the mask off with various 
colours. 
The Semese ceremony lasts from about 14 to 2C days 
during which period the visitors and performers partake 
of much food in the form of pig, taro, sago, sweet potatoes, 
betel-nut. ete. The persons carrying the masks trot about 
the village for periods of an hour or so and then rest for 
half an hour. The final performance of the Semese is when 
all the performers trot about very rapidly round every 
house or any object which during the last year or so has been 
responsible for the death of one of their own members, or 
anything that the native mind considers to be unclean 
or evil; by this means they collect all the evil spirits and 
dump the masks in a heap and burn them up and, meta- 
phorically, the evil spirits with them. After a period of 
eighteen months or two years they commence to re-build 
the masks for the same purpose. 
At certain intervals in the Semese ceremonies the 
women take part and only at this period are they allowed 
to look upon the large masks. The women wear masks 
of entirely a different nature, being only two or three feet 
high and consisting largely of feathers from the cockatoo 
and Bird of Paradise. These masks are mitre-shaped 
with an internal decoration similar to the large masks. 
This ceremony is illustrated in plate 2. The movements 
are also different, the women, who wear large rami, dance 
gracefully in a circle swinging the rami with each movement. 
This part of the ceremony lasts about five hours and takes 
place every other day during the Semese ceremony. 
Plate 3 gives us a closer view of the Semese masks 
and their mouth-pieces. 
