NELSO.V] MASKS 399 



black, and the circle about each nostril is of the same color; the 

 interior of the nostrils and the line following the outline of the eye 

 brows are bluish slate color. The animal face resting above this is also 

 colored bluish slate, with the mouth painted red. The front of the pro 

 jection above is white, the groove being red, as is also the entire face 

 of the small head at the top; the hoop surrounding the border of the 

 mask is also red. The meaning of this mask is unknown, but I Avould 

 call attention to its general similarity to the composite masks and 

 carvings made among the Tlinket of southern Alaska. 



The mask (number 38850) from Sabotuisky is SJ by C inches, and rep 

 resents a grotesque human countenance. It is oval and deeply exca 

 vated behind. Upon the sides are curved ridges iu relief to represent 

 ears; the nose is a rounded, triangular piece fastened by two wooden 

 pegs; the eyes and mouth are pierced through the mask, the latter 

 being bordered by a row of reindeer teeth above and below. The face 

 is painted bright red and bordered by a baud of reindeer skin with 

 long hair. It is one of the few masks procured that approaches closely 

 to an ordinary human countenance. Its significance was not learned. 



Plate XCVTII shows a huge mask, cut from a slab of wood, nearly 2 

 feet high by 13 inches across, convex on its front and squared in out 

 line, roughly excavated in the back with three projecting lugs for 

 holding the mask in place against the chin and the sides of the face. 

 It represents a gigantic face, with large, rounded blocks of wood for 

 labrets just below the corners of the cresceutic mouth. Above these 

 and joining the crescentic mouth on each side projects a flat, paddle- 

 like piece of wood representing a human hand and arm, the former 

 pierced by a large, round hole. Just back of these hands, and fast 

 ened up and down along the side of the mask but separated from it 

 by about two inches, are two thin, flat strips of wood about two and a 

 half inches wide, held in place by pegs in the sides of the mask and 

 in the arms. These strips have feathers along their outer edges as 

 ornaments, as has also the squared top of the mask. The mouth is 

 very large, somewhat crescentic in shape, with the corners upturned 

 and extending out along the arms, nearly to the wrists. The nose 

 is large and rounded, with two large, round nostrils, and the eyes, 

 like the nostrils, are pierced through the wood; the brow is very 

 overhanging, and has a row of flat, oval, pointed wooden pegs along 

 its edge to represent eyebrows. In the forehead is cut a square hole 

 a little over two and a half inches in diameter. Below the upper lip 

 there is a row of square, flat wooden pegs along its edge to indicate 

 teeth, matching a similar set in the lower jaw; teeth, both upper and 

 under, are also represented in the portion of the mouth extending along 

 the arms. 



On the brow of the mask are the wooden images of five seals and 

 two reindeer. The sides have a row of squared wooden pegs, repre 

 senting teeth, up and down along its length above the arms, and another 



