NELSON] 



CEREMONIAL WANDS 



415 



head of a small hair seal, with a slender rod about 9 inches in length, 

 projecting from the mouth and turning upward, hav 

 ing fastened along its length at regular intervals five 

 flat wooden disks about an inch and a half in diame 

 ter, representing bubbles rising on the surface of the 

 water. The seal s face is painted white, with black 

 dots on the muzzle for the whiskers, and the eyes and 

 nostrils are outlined in black. The inside of the mouth 

 is painted red and the top of head light blue. This 

 maskoid is M inches in diameter, and has the posterior 

 side excavated. 



Number 33025 is a woman s finger mask, from Chalit- 

 nuit, south of the Yukon delta. It is a rounded wooden 

 ring, with a wooden disk in the center, held in position 

 by four small, spoke-like attachments from the outer 

 ring. This wooden disk has upon one surface two 

 incised eyes and a down-curved, crescentic mouth. 

 Upon the other surface it has a grotesque mouth twist 

 ed far to one side, with a small wooden peg to repre 

 sent an eye and a small, deep hole for the single nostril. 

 A strip of reindeer skin, with long, upstanding hair, 

 is fastened in a groove extending around the edge of 

 the outer ring. This is used by women during cere 

 monial dances; its meaning is unknown. 



OTHER CEREMOXIAIj OBJECTS 



In addition to the masks various other articles 

 of personal adornment are used during ceremonial 

 dances. Among these may specially be noted the 

 feathered wands used by women and the fillets worn 

 about the head by both men and women. At Cape 

 Nome, on the northern shore of Norton sound,.! ob 

 tained several specimens of wands made from the 

 quill-feathers of eagles, each of which consists of a 

 single primary feather with a short wooden rod thrust 

 into the truncated quill and held in place by a lashing 

 of sinew. At the tip of the feather are lashed two or 

 three downy plumes from the eagle. 



On the coast of Bering sea from Norton bay south to 

 the Kuskokwim somewhat similar wands were in use. 

 On the lower Yukon and thence southward these 

 w^nds are made by lashing an eagle quill-feather 

 along the length of a slender rod, having fastened at 

 its upper end two or three bare quills several inches in 

 length, with downy plumes attached to the ends, like Fl - 143 ~ Ea s le - 

 that shown in figure 142, from Eazbinsky. About the 



