MURDOCH.] 



MASKS. 



367 



performance in which they were used. Some of them are of undoubted 

 age. No. 50499 [0] (Fig. 300) has been selected as the type of these masks, 

 (ki nau, from ki na, face). This is a rather good representation of a male 

 human face, 8-8 inches long and 5-8 wide. It is quite smoothly carved 

 out of cotton wood, and theback is neatly hollowed out, being more deeply 

 excavated round the eyes and mouth and inside of the nose. The 

 mouth is represented as wide open, showing the tip of the tongue at 

 tached to the underlip, and has six small teeth which look like dog s 

 incisors inserted in a row in the middle of the upper lip. The eye 

 brows and moustache are marked out with blacklead, and there are 

 traces of red ocher on the cheeks. The, holes for the strings are in the 

 edge about on a level with the eyes. One end of a string of seal thong 

 long enough to go around the wearer s head is passed out through the 

 hole on the right side, slit close to the tip, and the other end passed 

 through this. The other end is passed out through the hole on the left 



Flo. 367. Wooden mask and dancing gorget. 



and made fast with two half hitches. A row of small holes round the 

 edge of the mask shows where a hood has been tacked on. This mask 

 is rather old and somewhat soiled. 



A very old weathered mask (No. 50497 [235] from Utkiavwiii), 7-8 

 inches long, and made of soft wood, apparently pine, is similar to 

 the preceding, but has no tongue, and the teetli in both jaws are rep 

 resented as a continuous ridge. It has an &quot;imperial&quot; as well as a 

 moustache, marked with blacklead like the eyebrows. The cheeks 

 are colored with red ocher. The edge is much gapped and broken, 

 but shows the remains of a deep narrow groove running round on the 

 outside about | inch from the edge, and pierced with small holes for 

 fastening on a hood. 



Figure 307 (No. 89817 [850] also from Utkiavwin) is a mask much 

 like the preceding, 7-5 inches long, and made of spruce. It is peculiar 



