368 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



ill having the outer corners of the eyes rather depressed, and in ad 

 dition to the moustache and imperial has a broad &quot;whaleman s mark&quot; 

 drawn with black lead across the eyes. It is grooved round the edge 

 for fastening on a hood. The lower part of the face has been split off 

 at the corners of the mouth and mended on with two stitches of whale 

 bone, and a piece which was broken out at the left-hand corner of the 

 mouth is secured by a wooden peg at the inner edge and a stitch of 

 whalebcne on the lower side. This mask has been for a long time 

 fastened to an ornamented wooden gorget, and appeared to have been 

 exposed to the weather, perhaps at the cemetery. The string is made 

 of unusually stout sinew braid. 



The remaining four ancient human masks are all masculine, and only 

 one has any indication of labrets. On this mask, No. 80812 [10(53], 

 there are two small holes in the position of the labrets. It is probable 

 that the wearers of these masks are supposed to represent the ancient 

 Eskimo, who wore no labrets. A mask which was carelessly made for 

 sale (No. 89814 [105&amp;lt;i] from tltkiavwm), however, has large plug-labrets 

 carved out. Though roughly carved this mask 

 is a very characteristic Eskimo face, and would 

 almost pass as the portrait of a man of our 

 acquaintance in Iltkiavwin. The two little 

 roughly carved human faces on the top of 

 this mask are probably merely for ornament. 

 No such things are to be seen on any of the 

 old masks which have been actually used. 

 This mask seems to have been whittled out of 

 the bottom of an old meat tray, and has a 

 string of whalebone. Most of the genuine 

 masks are of excellent workmanship, but two 

 FIG. 368._oid grotesque masi:. are quite roughly carve d. One of these espe 

 cially is such a bungling piece of work that it would be set down as 

 commercial were it not weathered and evidently old. The painting 

 never goes farther than marking out the beard and eyebrows with soot 

 or black lead, and sometimes reddening the cheeks with ocher. Fig. 

 368 (No. 898KJ [1583] from Utkiavwin) is a very old mask of cotton- 

 wood, blackened with age and so rudely carved that the work was prob 

 ably done with a stone tool. It is grooved around the edge for fastening 

 on a hood and is (5-8 inches long. 



The only female human masks seen are new and made for sale. One 

 of these (No. 89819 [1057], Fig. 3G9, from Utkiavwin) is roughly whittled 

 from the bottom of an old meat tray, and has the hair, eyebrows, and 

 a single line of tattooing on the chin painted with soot. It is 8-7 inches 

 long and has strings of whalebone. 



Another (No. 56498 [73] from CJtkiavwtn) is about the size of the 

 common masks and tolerably well made. It has the hair and eyebrows 

 marked with black lead. The last is a foot long, and like the one fig- 



