370 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



The more southern Eskimo of Alaska are in the habit of using in 

 their dances very elaborate and highly ornamented and painted masks, 

 of which the National Museum possesses a very large collection. The 

 ancient Aleuts also used masks. 1 On the other hand, no other Eski 

 mo, save those of Alaska, ever use masks in their performances, as far 

 as I can learn, with the solitary exception of the peoples of Baffin Land, 

 where a mask of the hide of the bearded seal is worn on certain occa 

 sions. 2 Nordenskiold saw one wooden mask among the people near the 

 Vctja x winter quarters, but learned that this had been brought from 

 Bering Strait, and probably from America. 1 



The masks appear to become more numerous and more elaborate the 

 nearer we get to the part of Alaska inhabited by the Indians of the 

 T linket stock, who, as is well known employ, in their ceremonies re 

 markably elaborate wooden masks and headdresses. It may be sug 

 gested that this custom of using masks came from the influence of 

 these Indians, reaching in the simple form already described as far as 

 Point Barrow, but not beyond. 4 With these masks was worn a gorget 

 or breast-plate, consisting of a half-moon shaped piece of board about 

 IS inches long, painted with rude figures of men and animals, and 

 slung about the neck. We brought home three of these gorgets, all 

 old and weathered. 



No. 89818 [1132], Fig. 372, has been selected as the type of the gor 

 get (sukimuii). It is made of spruce, is 18-5 inches long, and has two 

 beckets of stout sinew braid, one to go round the neck and the other 

 round the body under the wearer s arms. The figures are all painted 

 on the front face. In the middle is a man painted with red ocher; all 

 the rest of the figures are black and probably painted with soot. The 

 man with his arms outstretched standson a large whale, represented as 

 spouting. lie holds a small whale in each hand. At his right is a small 

 cross-shaped object which perhaps represents a bird, then a man facing 

 toward the left and darting a harpoon with both hands, and a bear 

 facing to the left. On the left of the red man are two umiaks with five 

 men in each, a whale nearly effaced, and three of the cross-shaped ob 

 jects already mentioned. Below them, also, freshly drawn with a hard, 

 blunt lead pencil or the point of a bullet, are a whale, an umiak, and a 

 three-cornered object the nature of which I can not make out. 



Fig. 312h (No. 50493 [2&amp;lt;!(&amp;gt;] from Utkiavwm) is a similar gorget, which 

 has evidently been long exposed to the weather, perhaps at the ceme 

 tery, as the figures are all effaced except in the middle, where it was 

 probably covered by a mask as in Fig. 307 (No. 89817 [855] from the 

 same village). There seems to have been a red border on the serrated 

 edge. In the middle is the same red man as before standing on the 



Sec Ball, Alaska, p. 389, and contributions to N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 90. 



2 Sec Kuinlien. Contributions, p. 43. Kunilien says merely &quot;a mask of Hkins.&quot; Dr. Boas is my au- 

 tbority for the statement that the skin of the bearded seal is used. 



3 Vega. vol. 2, p. 21. 



4 See also Dall s paper in the Third Annual Keport of the liureau of Ethnology, pp. 07 2M, where 

 the subject of mask-wearing is very thoroughly discussed in its most important relations 



