NELSON] MASKETTES 411 



extends along the surface to the upper end. The chin and a space 

 above the eyes are dark slate in color, spotted with white; the re- 

 mainder is white. The purpose of this niaskette is for use in religious 

 observances, but the exact ceremonies in which it figured were not 

 learned. 



Figure 2, plate cm, is a maskette from lower Kuskokwim river. It 

 measures 6^ by 2f inches, and is a very rudely made siiecimen, repre- 

 senting semihuman features on a long, thin, quadrangular block of 

 wood. The back portion is very slightly concave; the front has a ridge 

 running down the middle, from which a bevel extends to the outer 

 border on the right side. On the left side the surface of the mask is 

 scooped out parallel to this ridge to a depth of half an inch, so that 

 the ridge rises abruptly from the nearly plane surface on that side. By 

 means of a hinge of bark a long, thin, leaf-like tablet is attached to the 

 left side of the face. This little tablet closes like a door upon tbe face, 

 covering it completely to the median ridge on that side. The beveled 

 right side of the face has a crescentie eye with the corners pointing 

 downward, and an ovate hole through the little door on the other side 

 of the face serves as an eye for that side when it is closed. 



The mouth is rudely and irregularly cut near the lower edge of the 

 maskette, having its left corner drawn up and expanded. A notch in 

 the lower end of the door upon that side serves, when it is closed, as a 

 portion of the mouth. The median ridge described serves as the nose. 

 Upon each side thin, flat strips of wood, somewhat quadrate in shape 

 with a rounded projection at their lower end, are attached by fibrous 

 bark and represent earrings. From the middle of the chin is hung, in 

 the same manner by a peg and a small strip of bark, another similarly 

 shaped, flat strip of wood, with the rounded projection on the lower end 

 but with a squared slit extending up and down its middle. This repre- 

 sents a curious form of labret and, from its position, indicates that the 

 face is intended for that of a woman. The general surface of the 

 maskette, including the fronts of the earrings, the labret, and both sides 

 of the small, leaf-like door are painted white. The nostril on the right 

 side is outlined in black. The earrings and labret have their outer 

 surfaces crossed with black lines, and the rounded lower end is black. 

 The inner side of the little door has painted upon it, in black, the out- 

 line of an umiak with the sail up and a solitary human figure in the 

 stern with the arms upraised. The portion of the maskette covered by 

 this leaflet has rudely drawn upon it, in black, four semihuman faces 

 representing mythical beings. Three feathers of the horned owl are 

 stuck along the upper edge. The meaning of this object is unknown. 



Figure 3, plate cm, from the lower Kuskokwim, is a thin disk, 3^ inches 

 in diameter, with the "back concavely excavated and the front having a 

 raised ridge slightly within the border, inside of which is a circular face 

 with a distorted semihuman appearance. From the rim mentioned it is 

 beveled both outwardly and inwardly, the inner beveled portion border- 



