372 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 191 



to the striking parallels between the stylistic features and the motor 

 behavior of the dancers on the one hand, and the illnesses of face and 

 body which the rituals seek to relieve. 



European contact had an influence on style, if for no other reason 

 than that the introduction of metal tools revolutionized carving tech- 

 niques. The exact nature of the changes which followed, or how 

 quickly they took place, cannot be described, since there are no 

 accounts of masks before 1678, some 80 years after contact had been 

 established. It may be assumed that the carvings became more 

 ornate and detailed, that the workmanship became more finished, 

 and that many new types, previously too difficult to attempt with 

 the old methods of charring and scraping, were developed.'^ Spoon- 

 lipped masks and those with widely flaring mouths may be examples 

 of such innovations. As better tools made woodcarving less arduous 

 and time consuming, more people may have engaged in maskmaking, 

 which would be another factor in expanding the range of variability. 

 New and more spectacular effects were also achieved through the 

 use of new materials. Buffalo manes and braided cornhusks which 

 had served as hair were replaced by long horsetails, eyes were rimmed 

 with sheet metal instead of clamshells, and bright commercial paints 

 were substituted for earth pigments. 



During the last two centuries the majority of false faces have under- 

 gone few fundamental changes, although the trend toward diversifi- 

 cation and the adoption of new forms has continued. Some 

 innovations seem to have been inspired by western rather than native 

 concepts, such as the horned masks devised by a Seneca artist in 

 1900 which have a diabolical appearance and may, according to 

 Fenton, be caricatures of White gods. Very modern types include 

 representations of Felix the Cat, Mickey Mouse, and Charlie Chaplin 

 that have been added to the Beggar class, while masks with cigars 

 in their mouths are among those made professionally and offered for 

 sale at Cattaraugus. False faces of this type are relatively rare, 

 however, as compared with the number carved according to the old 

 patterns. In the latter, the basic features, the proportions, and the 

 treatment of details combine to produce an effect differing little from 

 that described by John Bartram in 1743. 



We were entertained by a very comical fellow in as odd a dress as Indian 

 folly could devise. He had on a clumsy vizard of wood, coloured black with a 

 nose four or five inches long, a grinning mouth set awry furnished with long teeth, 

 round the eyes circles of bright brass, surrounded by larger circles of white paint, 

 from his forehead hung long tresses of buffalo hair, and from the catch part of 

 his head ropes made of plaited husks of Indian corn .... In my whim I saw 

 another vizard of this kind hung by the side of one of their cabins in another 

 town. [Bartram, 1751, pp. 43-44.] 



u The introduction of metal tools had essentially this effect on woodcarving of the Northwest Coast. 



