'^°No°74f*^' IROQUOIS MASKS AT ONONDAGA — ^HENDRY 393 



most part, however, he worked on his lap or braced the piece against 

 his chest. 



Still using his knife, he marked a rectangular area on the back and 

 started to splinter out the wood in long strips. On a large mask he 

 would have drilled holes 3 or 4 inches deep along the lines he had drawn 

 and employed a chisel for the hollowing process. After making a 

 depression of about half an inch in the back, he drilled the eyes and 

 mouth from the front, again placing the mask on the log and holding 

 it steady with his knee. He then worked alternately on the back and 

 the front, giving special attention to the eyes, and remarked, "I 

 never made eyes like this before." By this time all the forms were 

 fairly well defined except the mouth, which had been neglected and 

 which he said was the hardest thing to do because it was apt to split. 

 If it is only a small split it can be glued or filled with plastic wood, but 

 if too large it spoils the mask. In fact, when he did get around to the 

 mouth, a small portion of the lower lip broke off. Before repairing the 

 damage, he went to work with a file, cutting two grooves above the 

 eyebrows, widening the eyes, and rounding off the sharp edges of all 

 the features. The chip from the mouth was then glued back into place 

 and the mask was set aside for the night, as Thomas said he could do 

 nothing more untU the glue had dried. 



When I arrived the next morning, he was already at work again, 

 hollowing the back and refining the forms with knives and files. Even 

 after he began to sandpaper, which is the final process, he kept return- 

 ing to these tools to clarify details and define the features more 

 sharply. He used sandpaper wound around a small screwdriver to 

 smooth the inside of the mouth and the eyes to which he again re- 

 ferred. "He's got goggles. I never made them like this." He finished 

 the inside of the mask as he would have a large one, filing the edges 

 of the back to even them off and going carefully over all the rough 

 spots with sandpaper. He did not take equal pains with the sides of 

 the carving, however, explaining that "You don't have to work real 

 good on the sides because you use hair." When he came to paint, 

 he used a bright red enamel for the main color, accentuating the eyes 

 with white and the brows with black. The horsehair could not be 

 put on until the mask had dried, but he had prepared two little 

 strands and showed me how they were to be fastened to the top with 

 tacks. 



The finished product was about 6 inches high, a variation on the 

 crooked-mouth type of false face with round eyes and all the features 

 somewhat flattened (pi. 104). Thomas was quite proud of it, saying 

 that he was going to make a large one like it in basswood which he far 

 preferred to cedar. I believe it was the eyes that particularly pleased 

 him, as he felt they were unusual. Actually, round eyes are as com- 



