NELSON] MASKS 399 
black, and the circle about each nostril is of the same color; the 
interior of the nostrils and the line following the outline of the eye- 
brows are bluish slate color. The animal face resting above this is also 
colored bluish slate, with the mouth paintedred. The front of the pro- 
jection above is white, the groove being red, as is also the entire face 
of the small head at the top; the hoop surrounding the border of the 
mask is also red. The meaning of this mask is unknown, but I would 
call attention to its general similarity to the composite masks and 
carvings made among the Tlinket of southern Alaska. 
The mask (number 35856) from Sabotnisky is 8$ by 6 inches, and rep- 
resents a grotesque human countenance. It is oval and deeply exca- 
vated behind. Upon the sides are curved ridges in relief to represent 
ears; the nose is a rounded, triangular piece fastened by two wooden 
pegs; the eyes and mouth are pierced through the mask, the latter 
being bordered by a row of reindeer teeth above and below. The face 
is painted bright red and bordered by a band of reindeer skin with 
long hair. It is one of the few masks procured that approaches closely 
to an ordinary human countenance. Its significance was not learned. 
Plate xcvyu shows a huge mask, cut from a slab of wood, nearly 2 
feet high by 13 inches across, convex on its front and squared in out- 
line, roughly excavated in the back with three projecting lugs for 
holding the mask in place against the chin and the sides of the face. 
It represents a gigantic face, with large, rounded blocks of wood for 
labrets just below the corners of the crescentic mouth. Above these 
and joining the crescentic mouth on each side projects a flat, paddle- 
like piece of wood representing a human hand and arm, the, former 
pierced by a large, round hole. Just back of these hands, and fast- 
ened up and down along the side of the mask but separated from it 
by about two inches, are two thin, flat strips of wood about two anda 
half inches wide, held in place by pegs in the sides of the mask and 
in the arms. These strips have feathers along their outer edges as 
ornaments, as has also the squared top of the mask. The mouth is 
very large, somewhat crescentic in shape, with the corners upturned 
and extending out along the arms, nearly to the wrists. The nose 
is large and rounded, with two large, round nostrils, and the eyes, 
like the nostrils, are pierced through the wood; the brow is very 
overhanging, and has a row of flat, oval, pointed wooden pegs along 
its edge to represent eyebrows. In the forelead is cut a square hole 
a little over two and a half inches in diameter. Below the upper lip 
there is a row of square, flat wooden pegs along its edge to indicate 
teeth, matching a similar set in the lower jaw; teeth, both upper and 
under, are also represented in the portion of the mouth extending along 
the arms. 3 
On the brow of the mask are the wooden images of five seals and 
two reindeer. The sides have a row of squared wooden pegs, repre- 
senting teeth, up and down along its length above the arms, and another 
