NELSON] MASKETTES All 
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 maskette is for use in reiigious 
observances, but the exact ceremonies in which it figured were not 
learned. 
Figure 2, plate cru, is a maskette from lower Kuskokwim river. It 
measures 64 by 23 inches, and is a very rudely made specimen, 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 the face, 
covering it completely to the median ridge on that side. The beveled 
right side of the face has a erescentic 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 crt, from the lower Kuskokwim, is a thin disk, 34 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- 
