OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF MASKS WITH RELIGIOUS AND 

 SOCIAL RITES AND EXERCISES ASSOCIATED WITH 

 THEM, GEOGRAPHICALLY CONSIDERED. 



It is quite certain that iii early stages of culture social festivals and 

 religious or superstitious rights were separated by no distinct line, and 

 probable that the social ones grew out of those which were, to a consid- 

 erable extent, if not wholly, of a religious character. However, among 

 the aborigines of the Northwest coast, at the time of their discovery 

 the distinction between the games or semi-theatrical performances, illus- 

 trative of tribal myths, legends, and traditions, and those of a religious 

 nature performed by or under the direction of a shaman or priest, had 

 become quite well marked. Our knowledge of the myths and religious 

 beliefs or superstitious of the vicious and extremely savage islanders 

 of the Archipelago north of New Guinea is extremely imperfect, and 

 for many of them altogether wanting. Hence it is impossible for the 

 most part to formulate a comparison between their ideas and those en- 

 tertained by the people of West America. For the latter, even, we have 

 but little authentic information, much of which is derived from persons 

 ignorant of the fundamentals of ethnography, and whose assumptions, 

 made in good faith from the facts before them, may often incorporate 

 unintentional error. Turn in what direction we may, on every hand are 

 gaps in the evidence, miscomprehensions of savage philosophy, and a 

 tantalizing incompleteness of material. Our best endeavors are but 

 groping in the twilight. 



In this condition of things it only remains for us to bring together by 

 regions such evidence as we may, trusting to time and further research 

 to bridge the chasms. 



For the present purpose, the geographical order adopted is as fol- 

 lows: 



1. North Papuan Archipelago. 



2. Peru. 



3. Central America and Mexico. 

 i. New Mexico and Arizona. 



5. The region occupied by Indians from Oregon to the northern limit 

 of theTlinkit. 



6. The Aleutian Islands. 



7. The Inuuit region from Prince William Sound to Point Barrow. 



MASKS OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 



The Papuan Archipelago. — One of the earliest papers on the masks of 

 this region is that of Captain Straueh, of the German navy, in the Zeit- 

 98 



