DALL -] SOUTH SEA MASKS. 99 



schrift fiir Ethnologic 1 He figures a number of masks and maskettes, 

 beside other articles. He notes that the larger ones are figures of a relig- 

 ious nature and the smaller ones festive. Several of the latter are nota- 

 ble for distortion of the mouth with the view of making them more ludi- 

 crous or terrifying. Those figured by him were collected by the Gazelle 

 at the islands known as New Hannover. Some of them show apertures 

 for earrings. D'Urville notes in the voyage of the Astrolabe 2 that the 

 people of New Holland pierce the alse of the nose in one or two places, 

 in which they insert the small canine teeth of a pig. A mask from this 

 vicinity shows these. 



The following masks are figured by Schmeltz in Der ethnographisch- 

 anthropologische Abtheilung des Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg (8°, 

 692 pp., 40 pi., 1 map; Hamburg, Frederichsen & Co., 1881); t. tig. 1, 

 pp. 430, mask from New Hannover; t. iii, figs. 3, 4, pp. 20, 434, masks 

 of human skulls from New Britannia; t. v, fig. 1, p. 20, mask from New 

 Ireland; t. x, fig. 6, p. 70, small dance-oruament in imitation of a face 

 and arms, provided with a finger stall, recalling the finger masks of the 

 Inuuit of the Knskokwim River, Alaska ; t. xxii, fig. 4, p. 120, mask from 

 Lunuar Island, New Hebrides; t. xxix, fig. 1, p. 301, mask from Mortlock 

 Islands; t. xxxi, fig. 1, p. 439, maskette from New Ireland?; t. xxxiii, 

 tigs. 1, 2, 3, p. 487, masks from Newlreland; t. xxxiv, fig. 1, p. 487, mask 

 from New Ireland. From this valuable work of Schmeltz, based upon 

 the finest existing museum of South Sea ethnology, I have extracted 

 the following notes on masks, dances, and related customs of the Mela- 

 nesian peoples: 



In the New Hebrides group of islands masks are used in dances which 

 the women are prohibited from seeing. They are built up ou a founda- 

 tion of cocoanut shell, colored with red, black, and white; the mouth 

 and nose are large; a boar-tusk perforates the flesh on each side of the 

 mouth, the points turned up to the forehead ; they are called "NaBee;" 

 one in the Museum Godeffroy came from Lunuar Island, near the south 

 coast of Mallicolo. A hat-shaped head ornament is used in this region 

 during a feast which takes place at the time of the Yam harvest, similar 

 to the Duk-Duk hat of New Britain. For some of these hats Schmeltz 

 believes European models have served, one being much in the shape of 

 a "cocked hat" formerly used in European navies, others like foolscaps, 

 and still another like a very old-fashioned female's hat. These resem- 

 blances, however, may be derived from the very nature of the article, as 

 some of the helmet-masks greatly resemble the ancient Greek helmet 

 in form, and not due to imitation. 



In one mask from New Ireland a flat carving pierced or carved out 

 (tongue?) projects from the mouth, with an arrow piercing a fish upon 

 it, which Schmeltz states resembles a carving which the natives are 

 accustomed to hold in the mouth while dancing (1. c, p. 21). Again 



1 Vol. viii, 1877, p. 48 et seq .; taf. ii-iv. 



2 Vol. 1, pi. 99 ; vol. iv, p. 736, cf.; also Juke's Voy. Fly. i, p. 274. 



