dall.) PERUVIAN MASKS. 103 



the peculiar attitude and combination seen in some Mexican terracottas 

 and in many maskettes, maskoids, and rattles from the Indians of the 

 northwest coast of America, 1 That is to say, the mouth is open, - the 

 tongue protruding' and continuous, with the tongue of an animal (in this 

 case a snake) which is held in the hands of the main figure and hangs 

 down between the knees. In one specimen in the same collection the 

 serpent is continuous with or attached to the male organ of the sustain- 

 ing figure, which would indicate an idea, or association of the idea, of 

 life and transmission of spiritual influence or life similar to that enter- 

 tained by the natives of the northwest coast of America. 



In the present instance, the figure is represented as without legs, un- 

 less the stick-like supports for the hands be considered as recurved con- 

 ventionalized limbs. The mouth is open, the tongue protruding and its 

 tip held in the mouth of a doubled-headed serpent, whose opposite head 

 hangs down near the base, also with the tongue visible. The upper 

 head has the triangular form belonging to poisonous serpents. The 

 lower head is narrower and more cylindrical. Just behind the latter, 

 from its neck, two leaves or palm branches start out, and, rising in the 

 form of a lyre, their tips are attached, one on each side, behind the un- 

 der lip of the principal figure. About midway these branches are held 

 by the hands of the latter, each of which is also supported by a straight 

 stick rising from the base. Each elbow is supported in the mouth of a 

 serpent which rises from the base for that purpose. The history and 

 uses of the specimen are unknown. 



Several others in the same collection reproduced the same attitude, 

 but the animal supported was sometimes an enormous beetle, with 

 branching horns, and sometimes a bird with a long beak, like the sha- 

 manic kingfisher of the Haida rattles. 



MASKS OF PERU. 



The use of masks seems to have been much the same as in Mexico 

 and on the northwest coast. Purchas states, on the authority of Vega 

 (lib. 8, ch. 1, p. 2), that at Cuzco, at the feast of Corpus Christi, the 

 Peruvians joined in the festivities and procession according to their 

 habit in celebrating their own feast : 



After their wonted Pagau rites: viz, Some clothed with lion's skins, their heads en- 

 closed in those of the beasts, because (they say) the Lion was beginner of their stocke ; 



* * * others in monstrous shapes with visors [i. e. masks] with skins of beasts 

 with strange gestures, and fayning themselves Fooles, &c. ' * Thus had they 



used to solemnize the Feasts of their Kings and thus in my time, sayth Vega, they 

 solemnized the feast of the most holy sacrament. (Purchas, America, book ix, chap. 

 12, p. 946, edition of 1626.) 



1 Which are noted under their appropriate heads. 



