"■"- L ) HAIDA CEREMOKIAL. Ill 



one-tt'Uth natural size.] They are carved in wood. Those of the tirst class are usu- 

 ally amply large enough to cover the face. Iu some cases they are very neatly carved, 

 generally to represent an ordinary Indian type of face without any grotesque idea. 

 The relief is generally a little less than in nature. Straps of leather fastened to the 

 sides of the mask are provided to go round the head of the wearer, or a small loop of 

 cedar-bark string is fixed in the hollow side of the mask to be grasped by the teeth. 

 The top of the forehead is usually fringed with down, hair, or feathers. The eyes are 

 pierced to enable the wearer to look out, and the mouth is also often cut through, 

 though sometimes solid aud representing teeth. Grotesque masks are also made in 

 this style, but none were observed to have a smiling or humorous expression The 

 paintiug of the masks is, according to taste, in bars or lines, or the peculiar curved 

 lines with eyelike ovals (stated by Swan to be derived from the spots on the lateral 

 fins of a species of skate-fish native to these waters) found so frequently in the de- 

 signs of the coast Indians. The painting of the two sides of the face is rarely sym- 

 metrical, a circumstance not arising from any want of skill, but intentional. Of the 

 second class of masks, representing birds, there are various kinds. One obtained at 

 the Klue village had a beak 5 or 6 feet long projecting from the center of a mask not 

 much unlike those above described. The beak was painted red, and the whole evi- 

 dently intended to represent the oyster catcher common to this coast (Hcematopus 

 niger). Another represents the head of a puffin (Fratercula). It is too small within to 

 include the head and must have been worn above the head. (L. c., pp. 137B, 13SB.) 



The carvings on the rattles of the Tliukit, especially those of the 

 southern part of the Archipelago, are matters belonging particularly to 

 the shaman or medicine man, aud characteristic of his profession. 

 Among these very generally, if not invariably, the rattle is composed 

 of the figure of a bird, from which, near the head of the bird, or carved 

 upon the back of the bird's head is represented a human face with the 

 tongue protruding. 



This tongue is bent downwards and usually meets the mouth of a frog 

 or an otter, the tongue of either appearing continuous with that of the 

 human face. In case it is a frog, it usually appears impaled upon the 

 tongue of a kingfisher, whose head and variegated plumage are repre- 

 sented near the handle in a conventional way. It is asserted that this 

 represents the medicine man absorbing from the frog, which has been 

 brought to him by the kingfisher, either poison or the power of producing 

 evil effects on other people. (See Plate XXII, fig. 50.) 



In case it is an otter, the tongue of the otter touches the tongue of 

 the medicine man, as represented on the carving. The hands of the 

 figure usually take hold of the otter's body by the middle, sometimes 

 by the forelegs. The hindlegs of the otter rest either upon the knees 

 of the figure representing the medicine man, or upon a second conven- 

 tionalized head, which is in front of and below the knees. The tail of 

 the otter hangs down between his hindlegs. A somewhat similar rattle 

 is figured by Bastian (1. c. taf. 4, fig. 4, 4a), from near Port Simpson. 



This carving is represented, not only ou rattles, but on totem posts, 

 fronts of houses, and other objects associated with the medicine man, 

 the myth being, as has been elsewhere described, 1 that when the young 

 aspirant for the position of medicine man goes out into the woods, after 



1 See Alaska and its resources, page 425, 1870. 



