112 MASKS AND LABRETS. 



fasting for a considerable period, in order that his to be familiar spirit may 

 sick li i in and that he may become possessed of the power to communi- 

 cate with supernatural beings, if successful, he meets with a river otter, 

 which is a supernatural animal. The otter approaches him and he seizes 

 it, kills it with the blow of a club and takes out the tongue, after which 

 he is able to understand the language of all inanimate objects, of birds, 

 animals, and other liviug creatures. He preserves the otter's tongue 

 with the utmost care in a little bag hung around his neck. The skin 

 he also preserves : audit forms au important part of his paraphernalia. 



This ceremony or occurrence happens to every real medicine man. 

 Consequently, the otter presenting his tongue is the most universal type 

 of the profession as such, and is sure to be found somewhere in the para- 

 phernal ia of every individual of that profession. In this way, these 

 carvings, wherever found, indicate an association of the object carved 

 with the medicine man. They may be either his property, or carved in 

 memory of him. The last case seems to be confined to the totem poles. 



This remarkable form of carving, namely, that representing a figure 

 with the tongue out, and communicating with a frog, otter, bird, snake, 

 or fish, is one of the most characteristic features of the carvings of the 

 people who live between Oregon and Prince William Sound. 



The same thing is found to a certain extent in Mexico. A cast of a 

 terracotta figure in the National Museum (No. 7267), collected by E. H. 

 Davis, represents in an almost identical attitude a seated figure, hold- 

 ing an animal, probably a fox, in its hands, whose tongue is continuous 

 with that of the figure itself. Auother (No. 10699), is very similar to No. 

 7267. One of the lava images from Nicaragua in the National Museum 

 represents a human figure and animal in the same posture. 



In the autumn of 1878, while passiug through New York, I observed 

 in the window of a shop devoted to curiosities, two masks from the 

 South Seas, alleged to be from the Solomon Islauds. From the mater- 

 ials of which they were composed and the opercula with which they 

 were ornamented, there was no doubt as to their having come from the 

 Indo-Pacific region, and the locality given was probably correct. 



One of these masks represented a figure iu the identical positiou above 

 mentioned. The tongue protruded, the hands clasping by the middle a 

 conventionalized animal, which I could not recognize. The fore legs of 

 the animal touched the shoulders of the figure composing the mask. 

 The hind legs rested upon his knees. The tail hung dowu between the 

 hind legs, and touched the base of the mask. There was a space of an 

 iuch or more between the bellies of the two figures, as is usually the 

 case with the figures represented on the rattles and other carvings from 

 the northwest coast of America, previously referred to. 



Afterwards, in attempting to secure this mask for the National Mu- 

 seum, being much struck with the extraordinary resemblance iu nearly 

 all its details to the masks made by the Tliukits, it was found to have 

 been disposed of, and could not be traced. Since then, in the American 



