r.ALL.1 TLINKIT AND HAIDA MASKS. 119 



the eyebrows could be raised or lowered at the pleasure of the wearer. 

 There is an arched mouth-bar inside to be held in the teeth when dan- 

 cing, in order to keep the head dress steady. 



2666 (Plate XX, fig. 45). — Dancing maskette, representing a woman's 

 face with a very large kalushka or labret, collected by the Wilkes Explor- 

 ing Expedition on the northwest coast of America in 1841. No history. 

 Probably of Haida make. Painted with a dull red stripe around the 

 right side of the face ; a few narrow lines on the left cheek. Length 7i, 

 width 7 inches. This is figured chiefly to show how the kalushka was 

 worn. 



No. 2785. Tliukit dancing maskette, collected by J. G. Swan, Sitka, 

 Alaska. This specimen represents a heavy wooden helmet of a rounded 

 conical shape, with a mask carved upon it, forming part of the same 

 piece of wood. This mask represents a grinning face, half red, half 

 blue, with broad, black eyebrows, white teeth, mustache and goatee of 

 bear skin, and hair, which apparently once stood upright, pegged in 

 on the top of what would have been the head. This is a fair instance 

 of those cases in which the mask serves as a mere ornamentation to the 

 helmet. It is understood that this particular helmet was used in danc- 

 ing; but there is no doubt that similar ones were — and the thickness 

 of this is such that it inigbt be — used as a means of defense in war. 



In the National Museum collection are a great variety of these danc- 

 ing helmets and a few of those intended for defense. They represent 

 various animals, conventionalized in the usual manner and similar to 

 those which are used in the mask proper. Those masks which are at- 

 tached to the helmets, or form part of them in those cases where the 

 helmet is a single piece of wood, are, of course, not perforated or pierced 

 in any way except for nose or ear rings or other appendages. As the 

 object is intended to be placed entirely on top of the head, there is no 

 necessity for any perforation for sight or respiration. 



lu some cases the upper part of these head-dresses represents a fish, 

 whose body is partially opened, or is so carved that it appears like a 

 hollow lattice work, within which may be seen a human figure. This 

 is in allusion to a particular myth, of which I have been unable to ob- 

 taiu the details. 



2661 (Plate XVII, figs. 36-37). — Shamanic mask, symbolical of the 

 eagle or totemic " thunder bird," obtained by the United States exploring 

 expedition under Wilkes on the northwest coast of America. The eye- 

 brows and bill are black, the caruncle over the back of the bill and the 

 tongue within it are red. It is a thin and light carving of cedar wood, 

 trimmed with swan-skin, having the down attached. It was held upon 

 the head by means of a netting made of cord twisted from bark fiber, and 

 which was once attached in many places to holes in the posterior outer 

 and upper edges of the mask. This form is not uncommon. I have seen 

 several in collections. The figure is one-sixth the size, linear, of the 

 original. The myth of the "Thunder bird" refers to a gigantic bird 



