DALL ] FINGER MASKS. 131 



collected by E. W. Nelson. This specimen considerably resembles, in 

 most respects, No. 33109 (described above). It is, however, smaller, be- 

 ing about 14 inches in length over all ; and the face carved on the body 

 is covered by two small doors, hinged at the sides, which, when they 

 are closed, conceal it— the body then appearing smoothly convex over 

 its whole surface. When these little doors, which meet when closed 

 and open in the middle, are opened, the face carved upon the body is 

 made visible. The inside of these doors is painted with figures of rein- 

 deer and seals in black, on a white ground: The legs and arms attached 

 to the disk are grooved on the front surface, reddened, and pegs re- 

 sembling teeth stuck in at the edges of the groove. 



This description of mask appears under a great many different forms. 

 Sometimes the mask itself represents a face with a beak or other ap- 

 pendage attached to it; and the ears are represented by wing-like 

 appendages, which move backwards and forwards, and are painted with 

 figures of animals, as in the case just mentioned. 



In other cases, the disk of the mask represents the body or the head 

 of an animal, or in some cases the body of a fish. On the front sur- 

 face of this, that is to say the back of the animal, similar little doors 

 will be placed, which, when opened, disclose another face with gaping 

 jaws, or some other unexpected carving. The variety is difficult to de- 

 scribe. Hardly any two of them are alike. Most of them are more or 

 less ornamented with deer hair, feathers, seal's whiskers, or something 

 of the kind, which, in many cases in the Museum specimens, has been 

 lost or destroyed. The object of these appendages, such as doors or 

 wings, is by opening them suddenly to give a surprise to the spectators 

 during the course of the dances in which they are worn. 



FINGER MASKS. 



No. 36236.— Finger mask from Chalitmut, Yukon delta, collected by 

 E. W. Nelson. This is about 3 inches high, not including fringe, Disk 

 circular, concavely excavated, surrounded by a narrow frame joined to 

 the disk by four projections, the intervening spaces carved out. Cen- 

 tral disk representing a round face with an obsolete nose, not perfor- 

 ated, mouth narrow, concavely arched upward, coloration white, mar- 

 gin surrounded with a fringe composed of a strip of skin from the rein- 

 deer's throat, with the long white hair attached to it. 



No. 36231. Finger mask, collected by E. W. Nelson, in the south part 

 of the Yukon delta, at the village of Kang-egik-nog emut. Disk circular 

 connected by a narrow stem with the stall for the fingers. The whole, 

 about 5J inches long, exclusive of fringe. Fringe of deer hair, with 

 two or three tail-feathers of the old squaw duck. Disk without a mar- 

 gin. The right eye brow forming a semicircle, or nearly so, with the 

 bridge of the nose with which it is continuous. Beneath it is a semi- 

 lunar perforation representing the eye. At the lower end of the ridge 

 another perforation representing the nostrils. Mouth commencing on 



