DAU ~J ALEUTIAN MASKS. 139 



they contained. Veniaminoff, as his books show, would have beeD 

 more rational, but the mischief antedated his service in the district. 



They were originally very fond of dances and festivals, which, on the 

 whole, correspond pretty well with those of the Innuit and the people 

 of the Sitkan Archipelago. These festivals, as among the continental 

 Innuit, were chiefly held in the month of December. Whole villages 

 were entertaiued by other villages. Successive dances of children, 

 naked men beating drums (or rather tambourines), and of women curi- 

 ously attired were followed by shamanic incantations and feasting. 



If a whale was cast on shore the natives assembled with joyous and 

 remarkable ceremonies. They advanced and beat tambourines of dif- 

 ferent sizes. The carcass was then cut up and a feast held on the spot. 

 The dances had a mystic significance, some of the men were dressed in 

 their most showy attire, and others danced naked in large wooden 

 masks which came down to their shoulders, and represented various 

 sea animals. They had religious dances and festivals in December. 

 During these, images or idols, temporarily prepared, were carried from 

 island to island, and strange ceremonies, of which we have only dim 

 traditions, were performed in the night. There were mysteries sacred 

 to the males, and others to the females. In some secret orgies both 

 sexes joined without reproach. Hundreds of women wearing masks 

 are said to have danced naked in the moonlight, men being rigidly ex- 

 cluded and liable to death if detected intruding. The men had analo- 

 gous dances. An idea prevailed that while these mystic rites were 

 going on a spirit or power descended into the idol. To look at or see 

 him was death or misfortune, hence they wore large masks carved from 

 drift-wood, with holes cut so that nothing before them or above them 

 could be seen, but only the ground near their feet. After the dances 

 were over idols and masks alike were broken up and cast into the sea. 

 These masks were held by a cross-bar inside between the teeth and a 

 loop passing over the head. They were different from those masks used 

 in festivals not of a religious nature. 



A further illustration of the same idea was shown in their practice of 

 putting a similar mask over the face of a dead person when the body 

 was laid in some rock-shelter. The departed one was supposed to be 

 gone on his journey to the land of spirits, and for his protection against 

 their glances he was supplied with a mask. For wealthy or important 

 persons a particular process was employed to preserve the remains. 

 The bodies were eviscerated, cleansed from fatty matters in running 

 water, dried, and placed in wrappings of furs and fine grass matting. 

 The bodies were usually doubled up, encased, and suspended above the 

 ground in some place sheltered from the rain, as a cave or rock-shelter. 

 It is stated, however, that sometimes the prepared body was placed in 

 a life-like posture dressed and armed. They were represented as if en- 

 gaged in some congenial occupation, such as hunting, fishing, or sewing. 

 With them were also placed effigies of the animals they were supposed 



