THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 271 



mouth of the wearer, and is firmly gripped in the teeth to hold the 

 mask in place. Above this becket the mask is recessed or hollowed 

 slightly, to give a clearance to the nose of the wearer. Altogether it 

 may be seen to be a very clumsy method of protecting the face. Other 

 kinds of masks were worn to protect the face in war, having the addi- 

 tional objects of representing in their carved outlines the totem of the 

 wearer, or, by their hideousness and grotesqueness, of striking terror to 

 the enemy by lending to the effect of their menacing gestures the ap- 

 pearance of some superhuman being. Often these masks were so mas- 

 sive as to be worn without helmets or head pieces. Straps or thongs 

 of leather fasten them to the head, or a loop of cedar bark cord in the 

 hollow side of the mask is held in the teeth. 



The ceremonial masks are carved from spruce or yellow cedar and 

 are generally very elaborate, being highly colored in grotesque or hide- 

 ous designs, and often inlaid with abalone shell or copper. The eyes 

 are i)ierced through to enable the wearer to see about him, and the 

 mouth is also usually cut through, or, if not, teeth are carved or inlaid 

 in bone. Lips, teeth, nostrils, and eyelids are sometimes represented 

 in copper. The top of the mask is usually bordered either with hair, 

 feathers, or down. By means of ingeniously concealed mechanism 

 the eyes are sometimes made to roll and the jaws and beak to snap. 

 (See Fig. 60, Plate xvi). Some of them, representing ravens and 

 cranes, have beaks projecting from two to four or five feet. In con- 

 junction with the masks are often worn wooden fins or wings on the 

 back of the head or on the back at the shoulders. ' Fig. 59, Plate xvi, 

 represents the raven as a ceremonial mask with lips of copper, sur- 

 mounted by a tall fin of wood representing the fin of the orca or killer. 

 This is fringed with human hair, and the figure carries in its mouth a 

 bow and arrow of copper. Fig. 56 represents a woman's face, with 

 nose and lip ornaments of conventional pattern, and with curiously 

 painted lines in unsymmetrical design. A variety of masks are 

 sketched in the foreground of Plate lxvii. The custom of wearing 

 wooden masks and head-dresses in ceremonies and dances is found 

 throughout the whole northwest coast from the Aleuts to Puget Sound. 

 There is a large collection of these in the National Museum, which in 

 themselves are worthy of separate illustration. The limits of this 

 paper admit only of presenting the few shown in Plates xvi and lxvii. 



Ceremonial Batons, Wands, etc.—Ln Plates xvi and xvii are repre- 

 sented various ceremonial implements carried in the hands of the 

 chiefs and shamans on state occasions, and permitted to be carried only 

 by men of such rank. Fig. 54 is a carved representation of a bow, the 

 figures on the ends representing the whale. It is carried by the Haida 

 shamans in their medicine dances. Fig. 58 is a ceremonial bow carried 

 by a Haida chief. The two carved heads represent the bear. Carved 

 ceremonial arrows go with this type of bow, and in them we see the 

 survival of the ancient weapon as a purely ceremonial emblem^ Just as 



