BWANTON] INDIAN'S OP THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 623 



with them, was most fortunate; for it enabled me to recognize, in several 

 instances, the true meaning of the face-paint designs on the human masks thus 

 associated with these animal figures. I cannot attempt to fully describe the 

 entire series, but must content myself with reference only to a few of the 

 more typical of them. 



Near the notherumost shell beach, . . . was found, carefully bundled up, as 

 I have said, the remarkable figurehead of a wolf with the jaws distended, 

 separate ears, and conventional, flat, scroll-shaped shoulder- or leg-pieces, 

 designed for attachment thereto with cordage. ... A short distance from 

 this specimen was found the beautifully featured man-mask sketched in Fig. 2 

 of the same plate. Now both of these specimens had been painted with 

 black, white, and blue designs, which unfortunately cannot be shown with 

 suflScient clearness in the uncolored sketches. When I observed that the 

 designs on the human mask represented, albeit conventionally, the general 

 features and lines of the wolf figurehead associated with it, I was no longer 

 at loss to understand the connection of the two. It will be observed that on 

 the ear-pieces of the wolf figurehead, are two well-defined and sharp-pointed 

 dark areas representing the openings of the erect ears, and that correspond- 

 ingly, above the eyebrows of the mask itself, similarly pointed black areas are 

 painted, while the tusked open mouth of the wolf figurehead is also repre- 

 sented by jagged or zigzag lines on the mask, extending across the cheeks 

 upward to the corners of the mouth, apparently to symbolize the gnashing 

 teeth of the wolf; and even the conventionally represented shoulders and 

 feet of the springing wolf figurehead are drawn in clean white lines over the 

 entire middle of the face of this mask. It was therefore evident to me, 

 that these painted lines upon the human mask were designed, really, to 

 represent the aspect and features and even the characteristic action or spring, 

 of the wolf. Hence I looked upon these two painted carvings as having 

 been used in a dramaturgic- or dance-ceremonial of these ancient people, in 

 which it was sought to symbolize successively the different aspects or incar- 

 nations of the same animal-god, namely the wolf-god, — that is, his animal 

 aspect, and his human aspect. 



Now, this association of the animal figureheads with the masks presenting 

 their human counterparts was not exceptional. In another portion of the 

 court the rather diminutive but exquisitely carved head, breast and shoulders 

 (with separate parts representative of the outspread wings, near by) of a 

 pelican, was found, and in connection with this, a full-sized human mask of 

 wood, also. Upon the forehead, cheeks, and lower portion of the face of the 

 mask, was painted in white over the general black background, the full out- 

 line (observed from above) of a fiying pelican, . . . the under lip and chin 

 of this man-pelican mask was quaintly pouted and protruded to represent the 

 pouch of the pelican — in a manner that does not show in the full-face draw- 

 ing. 



The remarkable and elaborately carved and painted figurehead of the 

 leather-back turtle; the large figurehead or mask-like carving representative 

 of a bear — its face also elaborately painted — and others of the animal figure- 

 heads which we found, were likewise paired or associated with their human 

 presentmentations or counterparts — that is, human masks painted with prac- 

 tically the same face-designs as occurred on these animal figures. (Gushing, 

 1896, pp. 382-389, pis. 33, 34.) 



Speck (1909, pp. 54-60) has given us by far the longest account of 

 the artistic development of a southern tribe which is in existence, 

 though it applies to a decadent period. 



