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RELIGIOl S CEREMOS IES 



Among some of the other tribes there is little wool weaving, the 

 clothing consisting of shredded and softened inner tree hark braided 

 and matted together. The Indians of this region are preeminently 

 a woodworking people, as is manifest in the exhibit. Religious ceremo- 

 Religious nies and the wearing of ni;tsks generally supposed to aid 



Ceremonies the shaman or priest in curing disease were customary 

 among most of the tribes. The masks represented guardian spirits 

 and by wearing them the shaman impersonated these spirits and 

 assumed their powers in healing the sick or obtaining game. 



ESKIMO HOME SCENE 

 There arc some instructive groups in the corridor near the entrance to the Audi- 

 torium. In one, a home scene within a snow house or "igloo," an Eskimo woman is 

 Cooking blubber over the flame from a seal-oil lamp; another represents an Eskimo 

 woman fishing through the ice and a man about to strike a seal under the ice. 



