МАЭ № 571-1/2

Mask

Kodiak Eskimos

prior to 1843

I.G. Voznesenskii's expedition

wood, intestine, sinew, baleen, puffin beaks, paint, sinew, seaweed, cloth, straw

height including the baleen 115 cm; mask: height 28 cm, width 23 cm, width of the profile 20 cm

In his diary I. G. Voznesenskii provides a description of the beginning of the ceremony when the masks noted above were used: “Music: (during the Kodiak Aleuts’ festivities) a whistle shrill at first, then weak, and then dying. Drums beaten loudly, weakly and so forth. They sing in a long drawn-out fashion, especially the letters “i,” “n,” and “a.”, they yell “i ar vi?” (exactly like stabbed bulls). At the beginning of each dance they burn or smoke (valerian) incense. He who shakes the arrows sits on a bench specially made for him right at the door, painted with red graphite, in a new kamleika, on the chest of which are hanging various devices consisting of pouches and mica pastes. Situated on the opposite side are the drummers and whistlers (musicians with rattles and whistles. –S.K.). Those who beat the drums are also the ones who sing. There were in two groups, first they sit on sealskin rugs on the ground in front of the oil lamp and then at the end of the performance on the bench which was built in the middle of the barabora.” (Liapunova 1967: 29-30).

Ethnography of America