Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/207

Rh stuck over in all directions with, the gall-bladders of animals (Wood). In any collection of articles from. Alaska tribes a large proportion of the specimens will be garments or paraphernalia of the shaman. A Tlingit shaman fully dressed for his professional duties is a striking and terrible sight. Over his shoulders he wears a neat robe of dressed skin, to which are hung



the beaks of puffins, ivory charms, and jingling bits of metal. The charms are many of them neatly carved, and possess great spirit power in the cure of disease and the driving out of witches. A waist robe of the same material is adorned in the same way. Upon his head the shaman wears a crown of horns. These crowns are endowed with great spirit power. They are particularly interesting also as an unusually fine example of our old law—that old patterns are copied in new materials. The oldest type of these crowns was made from mountain-goat horns. These were simply carved with some design at base and were then attached to a headband—the upper ends of the horns being connected with one another by a sinew cord. From ten to fifteen horns were used in a single crown. Later this type was copied in mountain-sheep horn and in wood—the material being carved out into little bodies, like the horns of the mountain goat in size and shape. Still later copper was rolled into horn-shaped cones, which were then connected in the same way. Over his face the shaman may wear a wooden mask skillfully carved with grotesque designs. These vary infinitely, but each part usually has its own meaning and spirit power. Often there was worn a head-dress of human hair. In the hands the shaman carries carved rattles