Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/212

be masks made in part from the heads of the dead. The former are hardly a part of dress; the latter are. Both kinds will be considered. The Dyaks of Borneo are famous "head-hunters" and often prepare their trophies with great care. Barnard Davis had several specimens in his great collection, and he describes them in his Thesaurus. One was a whole skull; the lower jaw was stained inside to a deep red; it was fastened to the cranium by rattan; light, soft wood was fitted in the places of the teeth, into the nostrils, and into the ear-holes; other inequalities were filled with red-brown resin. The entire skull was covered with tin-foil; two cowrie-shells made the eyes; a small tuft of beard was made of stiff black hair; on the vertex and sides of the calvarium an ornamental, regular, and symmetrical device was cut through the tin-foil and painted red. These heads vary greatly in pattern and treatment. They were kept in head-houses, and were looked upon as treasures and as sacred objects. In the Solomon Islands, the Marquesas, and New Zealand we find heads preserved for one or another reason. Among the strangest of these most curious relics Fig. 7.—Dance-mask. are the heads prepared by the Jivaros of South America. These are trophies of war. The heads are cut from the bodies of slain enemies; the brain and bones are removed through the neck; the whole head is then shrunken down. The result is a strange, diminutive, black head, with abundant and long hair, and with features all preserved, but so small as to be hardly recognizable as those of a human being. In all these Jivaros' heads the lips are sewed together with cords, and in some cases spiked together in addition. If Bollaert is to be trusted, this is done in order that the head may not answer the abuse that is heaped upon it at times! In the same part of the world, among the Mundurucus, are other interesting preserved heads. These are of full size; they are partly shaved; ornaments of feathers are hung at the ears; the eye-sockets are filled with black gum, into which are inserted bits of shell. These heads are apparently those of friends, not of enemies. In some respects akin to these real preserved