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Show Odd Masks Worn at Festivals for Dead peninsula, New Britain, are made from the facial bones of skulls. . The flesh is removed and replaced by i sticky lumps of earth. One of the queer and interesting customs cus-toms of the Melanesians, dark-skinned inhabitants of the South Sea islands. Is the festival in honor of their dead. At their festivals masks of grotesque appearance play an important part, says the Detroit News. A collection of such masks has been made for the American Museum of Natural History. One of them resembles resem-bles a crested helmet. Masks of this type, it is said, must be carved In secret se-cret and presented to the public view only during the funeral ceremonies. The crest of the mask represents an earlier custom of bairdress of the natives na-tives when they were in mourning. In the early days they shaved their beads on such occasions, leaving only a sin gle ridge of liuir. One particular type has long, winglike wing-like processes. The face is carved from wood and the fibrous parts of plants are u.icd in working out the other parts of the head. With such masks bark is used as a covering for the neck. Masks from the Qazelle |