XXVI Congreso Internacional de Americanistas

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recognizable by th eir open eye-sockets and mouth, and, beyond a doubt,
\\"e¡;eworn in cel\:11l0nies by priest or shaman. }y.o ~ l1C ; I, cut r.'om the
iacial parts of human skulls, ·one witb the mandible still attachecl, .vere
publishecl by Giglioli in 1891 (19). Still earlier, Hutchinson (20) oecured
él terra-cotta mask which appears to be[ong to this class. Is '\Vas found
in a huaca at Cañete.
The most convincing of the cultus masks, however, is Schmidt's
"Tonmaske (Gesicht eines mythischen Wesens) from Chimbote" (21). It
has the pierced eye-holes, the human contours and ears with ornamental
pendants, and the wide open mouth with feline tusks of the jaguar-being.
:vroreover it wears the jaguar headband made from a slit skin with cat
head in front and fore-paws at either side. Headbands of this kind are
familiar from early Chimu figure vessels.
The copper death-mask from the valley of Chicana (22), referred to
earlier, must have belonged to one who was entitled in life to wear the
Jaguar regalia. The eye-sockets are set with shell with sulphur pebbles
for pupils, the mouth is the cat mouth with long tusks of shell and an
incised shell plate representing the small front teeth.
A glance at the table of distributionwill show that there are ·evidences
of local distribution of types; that within the central region there ar~
two marked foci of developll1ent corresponding '\\' ith the northern and
:,outhern cultus centers of Ancon and Pachacamac; that in the latter
there was great diversity of material and form in with development and
southern cultus centers of Ancon and Pachacamac; that in the latter
there was great diversity of material and form with development and
finally decadence -a decadence which seems to have occurred in the
nOrthern center also and which may have been attributable to the pres­
"fre from the growing Inca dominion.
The question remains as to the origin of this peculiar custom. It i5
inconceivable that it could have developed among a people accustomed
to bury their dead in thegreat depths at which many of their graves are
iound. Food and drink for the journey and substance for the life
beyond they would have been given, but what mattered their personal
appearance there, sitting in the deep chambers beneath the thatch and the
sands? It is necessary to look to other conditions for the beginning and
the early flowering of the custom, to a region of caves and rack shelters
where the ancients might rest, there to be visited at times by their kin,
social contracts of their descendants.
(19) Giglioli, H. H.-Maschere fatte colla parte facciale di Crani uman¡ proventienti
dal YUl1ca-Suya, Peru. Archivio per Alltrop. e Etn(ll., XX1, PP. ,¡I-~.'í
(20) Hutchinson.-Two Years in Peru, Vol. I, p. 133, London, 1833.
(21) Schmidt, Max.-L. c., p. 168, fig. l.
(22) Schmidt, M.-L, C.. p. 375, fig. 2.