Mask | Heyliwey Item Number: 25.0/214 from the The Burke: University of Washington

Automatically Generated From Material

The paint is red, black, and green.

Exhibit Label

Perhaps an example of the heyhliwey, or taming forehead mask, this small raven mask is an example of the restrained, sensitively designed hamatsa masks of the 1880s. The wearing of the heyhliwey on the forehead of the hamatsa's wife or sister is done during the last quiet dance of the hamatsa, and is said to symbolize the fact that the cannibal masks have been put in their places and the wildness of the hamatsa himself has been removed. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)