Frank Sherman Benson Fund

A. Augustus Healy Fund

Ceremonial blouse or huipil made of three four-selvedge panels of white cotton, brocaded on the front, back and shoulders. The multicolored design on the central panel represents the double-headed eagle, and the horizontal bars represent its wing and tail feathers. The neck opening with its silk appliqué of radiating points represents the sun, and the four rosettes represent the four directions. Condition: good

Museum Expedition 1942, Frank L. Babbott Fund

By exchange

Jade carving of the upper torso and head of a small winged figure with the typical Olmec elongated, flattened head, drooping lips, and drilled ear lobes. The wings have been identified as those of a bat, a nocturnal animal associated with the darkness of the underworld. The wings also have scalloped edges and fine incised lines that recall the wings of a butterfly, a potent symbol of transformation. Four small drill holes along the edges of the wings may have been used to sew the figure to clothing or to a headress. The fact that this figurine was found in Costa Rica suggests that Olmec-style carvings were highly valued there, and indicate that extensive trading networks existed throughout Mesoamerica.

This mask represents Bak’was , a malevolent ghostly spirit, the keeper of drowned souls. He can cause loss of reason and sanity and lures those seeking escape into the night woods with a faint firelight where they experience madness, loss of a sense of right and wrong and lose balance and harmony with the world. Victims may survive by finding minimal sustenance on the forest floor or in the intertidal region. As a spirit, although diminutive, he can stride four times the average man. He has a green, hairy body and a skeletal visage. Souls of those drawn into the forest by him or who eat food he offers are lost forever and become part of his ghostly retinue. A soul could possibly be saved by subduing it with menstrual blood. John Livingston (b. 1951) is an adopted Kwakwaka'wakw carver. He became closely involved with master carvers Henry Hunt and Tony Hunt in the 1970s who gave him permission to carve masks and poles. This particular mask is his version of a wild man mask with deeply attenuated carving outlining the mouth and eyes. Painted in traditional colors of black and red.

The lapwing bird with outstretched human arms and hands represented on this decorative tile symbolized the population of Egypt, specifically the common folk. Depicted with the hieroglyph for "all," it forms a rebus meaning " All Egyptians adore." The object of adoration could be either the king or a god, depending on the context—temple or palace—in which the tile was inlaid.

Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.