This Kwa' Laba Kuth, or Wildman, mask represents one of the ghost-like forest spirits that appear during the Makah Klookwalli ceremonial. Similar ghost-like spirits are represented in mask form among neighboring tribes: Pukmis and Ahlmako of the Nuu-chah-nulth, the Bukwus of the Kwakiutl. Their ghostly qualities are sometimes represented by skull-like heads with hooked noses and bared teeth in grimacing mouths.

The paint is black.

Square, bentcorner boxes were the principal furniture of northern Northwest Coast houses. Piled along walls and between bedroom partitions, they acted as shelves, seats, wardrobes, cupboards, pantries, containers for food and water, treasure chests, even urinals. Many were plain; some were painted only with red stripes up the corners. Those most oftwen seen in museums and private collections today are elaborately painted with formline designs and fitted with thick lids which are frequently studded with small white shells, the opercula of the red turban snail. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)