120. TLINGIT SHAMAN'S MASKETTE, USA/CANADA wood, pigments, human hair 13 cm. high (without hair) Provenance Myers & Ellman, New York, 1981 For a similar maskette, see Holm, B., Spirit and Ancestor: a Century of Northwest Coast Indian Art at the Burke Museum, Seattle, 1987, p.235, no.99 According to Holm, a small, fist-sized mask known as a maskette was sometimes worn by Tlingit shamans during healing rituals intended to treat illnesses believed to be caused by spirits. Though miniature in scale, the maskette closely mirrored the design of the larger ceremonial masks worn by shamans when embodying a spirit. Whether depicting a menacing warrior, a humanoid creature, or the spectral face of the dead, these maskettes adorned elaborate headdresses as the shaman sang over the patient, shook a rattle in the form of a black oystercatcher, and "pressed" power against the sickness using a carved amulet.