Note 57 — Front matter
Reading edition
See note 4 and also Ethn. Rep. 1881-82, p. 73 fol. (see note 37):—The use of masks is worldwide. The origin and development of the use of masks is very much the same as the origin and development of the werewolf as given in the preceding pages. The wolfrobe and the mask, both originally useful devices, degenerated in unscrupulous hands into instruments for personal aggrandizement and gain. The use of the mask is described in the above report as follows:
a). It was used as a shield or protection for the face, for defense against physical violence, human or otherwise. It was therefore first used merely as a mechanical resistance to the opposing force; then secondly, still in the lowest grade of culture, it was used to inspire terror, to gain a moral influence over the opposing agent by hideousness or by symbolizing superhuman agencies. Now individual variations arose—devices for example derived or conventionalized from some predatory, shrewd or mysterious animal.
b). With growth of culture came growth of supernaturalism, and the mask came to be used in religious performances, as a part of the religious paraphernalia, like the shirts or girdles of the shamans. Ethn. Rep. 1896-97, I. 395:—“When worn in any ceremonial, ... the wearer is believed to become mysteriously and unconsciously imbued with the spirit of the being which his mask represents.”
c). Finally the element of humor enters in, and the mask is used for public amusements and games; by secret societies; as protection against recognition on festive occasions, etc., like the animal skins worn in dances.