"jRefigioas Festi-Oal Among the FsKjmos. The Eakimo Easter i-. a religious festival, held in honor of the return of the sun to the north, and many gods, both greater and lesser divini ties, take part in it, being represented by a person disguised iu suitable cos tumes and wearing grotesque masks. For weeks before the festival dedi cated to the sun god, everybody is busily engaged in making masks. The tEskimns are born artists, and vie with each other as to who shall pro duce the most, grotesque faces. Some of the faces are exceedingly elabo rate, having attached to them small thz •r&ttig *furr wooden images of seals, hears, wal ruses, reindeer and other animals which are expected to be killed dur ing the approaching summer. Frequently little boats are hung upon the masks, every such append age having a special symbolic mean ing. The material used is nearly al ways driftwood, of which plentiful supplies are cast up by the sea along the shores of the Arctic Alaska. The largest and most complicated masks represent the most powerful divinities, especially the sun god, who is himself a diet} of attributes ex tremely formidable. It is his festival, and even the finger masks, which are held in the hands of the performers during the mystic rites, are made in his likeness. In order to realize the significance of the masks worn by the Eskimos at their Easter festival, one must under stand the belief which those people entertain regarding the quasi-super natural character of ail animate things. Their notion is that every living thing possesses a ghost of semi human form and features, which en joys more or less freedom of move ment. That is to say, the ghost of a walrus may. under certain conditions, TZl leave the body of the animal for a time, and may appear in Its semi human aspect to the eyes of men. The idea is expressed by some of the ceremonial masks, which have double faces, a wooden muzzle being fastened with pegs in such a way as to be removable, to show a human like face beneath. The same effect Is obtained by small hinged doors, which open outward disclosing the human-like face, which represents the ghost. The bladders of marine mammals 'huger ii&sEtf. MtPRF&EimiTG- THE QUIT GW. PMKMHMME/BB—M—B^jinSlCTi11 MMf rW/T CiMBflffHayrftMM are carefully removed and preserved, and at the time of the Easter, festival are inflated and hung up in the cere monial house. It is supposed that the ghosts of the slain animals continue to inhabit these bladders, which, later on. are-taken to a hole in the fee, opened, and thrust into the water under the Ice, so that the ghosts may return to their proper element. Thus liberated, the ghosts swim far out to sea and become reincarnated, so that the animals they represent tnay he killed and eaten again. Tho religion of the Eskimo, like that of the other sem'-savages, has much of witchcraft mixed up with it. An expert in magical arts is believed to have power to steal a persons ghost, so that the unfortunate thus deprived of his shade will pine away and die. Naturally, a misfortune of this kind is greatly dreaded. The finest collection of Eskimo masks in existence is owned by the National Museum, where the writer was permitted to take the accompany ing pictures. One Of the most not able specimens represents the head, neck and beak of a sandhill crane, nearly three feet In length. It is quite a unique curiosity in its way, the top of the bird's head being dug out so as to hold a small lamp, while two holes in front serve as eyes for the light to shine through. The light, it may be imagined, proceeds from the ghost of the crane resident within. Another curiosity is a finger mask representing a twinkling star—a carv ed face fringed with long feathers. Then there is a little mask, cleverly sculptured, designed in the likeness of a seal head. From the mouth of the seal projects a slender rod. turned up ward. with several small flat wooden ing their faros in a little box at the front end of the wagon. The senator saw a vacant space near the pay sta tion. He worked his way toward it, dropped into a seat, put his ticket in the box. and began reading a bulky document. Before he had read ten lines a lady asked aim if he would ‘‘Please be so kind.” and he dropped her fare in the box. This occurred again and again as people got into the herdic. Finally an o'd negro ‘‘mammy,’ with a basketful of washing sent up a quarter. The senator poked it out to the driver and was given a slip of tickets in return. He tore off one, dropped it in the box and handed the rest to ‘‘mammy.’’ It is contrary to herdic etiquette to buy tickets for a colored woman. She always wants “change." and the senator soon be came aware of his breach of custom by the tearful protests of “mammy.” “What am 1 to do?” asked tne Bos tonian. “I dunno an' I don’t care.” she said. “I wants twenty cents; I don't wrani no tickets.” Finally the senator fished a quarter out of his pocket, handed it to the old woman, who still had the tickets, 37/Zcffi: OFJL GOD A WLLOWITTG COTUC TKQ rTJSrVT 1'HIAUZd) ^ it\ disks fastened along its length at regular intervals. These disks are I bubbles rising from the mouth of I the seal, which is imagined to be un der water. Many such symbolic de vices are most ingenious, the rays of j the sun. for example, being indicated by feathers. All through Mexico and Central America, in ancient times, the faces of the dead were covered with masks of clay or metal, some of them of beaten copper, and only half a dozen years ago dozeus of skeletons wear ing copper masks were dug out of a group of burial mounds near Chilli cothe, O. In a prehistoric grave in Peru a silver mask was found on tho head of a mummy, and in this case, as well as in all others of the kind, a species of deification of the defunct was probably intended. The Aleutian islanders bury their dead with grotesque wooden masks over their faces, and the natives of the Prince William Sound region follow a like custom, their mortuary masks, for some unexplained reason, having usually one eye open and the other indicated by a slit merely, so as to give the expression of a comical wink. Some of the masks used in ceremoni als by the Indians of Vancouver is land roll their eyes and snap their jaws in a manner at once lifelike and grewsomo. But, in their way. the Eskimo masks here described are quite the moat re markable in the world. They are and jumped out of the herdie. Sh<\ W1J1 a smile of joy, tucked the tick ets and money in her pocket. WOES OF AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER His 'letinn Are Sometimes Not (irate ful for IIU Efforts. If the average amateur photographer would not attempt to make portraits! It is had enough to be misrepresented in an out-of-doors group, but when the snapshot man turns his attention to heads, and poses them near the camera it is too much. One of these mental tortures did this the other day. He cajoled a much photographed neighbor to allow him to practice upon her for the full face. His must have been an excellent lens, for nothing escaped it. It seemed to have X-ray qualities. It brought defects out of that poor woman's face of which she had never dreamed. There were big freckles which she had not seen since she was a child, wrinkles which made her 20 years older than she really was, savage Hues about hei mouth, ani her hair was turned into broomcorn. “There. I think that is a pretty good portrait,” said the amateur, as he turned over the result of his efforts tc the victim. “That is a good likeness.’ It was a likeness, too. There was the same strong resemblance which the caricaturist puts into his sketches and also the same hideous unlikeness. 2^£jJ-opening cans A supply on yonr pantry shelves enablss you to hare always at hand the essential* to the vsry best meals. The little liook. ‘How to Make flood Things to Eat," tells all about them— sent free. Libby's Atlas of the World, mailed free Tor 10 cents postage. LIBBY. McNEILL d LIBBY, CHICAOO. swnMsnawMWK Good enough I for anybody! I ^ll Havana Filler I ‘FLORODORA'BANDS are I of same value as tags from | 'STAR: 'HORSE shoe: n ‘spearhead: 'standard navy: I OLD PEACH & HONEY" I and U. T." Tobacco : --I 111! I