Appx. 13" x 13" x 5"

22" tall with hair

With duck feathers, horse hair, and acrylic paint

"Sgungo or Skungonah was a hermit who lived in a cave near Kiusta, living on raw fish and birds. 

This mask is a study of an old Haida mask which had feathers around the mouth, and the appearance of starvation. I concluded that this mask represents the hermit of Kiusta. His cave later became a burial cave. 

Masks like this would be used by secret society members and part of a series of songs that open up the potlatch. There is a song that goes with the mask, and a dance where he reaches into holes for birds and eats them in the reenactment. 

It is said he was seen carrying birds (the ancient murrelet) back to his cave and he gave the appearance of them being a much larger and heavier catch than they were in reality."

-Corey Bulpitt