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• Kwakwaka’wakw Artist
• Early 1900s
• Wood, paint, cloth, cord, and metal
• Native Arts acquisition funds, 1953.400A

This mask represents Bak’was or Wild Man of the Woods. Bak’was is a small but authoritative figure, about half the size of a grown man. He has a hooked nose, pointed ears, and a hairy, green body. He lives in the country of ghosts and is the Chief of the woodsmen and the keeper of drowned souls. If Bak’was encounters someone lost in the woods or traveling alone in a canoe, he will try to trick them into joining his entourage forever. Bak’was will offer the traveler what appears to be dried salmon but is actually rotten wood, maggots, snakes or lizards. If the traveler eats what Bak’was offers, he or she immediately will turn into a ghost and enter the realm of the dead.