Lizard Masks

Lizard Masks Lizard Masks

It seems highly unlikely that Lizard masks were made before the Great Cataclysm when he was worshipped as a god. Idols are one thing but masks that can be worn are another. It would have been presumptuous to play god! The mask shown here is fairly typical; the iridescent greens (the Pagu crushed fish scales and mixed them with pigments to achieve the effect), the golden yellow eyes suggestive of the full moon with which he is closely associated, and the oddly smiling mouth. Some observers have noted that only Lizard masks depict smiles. The Pagu were amused to learn that Westerners associated the moon with insanity and quickly took up the term lunatic, meaning a crazy person in their everyday language. The black area on the forehead is not found on all Lizard masks. It is probably a later development and serves as sort of a blackboard on which symbols, images or words appropriate to the particular performance can be drawn.

Lizard performers usually wore cloaks of large leaves stitched together which were suggestive of scales, and had tails which sometimes were attached to the dancer's hips and they were able to swish them. The performers, often older people, generally did little dancing but shuffled about slowly. They would laugh, gesture, mime but never speak. Their role was to observe and comment, often mockingly, on the other performers. The appearance of Lizard in a performance was a message not to take anything very seriously, not that they did anyway. Lizard also represented the Fool, a fool as god, as symbolizing man's folly.