FIG. 7: Luba horn-like coiffure from the Lake Boya region. Drawing by W. F. P. Burton between 1915 and 1930. Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, EA.2007.3.1-33. © Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale. 128 mask. In these works, the artists leave no doubt as to the nature of what the protuberances represent. The refinement of the incising work and the careful way in which they are placed make it clear that they are to be seen as a stylized coiffure, and they are too “civilized” to have the rough and powerful appearance of real horns. However, this cannot be said of our mask, whose face appears to be framed more by robust horns than by braids. The presence of incised designs does not contradict this hypothesis (fig. 12). Indeed, these designs remind one less of hair ornaments than they do of patterns that decorate the bovine horn rhytons that various Congolese groups, such as the Luluwa and the Kuba, are known to have used. One thing is undeniable: If the horn hypothesis is accepted, it inevitably leads to the subsidiary question of zoological identification. Buffalo or Ram? Some Africanists who have studied the mask and attempted to analyze its iconography have interpreted the horns as being those of a ram (Ovis aries), while others believed them to be buffalo (Syncerus caffer). Since the horns are among the mask’s most important elements, we will examine the arguments that support these two different opinions. The proponents of the ram attribution would argue that the horns’ strongly curved aspect unmistakably evokes ovine anatomy in this respect (fig. 14). More- OBJECT history FIGS. 8A and B (upper right): Helmet mask with horn-like braids. Bena- Mballa, DR Congo. Wood. H: 48 cm. Seattle Art Museum, 81.17.868. Donated by Katherine White & The Boeing Company. © Seattle Art Museum. that of horns.3 This interpretation is based on the study of photographs, drawings, and notes that depict or relate to coiffures in Katanga and Kasai, which now no longer exist. Included in this discussion are the watercolors of W. F. P. Burton (fig. 7). To sum up their position, the proponents of the coiffure do not entirely reject the idea of horns, but they do argue against an overly cursory interpretation. For them, these are not actual horns, but they can be seen as evocations of them. As reasonable as this sounds, this explanation fails to be completely convincing. To develop this hypothesis, it is important to point out that the Tervuren mask is not the only one to have such protuberances. They are present on masks said to be Bena-Mballa4 (figs. 8a and b), on Songye-style ivories (fig. 9), on cephalomorphic Western Luba or Kanyok cups (fig. 10), and even on sculptures that show a strong Hemba stylistic influence (fig. 12). However, it must be noted that the sculptural treatment of the protuberances on the above-mentioned objects is very different from that seen on the Tervuren
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