THE HOT EMISSION-LINE OBJECTS IN IRAS-17380-3031 AND IRAS-18405-0448

Near-infrared spectroscopy of two IRAS sources, 17380-3031 and 18405-0 448, whose LRS spectra suggested the presence of carbonaceous dust, co firms that the former is a late-type Wolf-Rayet (WC8-9) star and shows that the latter is not, Together with new red spectroscopy, our data for IRAS 18405-0448 show H I(Ha and Pa6-16), O I excited by the Ly bet a fluorescence mechanism, Fe II, [S III] and [O II], This shows that I RAS 18405-0448 is similar to luminous emission-line objects like LkH a lpha 101 or eta Car. The reddening from the continuum and Paschen decr ement is found to be E(B - V) = 5.5 +/- 0.5 and that from the O I line s E(B - V) greater than or equal to 4.5. It is suggested that this ext inction is mostly circumstellar and that the corresponding absorption in the 'silicates' feature can account for the IRAS LRS spectral shape . New photometry of IRAS 17380-3031 indicates variability in the dust luminosity on a time-scale similar to 1.4 yr, possibly caused by varia tion in the dust condensation rate.