524 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



After the singers have rearranged themselves in the rear of the fire, 

 two of their number are sent to the door. Each has a rattle. They 

 are the herahls who announce the dances which are to be performed 

 that night in order to bring about the return of the novice. When 

 the singers and the members of the seal society are in their jilaces, the 

 people slip out singly and return to perform their dances. On this 

 evening they do not show the highest dances which they possess, but 

 those which they owned when they were children. On the whole the 

 lower grades of dances come iu first, the higher ones later on, but there 

 is no strict order. As soon as one of them approaches the house, the 

 heralds shake their rattles, and upon this signal the singers begin to 

 beat the boards rapidly, and continue to do so during the dance, at the 

 end of which they sing one song of the dancer. The character of these 



dances was described in the i)receding 

 chapter. 



When about one-half of all the dances 

 have been shown, and particularly after 

 a dance that has been well performed, two 

 messengers (ho'Laq'is, listeners) are sent 

 out by the speaker of the master of cere- 

 monies to listen if no sign of the hfi'mats'a's 

 return can be heard. They go out, listen, 

 and come back saying that they have not 

 heard anything. 



While the people are waiting for the 

 dancers to come in, railleries are going 

 on. The speaker of the yc/wix-ila sends 

 the heralds: "Go to our friend (the bear 

 dancer) and see if he has not washed."^ 

 The herald goes out, after turning in the 

 door. When he comes back, and the next dancer is to be a woman, he 

 may say: "She will not come; she is fighting with her husband;" or, 

 "She will not come; she and her husband are kissing each other." 



The dances continue until early, in the morning, when the ghost 

 dancer appears. As soon as the people sing his song, all the old 

 ha/mats'as, who have not entered the house so far, get excited, their 

 whistles are blown by the he/lig-a, and they enter the house from all 

 sides — through the roof, through the front door, and through the secret 

 doors in the rear of the house. They jump down on the floor, squat, 

 and, looking up, cry " hap hap ! " They j ump around the fire four times, 

 looking up and crying "hap!" all the time. Their cries are supposed 

 to be heard by the novice in the woods, who is heard all of a sudden 

 on the roof of the house. He runs around four times. Three times 

 he i)ushes t)ie boards of the roof aside, and then he jumps down. The 



Fig. 181. 



HEAD RIN(} OF HAI'ALIK-ADAE. 



L'a'sq'euox. 

 Cat. No. n552'>, U. S. N. M. Collected by F. Boas 



' Ha'g-a laxEns iiEmo'tua (na'ne). E'sae xo'sit. 

 Go to our friend (bear). Not he washed. 



