356 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH.ANX. 18 



of her father s life and battles during the wars among the villagers 

 preceding the arrival of the white men; the gestures were mainly 

 beyond my comprehension, but the Eskimo about me appeared to 

 understand them all. I could interpret the motions of stealthy approach 

 and retreat, then a struggle with the enemy and the flight, ending by a 

 sudden turn and the killing of a pursuer by a spear thrust. In addition 

 there were a great deal of gesture and posture with hands and bodies 

 whicli seemed to be full of meaning to the people about me. This 

 woman s companion went through a series of motions describing berry 

 picking and various other occupations of women in the summer and fall. 

 During all their movements both of them were extremely graceful and 

 kept accurate time to the music. 



On February 12, 1880, 1 remained over night in the village of Unalak- 

 lit, where a number of dances were given in my honor. Soon after dark 

 I was invited to the kashim, where a dozen young men were stripped to 

 the waist and ranged around the room in a circle. Five or six old men 

 stood near the lamp at the rear end of the room beating a drum and 

 singing one of the common dance songs; the young men postured and 

 leaped with such energy that the perspiration ran down their bodies, 

 as it did also from the faces of the drum men. There seemed to be a 

 rivalry between the musicians and the dancers to outdo one another, 

 and the singers would stop to take breath occasionally, quickly begin 

 ning again while the dancers were still panting, causing laughter at the 

 expense of the latter. This continued for some time, until the dancers 

 acknowledged themselves defeated and sat down. Then a young man 

 came out alone, stripped to the waist, and stood before the entrance 

 hole in the middle of the room. On his face was a mask representing a 

 wolf-head. lie stood for a few moments appearing to look intently 

 into the hole in the floor while he postured slowly back and forth with 

 his arms and body; while he did this two women came up behind him, 

 stood close by and began gesturing, imitating in perfect time every 

 motion made by him. Then the time of the song suddenly changed, the 

 women stepping out quickly, one upon each side a few paces away, 

 and all three postured, swaying back and forth to the song. The man 

 moved first toward one woman then toward the other with a gliding 

 motion and appeared to try to grasp them with one hand, never losing 

 the time and keeping the motion uniform with the movements of the 

 women. After he had done this he resumed his first position, the women 

 stepped back to their former place, and the dance soon ended. This 

 was said to represent a wolf hunting reindeer. 



When this dance ended, the man who wore the wolf mask went out, 

 but came in again very quickly wearing a mask representing a human 

 face; he took the same position as before, beginning with a set of 

 postures of the arms and body different from those seen in the first 

 dance. He was joined by the two women, one on each side of him, and 

 all went through the motion of picking berries, whicli was done very 



