NELSON] TRADING FESTIVAL MORTUARY FEASTS 363 



The skins brought by the young men in this instance were taken by 

 the trader, but when the Eskimo give the festival these are distributed 

 among the young men of the village who contribute to the general 

 supply of articles to be distributed among the guests. 



In the middle of February, 1880, while at the head of Norton sound, 

 a party of Malemut were met on their way to a trading festival of this 

 kind at Uiialaklit. Their sledges were laden with reindeer skins. I 

 afterward learned that they took part in the festival, but being dissatis 

 fied with the presents given in return for their skins, they took them 

 back and returned home. 



In a rude sketch drawn for me by an Eskimo from the Kaviak pen 

 insula, the figures of a party of men from Cape Prince of Wales are 

 portrayed, showing them on their way to a festival of this kind and 

 being met by the villagers of the place to which they are going. 



FEASTS TO THE DEAD 



MORTUARY FEASTS IN GENERAL 



Every year the Iht -u-g-i at St Michael is held during the latter part 

 of Xovember or early in December. It is repeated two days after the 

 Bladder feast of autumn and just before the beginning of the salmon 

 fishing in spring. It is given for the sole purpose of making offerings 

 of food, water, and clothing to the shades of those recently deceased, 

 and of offerings to the dead who have not yet been honored by one 

 of the great festivals. The makers of this feast are the nearest rela 

 tives of those who have died during the preceding year, joined by all 

 others of the village who have not given a great feast to their dead. 



The day before the festival, among the Eskimo of St Michael and on 

 the lower Yukon, the nearest male relative goes to the grave of the 

 deceased and plants before it, if it be that of a man, a newly made stake 

 upon which is placed a small model of a seal spear, and if of a woman, 

 a wooden dish. Sometimes the spear model is replaced by the model of 

 a kaiak paddle or an umiak oar. Upon these implements are marked 

 the totems of the dead. At times, however, the totem of the deceased 

 is indicated by a simple wooden image of the totem animal, which is 

 placed on top of the stake. This is the notification which brings the 

 shade from the land of the dead to the grave, where it waits, ready to 

 be called into the kashim by the sohgs of invitation during the festival. 



At the Ihl -u-g V held the year preceding a great festival to the dead, 

 those making the festival plant other stakes of invitation bearing the 

 same symbols before the graves of those to be honored, and by these 

 graves are sung songs of invitation to the shades, informing them of 

 the approaching festival. It is said that when one of these festivals 

 begins with its opening song of invitation, the shades are in their 

 graves and come thence to the kashim, where they assemble in the fire 

 pit, under the floor. At the proper time they ascend from their place 



