386 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH.AXS.IS 



wild-parsnip stalks was lighted and waved flaming, toward the cardinal 

 points, after which the charred stumps were laid at the foot of the 

 stake. About noon t\vo men took the small bundles of parsnip stalks 

 and lighted them, waving the flame about the bladders, and after 

 carrying them around the room went out through the passageway 

 to the outer door. The charred stalks were then brought back and 

 laid on the floor under the large bundle of stalks on the stake. Noth 

 ing more was done until just after noon, when a bag made of sealskin 

 was brought in. The men then took their urine buckets and went out 

 side, carrying the bag, and each poured urine from his bucket upon it, 

 shouting loudly some unintelligible words, after which all came back 

 into the room and stripped themselves to the waist. 



Soon afterward the cover was removed from the smoke hole in the 

 roof, and the sealskin bag, having attached to it the four helmets worn 

 by the rneii who had entered with the paddles on the previous evening, 

 was lowered through the hole by a rawhide line and was hung on the 

 stake at the head of the room; then the owners went to the helmets 

 and removed the grass that was fastened to them, and each tied a few 

 blades to his bunch of bladders. The helmets were then taken down 

 and placed on the floor at the foot of the stake. 



Up to this time the seal bag had been empty, but it was now taken 

 down and inflated and hung up by the nose on the middle of the sheaf 

 of spears to which the bladders were fastened; to each hind-flipper 

 was tied a primary wing-feather of the Pacific glaucous gull. There 

 was then an interval without ceremonies lasting until evening. 



Early in the evening everyone gathered in the kashim and the wal 

 rus skull and the grass mats were placed in the same position as on the 

 previous evening. Suddenly a burning stalk of wild parsnip was 

 waved in the entrance hole from below, a man s head appeared, and a 

 dish of food was placed on the floor and slid across to the corner of the 

 room between the bladders and the stake; the man entered and went 

 over to the bladders, where he stopped. Another man then went through 

 the same performance, waving the burning stalk and sliding in a dish 

 of food, etc, succeeded by two others, until the four men were ranged 

 side by side in front of the bladders. They were the same who had 

 come in with the paddles during a former ceremony. 



The first lighted a bunch of parsnip stalks, to which was tied all the 

 points taken from the fallen spears on the preceding night. Waving 

 this about a few times in the corner where his wooden dish had been 

 slid, he raised it over his head and turned once slowly around. After 

 this the blazing mass was waved over the four wooden dishes which 

 had been slid into the corner, over the two empty buckets which had 

 contained the water symbolizing the sea during the last night s cere 

 monies, and about the bladders and the charred stumps were then laid 

 at the foot of the stake. 



He went next to the four wooden dishes and made motions as though 



