NELSON] BLADDER FESTIVAL 



and the other things were taken down from the walls, and all the wild- 

 parsnip stalks that remained in the room were tied in a large bundle, 

 which was fastened to the top of the stake like a huge broom or brush. 

 When this was done, the shaman went on the roof and, removing the 

 cover, put in his head repeatedly at each corner of the smoke hole, 

 while he made a grunting noise like a young puppy. Another knelt 

 over the entrance hole in front of the kashim and repeated the noise. 

 It was now 3 oclock, and the spearshafts to which the bladders were 

 fastened were passed up to the shaman through the smoke hole. Their 

 owners immediately went out through the passageway, and each obtain 

 ing the shafts bearing his bladders ran rapidly to the foot of the knoll 

 on which the village is located. When the hunters were all outside, 

 the top of the great brush of parsnip stalks on the stake was lighted, 

 making a huge torch, which was passed up through the smoke hole. 

 The chief shaman took it on his shoulder and ran across the snow- 

 covered plain as rapidly as possible, followed by all the men, holding 

 the bladders aloft on the ends of the spearshafts. Behind the hunters 

 ran the women, children, and old men, howling, screaming, and making 

 a great uproar. 



The night was cold, calm, and very dark, so that the lurid flame of 

 the torch arose ten or twelve feet, casting a red glare over the snow- 

 covered plain and lighting up the swarm of fantastic, fur-covered 

 figures that went streaming along in wild excitement. Nearly a quar 

 ter of a mile from the village the crowd reached the borders of a small 

 pond, where a square hole had been made through the ice, close by 

 which the shaman thrust the lower end of the stake into the snow so 

 that the torch stood erect. The hunters then stood by the hole in the 

 ice and, using a detached spearpoint, ripped open the bladders. Then 

 taking the collapsed bladders in one hand and a kaiak paddle in the 

 other, they marched several times around the hole, each time dipping 

 the point of the paddle blade and the collapsed bladders in the water 

 at the corners of the hole. They then put the bladders one at a time 

 into the water under the ice, where they remained. This ended the 

 ceremony and all returned to the village. 



Soon after daybreak four men with their paddles came in and, as 

 before, moved from corner to corner in succession until all were in, 

 when they marched around the room, making no motions with their 

 paddles, and then went out. When the first of these men came in he 

 was greeted by a great shout from everyone in the room, and the other 

 three were greeted successively on their entrance by a loud groaning 

 noise. An hour later the old men told everyone to be quiet, and two 

 men went to the entrance hole in the floor where they sat down side 

 by side. One of them held a bundle of small sticks, each stick repre 

 senting a hunter, and as he passed these singly from hand to hand the 

 other man rolled over on the floor as he had done with the grass wisps 

 on the previous evening. 



