NELSON] ORIGIN OF THE DOLL FESTIVAL 495 



as an amulet, thus having the services of its imta to assist him in his 

 ceremonies. His wife and daughter, however, knew what he had done 

 with the child. 



The unmarried shaman never took a wife, and after his friend began 

 to wear the child about his neck, he frequently saw among the shades 

 that came to do his bidding that of a small, new-born child. What it 

 was or why it came he could not understand, as it did not come at his 

 bidding. This was observed very often, and still he did not know that 

 his friend had the body. 



When one of these men was practicing his rites and found it difficult 

 to obtain help from the shades, his friend would assist him to accom 

 plish his object. One fine, warm day the unmarried shaman went up 

 on the hillside back of the village and sat down. As night came on he 

 fell asleep, and as he slept he saw the air filled with falling stars, and 

 then that the sky was sinking toward him until finally it rested upon 

 the hilltop so close that he had barely enough room to move about 

 below it. Looking around, he saw that every star was in reality a 

 round hole in the sky through which the light from above was shining, 

 liaising himself up, he put his head through the nearest star hole and 

 saw another sky with many stars shining above the first one. As he 

 looked, this sky sank slowly down until he could put his head through 

 one of the star holes in it, and above this were shining the stars in 

 still another sky. This, too, sank slowly down, and standing up he 

 found himself breast high above the third sky, and close by was a 

 kashim surrounded by a village like the one in which he lived. 



From familiar signs he saw that the men had just taken a sweat 

 bath. A woman was at work covering the air hole in the roof of the 

 kashirn with the gut-skin covering, while other women were carrying 

 in food. After looking about for a short time he decided to go into the 

 kashim and see the people. Then raising himself through the star 

 holes he walked to the kashim and entered it through the under 

 ground passageway. When he reached the inside he found the room 

 full of people sitting around on the floor and benches. He started to 

 cross the room to take a seat in the place of honor opposite the door, 

 but a man sitting over the main entrance called to him to sit beside 

 him, which he did. 



The women were still bringing in food, and the man who had spoken 

 first to the shaman, said, in a low voice, &quot;If you are offered food 

 do not eat it, for you will see that it is not fit to eat.&quot; The shaman 

 then looked about the room and saw lying at the side of each maD a 

 small wooden image, all of which represented different kinds of mam 

 mals, birds, and fishes. Over the lamps beside the entrance door were 

 two slender sticks of wood more than a fathom in length, joined at the 

 lower end and spread apart above like two outspread arms, along 

 the sides of which were fastened swan quills, and the upper end of 

 each stick bore a tuft of wolf hair. These sticks were designed to repre- 



