4: CAVE KELICS OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. 



been drilled into the idea that the ancient rites were wholly infamous and dam 

 nable, that it is at present impossible to obtain any information ; even from 

 those whose age renders it almost certain that they must know a good deal 

 respecting the ancient customs. They have even come to regard their ancestors 

 as Pagans, and to attach no reprobation to the ethnologist who may rifle their 

 burial places. It is probable that after the Russian rule became tolerably well 

 established, some of the more independent spirits among them left the settle 

 ments and took to the mountains, or the less frequented portions of the shores of 

 the larger islands, and for a time secured a precarious existence. At least I 

 refer to some such origin as this, a singular superstition, still current, and firmly 

 believed, even by the best educated and most intelligent among them. This is to 

 the effect that there are still living among the mountains or on the less fre 

 quented coasts, bands of unchristianized people whom they denominate Vay geli. 

 These are supposed to be capable of any crime, and to nourish great hostility to 

 the Christian natives. 



Very intelligent natives firmly assert that they have seen them. In hard 

 seasons they are asserted to visit villages in the night and steal food. If a raven 

 carries off an Aleut s fish, hung up to dry, it is referred at once to the Vay geli ; 

 and if a native disappears perhaps lost in his kyak in crossing a tide-rip in one 

 of the straits he is often supposed to have joined one of the bands of spectral 

 outlaws. 



It is almost needless to say that there is no reasonable ground for any such 

 belief at present. 



Like most of the Innuit tribes they were fond of dances and festivals, which, 

 like those of Norton Sound, were chiefly celebrated in December. Food was 

 then plenty, and the other hunting season did not commence till a little later. 

 Whole villages entertained other villages, receiving the guests with songs and 

 tambourines. Successive dances of children, naked men beating their rude 

 drums, and women curiously attired, were followed by incantations from the 

 Shamans. If a whale was cast ashore, the natives assembled with joyous and 

 remarkable ceremonies. They advanced and beat drums of different sizes. The 

 carcass was then cut up and a feast held on the spot. The dances had a 

 mystic significance. Some of the men were dressed in their most showy attire 

 and others danced naked in large wooden masks which came down to their 

 shoulders and represented various sea animals. 



They had religious dances and festivals in December. During these, tempo 

 rary images, made of wood or stuffed skins, were carried from island to island 

 and strange ceremonies, of which we have only dim traditions, were performed 

 in the night. Hundreds of women, wearing masks, were said to have danced 

 naked in the moonlight ; men being rigidly excluded, and punished even with 

 death on intrusion. The men had similar dances. An idea prevailed, that while 



