12 UNIVERSITY MUSEUM ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUBLICATION VOL. VI 



but being a white man, and therefore unaccountable, I was 

 greeted with a good-natured laugh and sent about my business. 



On the other hand, men are never allowed to take part in the 

 strictly women's dances, although nothing pleases an Eskimo 

 crowd more than an exaggerated imitation by one of their clowns 

 of the movements of the women's dance. The women's dances 

 are practiced during the early winter and given at the Aiyaguk, 

 or Asking Festival, when the men are invited to attend as spec- 

 tators. They result in offers of temporary marriage to the 

 unmarried women, which is obviously the reason for this rite. 

 Such dances, confined to the women, have not been observed in 

 Alaska outside the islands of Bering Sea, and I have reason to 

 believe are peculiar to this district, which, on account of its 

 isolation, retains the old forms which have died out or been 

 modified on the mainland. But throughout Alaska the women 

 are allowed the utmost freedom in participating in the festivals, 

 either as naskuks 1 or feast givers, as participants or as spectators. 



In fact, the social position of the Eskimo woman has been 

 misrepresented and misunderstood. At first sight she appears 

 to be the slave of her husband, but a better acquaintance will 

 reveal the fact that she is the manager of the household and the 

 children, the business partner in all his trades, and often the 

 "oomialik," or captain of the concern as well. Her husband 

 is forbidden by tribal custom to maltreat her, and if she owns 

 the house, she can order him out at any time. I have never 

 known a woman being head of a tribe, but sometimes a woman 

 is the most influential member of a tribe. 



1 Literally "Heads" or directors of the feasts. 



