98 Playing tlie Key-low-tih. [ivoTember, i864. 



heard, little whisps of reindeer-hair are tucked in between the skin and 

 the hoop, until the head is as tight as a drum. 



When the liey-low-tik is played, the drum-handle is held in the left 

 hand of the performer, who strikes the edge of the rim opposite that 

 over which the skin is stretched. He holds the drum'in different posi- 

 tions, but keeps it in a constant fan-like motion by his hand and by 

 the blows of the ken-toon struck alternately on the opposite sides of 

 the edge. Skillfully keeping the drum vibrating on the handle, he 

 accompanies this with grotesque motions of the bod}^, and at intervals 

 with a song, while the women keep up their own Innuit songs, one 

 after another, through the whole performance. 



At this first exhibition which Hall witnessed some twenty-five 

 men, women, and children — every one who could leave home — assem- 

 bled to see the skill of the performers, who would try the newly-fin- 

 ished instrument. As usual, the women sat on the platform, Turk 

 fashion ; the men, behind them with extended legs. The women were 

 gaily dressed. They wore on each side of the face an enormous pig- 

 tail, made by wrapping their hair on a small wooden roller a foot in 

 length; strips of reindeer-fur being wrapped with the hair. These 

 were black and white for those who had sons, and black only for those 

 who had none. Shining ornaments were worn on the head, and on 

 the breast they had masonic-like aprons, the groundwork of which was 

 of a flaming red color, ornamented with glass beads of many colors. 

 Tlie women thus presented a pleasing contrast with the dark visages 

 (jf the men in the background ; while their naked infants were playing 

 here and there in a mother's lap, or peering out from their nestling 

 place in a liood. 



OoJ:-har-loo was the first performer. This young man was a son 



