350 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT (eth.ann. 18 



do not understand what the noise says. It sounds confusedly in my 

 ears and is strange to them, so that I do not know what it says. I like 

 better to hear the drum and singing in the kashim, for I understand 

 it." But he added that he liked to watch the movements of the per- 

 former's fingers as they sped over the keyboard, the rapid motion pleas- 

 ing- him. I afterward made the same inquiry of other men from various 

 distant localities along the coast, when they heard the music at St 

 Michael, and received an almost identical reply. 



The drums used by the Eskimo of western Alaska and on the adjacent 

 coast of Siberia are made in one pattern, having- a rounded tambourine- 

 like frame, over one side of which is stretched a thin, parchment like 

 covering, usually made from the bladders of seals and walrus. The cover 

 is held in place by a cord of sinew or rawhide, wound around the outer 

 border of the drum in a sunken groove, enabling the cover to be tight- 

 ened at will. 



The frames, usually made of spruce, are from one to three inches in 

 width and are bent to form a ring, either circular or somewhat pear- 

 shape in outline, measuring from ten to thirty inches in diameter. The 

 largest ones seen in use were in the district between lower Yukon and 

 Kuskokwim rivers. Near the Kuslevak mountains a drum was seen 

 covered with tanned reindeer skin, which was the only exception to 

 the ordinary covering that was noted, and this was due to the fact that 

 the usual material could not be obtained at that jioint. 



Ordinarily the ends of the drum frame overlap and are fastened with 

 sinew or rawhide cords, which i)ass through holes m the wood; but 

 along the coast from Bering strait northward, drums were seen which 

 had the ends of the frame beveled to wedge-shape points and inserted 

 in a short, intervening piece of ivory of the same width and thickness 

 as the frame. These pieces were beveled with a deep, wedge-shape 

 slot to receive the ends of the wood, and juerced with holes through 

 which were passed wooden pegs to fasten the ends of the frame in place, 

 thus forming a neatly made joint. This splice is carved on its outer 

 border to match the groove on the edge of the frame for the reception of 

 the cover lashings. They are usually fitted with a handle from four to 

 six inches long, with a square notch in its upper surface for the recep- 

 tion of the lower edge of the frame. The latter is ordinarily held in posi- 

 tion by sinew lashings passed through holes and thence through corre- 

 sponding holes in the handle just below the notch, or are passed around 

 the handle. A drum from Sledge island and another from Cape Wan 

 karem, Siberia, are attached to their handles with wooden pegs inserted 

 through holes at the inner end of the handle and through the drum 

 frame in the notch. These handles are commonly plain rods of ivory, 

 deerhorn, or bone, round or oval in section, with the ends rounded, but 

 in many instances they are carved in various patterns. 



One of these handles (number 43807), which was obtained at Shakto- 

 lik, is of walrus ivory, and is six inches long by an inch and a half in 



