NELSON] DANCES 353 



along the Arctic coast, resonant pieces of wood are regularly beaten 

 to aid the drum accompaniment during dancing. For this purpose a 

 short, heavy baton of walrus ivory is generally used. Such an instru- 

 ment (figure 138), was obtained at Port Clarence. It is 10^ inches in 

 length by an inch in diameter, rounded, beveled at each end, and has 

 the slight curve of the tusk from which it was made. Fine shavings 

 are bound around the butt by a braided sinew cord to afford a grip, and 

 a deerhorn peg close to the projecting end of the handle prevents the 

 hand from slipping. Extending from near this peg to the other end of 

 the grip is a loop of twisted sinew cord which aids in holding the instru- 

 ment firmly. On its outer end the mouth, eyes, asid blowholes of a 

 right whale are represented by incised holes and pits. Between the 

 blowholes are inserted some small, downy feathers, held in place by 

 wooden pegs, to represent the spouting of the whale. 



In addition to the dances performed during the various festivals and 

 described in connection with those ceremonies, various others are prac- 

 ticed among the Eskimo with whom I came in contact. These latter 

 are generally executed for pastime, and are often merely a series of 

 movements supposed to be graceful or pleasing; at other times they 

 are distinctly symbolic, frequently carrying out and illustrating a long 

 narrative by gestures and sometimes accompanied by a song. Dances 

 are usually accompanied by the beating of one or more drums and by 

 the singing of the drummers, and sometimes of other males, but at times 

 the drummers cease, and the dancing continues to the sound of voices. 

 Some of these i^erformances are extremely grotesque, the dancers being 

 young men, often quite nude or simply wearing a pair of ornamental 

 trunks made of fine deerskin, who sing or utter loud cries and leap 

 about, gesticulating with their arms and legs and contorting their bodies 

 in every conceivable manner. The object of such dances is apparently 

 to amuse the spectators, and the successful dancers frequently cause 

 great laughter among the assembled people by the absurdity of their 

 attitudes and movements. The young men exert themselves in friendly 

 rivalry at such times until they are forced to cease from sheer exhaustion. 



Both men and women take part in the dances, each having certain 

 movements peculiar to himself. The women remain with their feet 

 planted sc^uarely on the floor and, swaying the body and slowly gestic- 

 ulating with hands and arms, go through the figures permitted to them, 

 always keeping time to the music. Very commonly the women have a 

 long, feather wand in each hand which they wave slowly back and forth 

 as they move. During certain religious festivals they also use finger- 

 masks — small, round, flat pieces of wood with a i)rojection below, through 

 which are one or two holes for admitting the first or the first and second 

 fingers; they are carved to represent a human face or a face ">upposed to 

 belong to some animal, an inua^ or some supernatural being. They 

 are generally' painted and surrounded by a halo-like fringe, formed 

 by the upstanding hair on a narrow band of skin, usually of the reiu- 

 18 El H 23 



\/ 



