368 THE ESKIMO A150UT BERING STRAIT [eth.axx. 18 



two ermine skins, tbe heads of the ermines being joined over the mid- 

 dle of the forehead and the skins drawn back on each side, and hanging 

 over the sides of the face. These were said to be totemic insignia. 



Third day 



About 4 oclock in the morning all the guests were aroused and called 

 into the kashim, where a far trader and myself, having come from 

 the most remote country, were given the places of honor on the bench 

 at the back of the room, to the left of the entrance. Xext to us were 

 the guests from Kuskokwim river, who came from the next farthest 

 place, the guests being j)laced in i^recedence according to the distance 

 from which they had come. The people were all seated in this way 

 under the direction of the old headman of the village, who sits at the 

 left of the drummers during the dances. 



When the guests were all seated the villagers came in and filled the 

 vacant places. The seats of the guests thus allotted are reserved 

 throughout the festival, and if a villager happens to be seated in one 

 of them when the guest enters, he at once vacates it in favor of the 

 original occupant; not to do so would be considered gross rudeness 

 and would call forth a reprimand from the old men. 



The kashim at this place had two tiers of sleeping benches around its 

 sides, aud these were both fully occupied by the guests. The villagers 

 gathered in a compact mass between the vacant space in the middle of 

 the room and the wall, but leaving a passageway along the sides and 

 back of the room, in which were ranged, at regular intervals, twelve 

 clay lamps, supported on wooden posts or wicker-top holders about 30 

 inches high. 



Each of these lamps was filled with seal oil and kept burning day 

 and night during the festival. These lights are said to be made to 

 burn constantly, so that the road back and forth from the land of the 

 dead may be lighted and the shades to be honored may have no diffi- 

 culty in coming to the feast. If one of the feast makers fails to i>ut up 

 a lamp in the kashim and keep it lighted, the shade he or she wishes 

 to honor would be unable to find its way and would thus miss the feast. 



When the people, numbering about two hundred, were seated, an old 

 man took a large drum, about 3i feet in diameter, aud sat on a stool in 

 the middle of the floor just iu front of the customary lamp which burns 

 at the back of the room. Then the headman of the village, who had 

 attended to the seating of the guests, sat on a small stool at the right 

 of the drummer, and on the left sat the headman's brother on a similar 

 stool. These acted as directors of the ceremonies and served also the 

 purpose of prompting the drummer during the songs. The arrange- 

 ment of the kashim was the same as on the first evening. 



The feast givers now filed iu, each carrying a woven grass bag con- 

 taining a fine suit of clothing worn during the dance of the preceding 

 evening. At this time each was dressed in his or her poorest and old- 

 est suit of clothing, tied about the waist by a cord of plaited grass. 



