NELSON] GREAT FEAST TO THE DEAD 371 



with the drum handles. The dancers stopped and stamped quickly on 

 the floor, first with one foot, then with the other. Each of them raised 

 his hands over his head and drew them down over the body as if 

 wiping something from it. When their hands reached their hips they 

 began slapping their thighs quickly and sat down slowly on the floor. 

 Then the men, with bent bodies, filed slowly back to their original 

 places and sat dpwn by their companions. After sitting quietly for a 

 long time the dancers went home to replace with their old suits the 

 new clothing they had worn during the dance. I was told that the 

 wiping motion, followed by the stamping and the slapping on the 

 thighs, indicated that the feast makers thus cast off all uncleanness 

 that might be offensive to the shades, and thus render their offerings 

 acceptable. 



In a short time the namesakes of the dead gathered in the place 

 made for them in the center of the room and sat down. The feast 

 givers then came in, each bearing one or more new wooden buckets 

 containing frozen fish. They went first to the lamps burning for the 

 shades and dropped on the floor by them fragments of the fish as food 

 offerings. Then a bucket of water was given to each of the namesakes, 

 and they dipped their hands twice into it and sprinkled it on the floor, 

 thus making a libation to the shades to accompany the food. After 

 this each feast maker gave the remainder of the fish to the namesakeof 

 his dead. After the namesakes had all eaten, the empty dishes were 

 removed. The feast givers then brought in between 3,000 and 4,000 

 pounds of frozen fish, consisting mainly of loach, whitefish, blackfisli, 

 and pickerel, which were placed by the door in individual piles. This 

 fish was in woveu-grass bags and frozen solid, having been kept thus 

 since autumn. Each feast giver sat down silently beside his or her 

 pile, and in a few moments a man came in and started to cross the 

 room to his place, when an old man called out some epithet, to which 

 he replied in seeming anger. The first speaker answered, and the two 

 kept up a rapid and apparently angry series of retorts for several 

 minutes. 



This byplay, which had been prearranged in order to put the guests 

 in good humor, caused great laughter. When it was finished the feast 

 givers rose and, with wooden mauls and reindeer-horn wedges, sepa- 

 rated the masses of frozen fish into fragments, which were distributed 

 among the people, the guests from the greatest distance receiving the 

 most. The fur trader and myself received about 250 pounds each. 



Fourth day 



Very early in the morning the feast makers came into the kashim and 

 refilled their lamps with seal oil, and then brought in food consisting 

 of whitefish oil, dried salmon, and seal blubber. After they had made 

 their customary offering of small fragments before each of the lamps 

 burning for the dead, the food was distributed among the people, and 



