388 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [eth.anx.18 



to the mau opposite ou the other mat, who broke it into halves and bound 

 the two ends together. Then taking up the stump of the parsnip-stalk 

 torch, to which the spearpoints were attached, he lighted it and passed 

 the lighted end over and around the grass, at the same time saying in 

 a loud voice, " When they sit down they are sleepy and fall down;" 

 he then fell, and, rolling over, laid the grass on the floor. This was 

 repeated for every hunter, and symbolized the killing of the seals with 

 the spearpoints which were attached to the torch. In the middle of the 

 night the lamps were again extinguished and the shaman went on the 

 roof, where another speech was made to the bladders through the smoke 

 hole. This speech was ended by a blowing noise, such as is made by 

 seals and walrus when they come to the surface to breathe. Afterward 

 the shaman made a squeaking and grunting noise, such as a pup seal 

 utters when trying to find its mother. 



At 4 oclock in the morning everyone arose, and the dances given by 

 sets of four men on the previous night were repeated in all their details, 

 except that fewer motions were made with the arms and the upper part 

 of the body. The woman dancing with each set took the unlighted 

 bunch of parsnip stalks and passed it about the dishes of food before 

 they were ofi'ered to the iiiuas of the bladders. 



When the dance and the food ofterings had been completed, the chief 

 shaman — the one first mentioned as leading the ceremonies and who 

 directed all the observances — lighted a jiarsnip-stalk torch and passed 

 it about the room, holding it close to the floor. He then circled with it 

 about each of the dancers, who removed their fur coats and the torch 

 was passed about their bodies and inside and about their fur coats. 

 This was said to be done to purify the room and the dancers and to 

 remove any evil influence that might bring sickness or bad luck to the 

 hunters. Four of the men then sat beneath the bladders for a short 

 time, after which they arose and seated themselves close together on 

 the sleeping bench behind the spears and bladders. 



A woman then brought in a large wooden bucket of food, and, after 

 passing a lighted parsnip-stalk torch about it, made an oflering to the 

 bladders. She then stood in front of the bladders, facing the middle 

 of the room, and so near that the bladders brushed her back when 

 they were swung back and forth a moment later by a man hauling on 

 a cord. The shaman then took a boy about twelve years of age, who 

 was stripped to the waist, and laid him across the entrance hole in the 

 floor, at the same time kneeling over him and making a low noise like 

 the note of the murre. Beneath the floor a man started a song, in 

 which the people in the kashim joined. 



Immediately after the song was finished the hunters rushed to the 

 bladders and each took those he owned and fastened them about the 

 heads of two or three of the pointless spearshafts. A song was then 

 sung by the people and the bladders were laid with the spearshaftson the 

 floor by the entrance hole, while all of the other spears, the large stake. 



