NELSON] MASKS AND MASKETTES 393 



hole in the ice and, after being opened, are thrust into the water under 

 the ice so that the shade may return to its i^roper element. The shade 

 is supposed to swim far out to sea and there to enter the bodies of 

 unborn animals of their kind, thus becoming reincarnated and render- 

 ing game more i^lentiful than it would be otherwise. If the shades are 

 pleased with the inanner in which they have been treated by the 

 hunter who killed the animal they occupied, it is said they will not be 

 afraid when they meet him in their new form and will permit him to 

 approach and kill them again without trouble. 



Several of the St Michael Eskimo told me that they knew this rein- 

 carnation to be true, as a man living at a village on the outer side of 

 the island killed a seal a few years ago which had the same mark on its 

 bladder that he had put on the bladders at the festival the previous 

 year. It should be noted that each hunter puts his totem mark or 

 other i)ersonal sign in red or black paint upon his bladders so that 

 they may be distinguished from those of other hunters. The aromatic 

 smoke and red flames of the resinous stalks of the wild parsnip are 

 thought to be very pleasing to the shades of the animals whose bladders 

 are treated with them, and at the same time the flame drives away any 

 uncleanuess and unfavorable influence that may be present. 



During the continuance of this festival at St Michael, and at other 

 places where it is observed, no man or large boy sleeps away from the 

 kashim and the men keep rigidly apart from the women. If a man 

 breaks this rule it is said he will have no success as a seal hunter. On 

 this account the men avoid as much as possible going into their own or 

 any other house, for fear of becoming unclean. They bathe twice a day, 

 morning and evening, in the kashim, but their food and water are 

 brought to them as usual by the women. 



No females who have reached puberty are permitted near or under 

 the bladders while they hang in the kashim, as they are said to be 

 unclean and might offend the shades. Young, immature girls, how- 

 ever, may go about them as freely as the boys. 



During the continuance of this festival it is a necessary observance 

 that the kashim shall never be left entirely vacant. An old man at St 

 Michael told me that during one of these festivals at Pastolik the men 

 forgot this and went to an adjacent kashim for a short time. Suddenly 

 one of them remembered that their kashim had been left vacant and 

 hurried back in time to hear the shades in the bladders talking to one 

 another. One end of the line to Avhich they were hung had become 

 untied and the bladders were said to have moved near the doorway 

 ready to leave, the shades being angry at their neglect. 



MASKS AXD MASKETTES 



Masks were found in use among the Eskimo from Kotzebue sound 

 to the mouth of the Kuskokwim, but their use attains the greatest 

 development in the country along the lower Yukon and. thence south- 



