424 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [kth.an.n. 18 



When the Coru-in was lying at the head of Kotzebue sound a Male- 

 mut begged to be permitted to stay all night on board, becanse if he 

 went on shore at dusk he would have to paddle by the grave of a man 

 who had died several weeks before. 



Among the lower Yukon peojile it is said that when a person dies he 

 can not see or hear anything at first, but Avhen his body is i^laced in 

 the grave box his shade becomes clairvoyant and can see all that goes 

 on about him; then other dead people come and point out the road 

 leading to the land of the shades. In this connection reference is made 

 to the tale which gives an account of the return of a girl from the land 

 of the dead and covering the beliefs held on this subject among the 

 lower Yukon Eskimo. 



When the shade of a recently deceased person becomes conscious, it 

 rises in form and clothing exactly as in life, and travels along the path 

 that leads away from the grave. The road has many others branching 

 off on one side or the other to villages where the shades of different 

 animals are living, each kind by itself. In these villages the shades of 

 animals occupy houses like those of human beings on earth. Finally 

 the shade arrives at a village, where it is claimed by relatives who have 

 died before, and is taken to a house where it lives an aimless existence, 

 depending on offerings of food, water, and clothing made by relatives 

 during the festivals to the dead. 



During this journey from the grave the shade has brought with it the 

 tools placed by its grave with the offerings of food and water. Upon 

 these supplies the shade subsists during its journey to the other world. 



On the Yukon a man told me that on the road to the village of the 

 dead the shade is offered water in a bucket, and if it attempts to drink 

 from the large receptacle without using the dipper, the other shades 

 clap the bucket over his head so that he is unable to drink. If a shade 

 disobeys the instructions of the shades in other ways they cause his 

 trousers to slip down so that he can not walk, and they otherwise annoy 

 him. 



The first child born in a village after a person dies is given the dead 

 one's name, and must rei)resent that person in subsequent festivals 

 which are given in his honor. This is the case if a child is born in the 

 village between the time of the death and the next festival to the dead. 

 If there be no child born, then one of the persons who helped prepare 

 the grave box for the deceased is given his name and abandons his own 

 for that purpose. 



When the festival to the dead is given in which the relatives of the 

 dead person wish to make offerings to the shade, the latter is invited to 

 attend by means of songs of invitation and by putting up sticks with 

 the totem marks of the deceased upon them. The shade becomes noti- 

 fied in this manner and returns to its grave box at the time appointed. 

 Songs of invitation and greeting call the shade from the grave box to 

 the fire pit under the floor of the kashim, where, in company with others. 



