432 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [eth.axx. 18 



At the village of Sfuguuugumut, in the same district, another shaman 

 attempted to change the weather for my benefit as follows: He put on 

 a gut-skin shirt and was wrapped closely in a large straw mat while 

 squatting in a sitting posture on the floor of the kashim. Four men 

 stood about him, and alter he had uttered a long series of curious cries 

 they went through various lifting motions in unison as if raising some- 

 thing from him. Then followed several veiitriloquial voices, after which 

 the old man was unwrapped and assured us of good weather in two 

 days. 



At a village just north of Cape Vancouver another shaman essayed to 

 conjure the weather for me. He knelt in front of the entrance, inside of 

 the kashim, and held both hands beneath his gut-skin shirt, rattling 

 it about while he uttered various cries and noises. A voice was then 

 made to reply to him from the passageway, after which he assured us 

 of good weather. 



At Chalitmut, near the mouth of Kuskokwim river, I arrived late 

 one winter afternoon and found a grass mat hanging over the outer 

 entrance to the kashim. Inside were two shamans at work on the form 

 of a withered old man, who lay with closed eyes on the deerskin in the 

 middle of the floor, evidently too feeble to move. Upon two sides of 

 the room stood a coujfle of men beating slowly upon drums. The sha- 

 mans, dressed in gut-skin shirts, were walking about the patient with 

 a strutting gait, each holding one hand before him inside the shirt and 

 the other behind him in the same way, rattling the shirt with both 

 hands. The motions and appearance of the two men were absurdly 

 like those of two game-cocks preparing for battle. During this time 

 they continued uttering cries like those used by the other shamans 

 mentioned when doctoring the weather. Suddenly they dropped upon 

 their knees, one at the old man's head and the other at his feet, both 

 facing him and uttering a series of shrill cries and hisses. Leaping to 

 their feet after this they repeated the cries, and two assistants came 

 forward and went through lifting motions exactly as the men had done 

 to procure good weather. When they had done this the assistants 

 each placed his arms and jialms together in front of him and then 

 separated his hands by drawing one back toward the body and push- 

 ing the other away from him with a sliding motion. With this the 

 performance ended and the old man was carried out. 



In another village, near the one last mentioned, 1 found a man standing 

 on the roof of a kashim, the door of \vhich was closed by a straw mat and 

 guarded by an old woman who tried to prevent my entrance. Passing 

 her I entered and surprised two shamans performing their incantations 

 over a sick child. The i^eople of the village were seated around the 

 room and the child was lying naked in his mother's lap in the middle 

 of the room. The shamans also were entirely naked and were circling 

 about when I entered, but stopped immediately and the woman hurrieci 

 out with the child. 



