494 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [eth.ann.18 



before. When the memory of his unfaithful wife had become faint, he 

 took a wife from among the maidens of the village and lived hapi)ily 

 with her the rest of his days. 



ORIGIN OF THE YU-GI-YHIK' OR I'-TI-KA-TAH' FESTIVAL, 

 (From Ikogniut, on the lower Yukon) 

 [This festival is observed by the Eskimo of the lower Yukon from 

 about Ikogmnt (Mission) up to the limit of their range on the river. 

 Beyond that the festival is observed by the Tinne at least as far as 

 Anvik, they having borrowed it from the Eskimo. The festival is 

 characterized by the jdaciiig of a wooden doll or image of a human 

 being in the kasliim and making it the center of various ceremonies, 

 after which it is wrapped in birch-bark and hung in a tree in some 

 retired spot until the following year. During the year the shamans 

 sometimes pretend to consult this image to ascertain what success will 

 attend the season's hunting or fishing. If the year is to be a good one 

 for deer hunting, the shamans pretend to find a deer hair within the 

 wrappings of the image. In case they wish to predict success in fish- 

 ing, they claim to find fish scales in the same place. At times small 

 oflFerings of food in the shape of fragments of deer fat or of dried fish 

 are placed within tlie wrappings. The place where the image is con- 

 cealed is not generally known by the people of the village, but is a 

 secret to all except the shamans and, perhaps, some of the oldest men 

 who take prominent parts in the festival. An old headman among the 

 Mission Eskimo informed me that the legend and festival originated 

 among the people of a place that has long been deserted, near the 

 present village of Paimut, and that thence it was introduced both up 

 and down the Yukon and across the tundra to the people living on 

 lower Koskokwim river. The names of this festival are derived, first, 

 Yu-gi-yMli from yu'-gul; a doll or manikin, and I'-tt-M-tah' from i-tukh- 

 toJcj "he comes in," thus meaning the doll festival or the coming-in 

 festival, the latter referring to the bringing in of the doll from the tree 

 where it is kept during the year.] 



At the foot of the mountains below Paimut, near where a small sum- 

 mer village now stands, there was in ancient days a very large village 

 of Eskimo, which was so large that the houses extended from the river 

 bank some distance up the hillside. 



In this village lived two young men who were relatives and were also 

 noted shamans and fast friends. For a long time they remained unmar- 

 ried, but at last one of them took a wife, and in the course of time had 

 a daughter who grew to womanhood, was married, and to her was born 

 a son. As soon as this child was born its grandfather killed it and 

 carried the body out into the spruce forest and hung it to a tree, where 

 it remained until it was dried or mummified. 



Then the old man took it down, placed it in a small bag, which he 

 hung about his neck by a cord, and wore it secretly under his clothing 



