3S4 TIIK rOINT HARROW ESKIMO. 



kci'piiis- one ball coiistiuitly in tlif air. Some of the women are very 

 skilllurat this, keepinj;- the balls up tor a long time. This play is 

 aceonipaiiied by a t-hant sunt;- to a monotonous tune with very little 

 air. l)ut strongly marked time. 1 never succeeded in catching the words 

 of this chant, which arc uttered with considerable rapidity, and do not 

 appear to be ordinary words. It begins " yu'B ym yuk^, jti-b yuB yukii; " 

 and some of the words are certainly indelicate to judge from the uue- 

 (piivocal gestures by which I once saw them accompanied. 



In the winter the young women and girls are often to be seen tossing 

 a snowl)all witli their feet. A girl wets some snow and makes a ball about 

 as big as her two fists, which of course immediately becomes a lump of 

 ice. This she balances on the toe of one foot and with a kick and a 

 jump tosses it over to the other foot which catches it and tosses it back. 

 Some women will keep this up for a number of strokes. 



The young people of both sexes also sometimes play football, kicking 

 about an old mitten or boot stuffed with rags or bits of waste skin. I 

 nciver saw them set up goals and play a regular game as they did in 

 Greeidand.' 



The little girls also play with the skipping rope. 1 once watched 

 three little girls jumping. Two swung the rope and the other stood in 

 the middle and jumped. First they swung the rope under her feet to 

 the right, then back under her feet to the left, and then once or twice 

 \\ holl> round under her feet and over her head, and then began again.^ 

 They also play at housekeeping, laying sticks round to represent the 

 sides of the house, or outlining the house by pressing up ridges of 

 snow bcitwcen their feet. Sometimes they mark out a complicated laby- 

 rinth on the snow in this way, and the game appears to be that one 

 shall guard this and try to catch the others if they come in, as in many 

 of the games of civilized children. 



I have already spoken of the tbrmal children's dances. They often 

 also dance by themselves, beating on old tin cans for drums. One 

 night I saw a party of children having (piite an elaborate performance 

 n(!ar our station. The snow at the time was drifted u|> close under the 

 eaves of the house. On the edge of the roof sat three little boys, each 

 beating vigorously on an empty txunato can and singing at the top of 

 his lungs, while another boy and a little girl were dancing on the snow 

 waving their arms iind singing as usual, and at the same time trying to 

 avoid another girl ab(rat thirteen years old, who represented a demon. 

 Slie was stooping forward, and moving slowly round in time with the 

 nnisic, turning from side to side and rolling her eyes fiercely, while she 

 licked the blade of an open clasp knife, drawing it slowly across her 

 lips. They seemed intensely in earnest, and were enjoying themselves 

 hugely. After dancing a while at the station they went over to the 

 village, and as they told me the next day spent the whole night singing 

 in a vacant snow-house. 



I S»« Eficde, p. 161, aurt Crantz, vol. 1, p. 177. 

 ' Compare Parry's Second Voyage, p. 541. 



