Misir. 

 in tin' wiiit 



3Rf 



Tlicy also iimiisi' tliciiistlvcs m tlii' winter by slidiii;. 

 down tlie steepest sn<i\v(hitts under tiie clills. A puul deal of tlie 

 time, however, they are following their parents or otiier .i;io\vn people, 



eatehinj; little flsh or f'etehing twiss for tirew 1 or hel])in« drive the 



dogs, thoiijih as a rule they are not made to do any ref,Milar work until 

 tlicy arc pretty well jirown. 



Musical instrnments.— The only musieal instrument in use anioiij; these 

 people is the vuiiversal drum' or tambourine (kelyati), eonsistiuK of a 

 membrane stretched over a hoop with a handle on one side, and used 

 from Greenland to Siberia. It is always aecompauied by tiie voice 

 singing or chanting. The player holds the handle in his left lian<l with 

 the membrane away from him, and strikes alternately on each side of 

 the rim with a short heavy piece of ivory, or a long slender wand, ro- 

 tating the drum slightly at the same time 

 to meet the stroke. This produces a loud, 

 resonant, and somewhat musical note. There 

 appears, however, to be no system of tuning 

 these drums, the pitch of the note depending 

 entirely on accident. 



We collected four of these drums, of which 

 every household possesses at least one. 

 They are all of essentially the same con- 

 struction, but vary in size. No. 50741 [79J, 

 Fig. 3.s;}, has been selected as the type. The 

 frame is a flat strip of willow 07 inches long, 

 1 inch wide, and 0-3 inch thick, bent till the 

 two ends meet, thus making a hoop --!•- 

 inches long and 19 inches wide. The ends 

 are fastened together by a strap of walrus 

 ivory on the inside of the hoop, secured to 

 the wood by neat stitches of black whalebone. 

 ivory 5-2 inches long. The larger end is rather rudely carved into a 

 human face. Back of this head and 1 inch from the large end of the 

 handle is a scjuare transverse notch, deep and sufliciently wide to fit 

 over both rim and strap at the Joint. It is held on by a lashing of sinew 

 braid passing through holes in rim and strap, one on each side of the 

 handle, and a large transverse hole in the latter, below and a little in 

 front of the notch. The membrane, which appears to be a sheet of the 

 peritoneum of a seal, is stretched over the other side of the hoop, which 

 is beveled on the outside edge, and its edge is brought down to a deep 



' Xonlonal<iolii calls this " tin- ilniiil, nv morn correctly, taraboiiriuo, so common among most of the 

 Polar pcojilcs. Knropcan. Asiatic, atul American; among the Lapps, the Samoycds, the Tungusos, and 



The handle is of walr 



