392 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



succession and as quickly despatched, while the singers pointedly 

 alluded to the praiseworthy Kussian custom of distributing tobacco. 

 When the desired article had been produced, a woman then repre- 

 sented with great skill all the various stages of stupefaction resulting 

 from smoking and snuffing. The women dressed in men's parkas." 

 A man's entertainment witnessed by Zagoskin took place in 

 the same village. The preparatory arrangements were similar ; 

 one of the women, a sorceress, lead the chorus. Her first song 

 on that occasion praised a propensity of the Russian for making 

 presents of tobacco, rings, and other trifles to women, who, in 

 their turn, were always ready to oblige them. This, however, was 

 only introductory, the real entertainment beginning with a chorus 

 of men concealed in the fire-hole. The gist of their chant was 

 that trapping, hunting, and trade were bad, that nothing could be 

 made, and that they could only sing and dance to please their wives. 

 To this the women answered that they had long been aware of the 

 laziness of their husbands, who could do nothing but bathe and 

 smoke, and that they did not expect to see any food produced, such 

 as the women had placed before them, consequently it would be 

 better to go to bed at once. The men answered that they would 

 go and hunt for something, and shortly one of them appeared 

 through the opening. This mimic, who was attired in female ap- 

 parel, with bead-pendants in his nose, deep fringes of wolverine 

 tails, bracelets, and rings, imitated in a most admirable and humor- 

 ous manner the motions and gestures of the women in presenting 

 their luxuries, and then gave imitations of the various female pur- 

 suits and labor, the guests chuckling with satisfaction. Suddenly 

 the parka was thrown off, and the man began to represent how he 

 hunted the mahklok, seated in his kayak, which performance ended 

 with the production of a whole boiled mahklok, of which Zagoskin 

 received the throat as his portion. Others represented a reindeer- 

 hunt, the spearing of birds, the rendering of beluga-blubber, the 

 preparation of seal-intestines for water-proof garments, the splitting 

 of deer-tendons into thread, and so forth. One young orphan who, 

 possessing nothing wherewith to treat the guests, brought on a 

 kantag filled with water, which was drunk by the women amid 

 much merriment. It sometimes happens on these occasions that 

 lovers of fun sprinkle the women with oil, or with that fluid which 

 they use in place of soap, squirted from small bladders concealed 

 about their persons ; and such jokes are never resented. 



