350 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
do not understand what the noise says. It sounds confusedly in my 
ears and is strange to them, so that I do not know what it says. I like 
better to hear the drum and singing in the kashim, for I understand 
it.” But he added that he liked to watch the movements of the per- 
former’s fingers as they sped over the keyboard, the rapid motion pleas- 
ing him. lafterward made the same inquiry of other men from various 
distant localities along the coast, when they heard the music at St 
Michael, and received an almost identical reply. 
The drums used by the Eskimo of western Alaska and on the adjacent 
coast of Siberia are made in one pattern, having a rounded tambourine- 
like frame, over one side of which is stretched a thin, parchment like © 
covering, usually made from the bladders of seals and walrus. The cover 
is held in place by a cord of sinew or rawhide, wound around the outer 
border of the drum in a sunken groove, enabling the cover to be tight- 
ened at will. 
The frames, usually made of spruce, are from one to three inches in 
width and are bent to form a ring, either circular or somewhat pear- 
shape in outline, measuring from ten to thirty inches in diameter. The 
largest ones seen in use were in the district between lower Yukon and 
Kuskokwim rivers. Near the Kuslevak mountains a drum was seen 
covered with tanned reindeer skin, which was the only exception to 
the ordinary covering that was noted, and this was due to the fact that 
the usual material could not be obtained at that point. 
Ordinarily the ends of the drum frame overlap and are fastened with 
sinew or rawhide cords, which pass through holes in the wood; but 
along the coast from Bering strait northward, drums were seen which 
had the ends of the frame beveled to wedge-shape points and inserted 
in a short, intervening piece of ivory of the same width and thickness 
as the frame. These pieces were beveled with a deep, wedge-shape 
slot to receive the ends of the wood, and pierced with holes through 
which were passed wooden pegs to fasten the ends of the frame in place, 
thus forming a neatly made joint. This splice is carved on its outer 
border to match the groove on the edge of the frame for the reception of 
the cover lashings. They are usually fitted with a handle from four to 
six inches long, with a square notch in its upper surface for the recep- 
tion of the lower edge of the frame. The latter is ordinarily held in posi- 
tion by sinew lashings passed through holes and thence through corre- 
sponding holes in the handle just below the notch, or are passed around 
the handle. A drum from Sledge island and another from Cape Wan 
karen, Siberia, are attached to their handles with wooden pegs inserted 
through holes at the inner end of the handle and through the drum 
frame in the notch. These handles are commonly plain rods of ivory, 
deerhorn, or bone, round or oval in section, with the ends rounded, but 
in many instances they are carved in various patterns. 
One of these handles (number 43807), whieh was obtained at Shakto- 
lik, is of walrus ivory, and is six inches long by an inch and a half in 
