356 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT (ETH. ANN. 18 
of her father’s life and battles during the wars among the villagers 
preceding the arrival of the white men; the gestures were mainly. 
beyond my comprehension, but the Eskimo about me appeared to 
understand them all. I could interpret the motions of stealthy approach 
and retreat, then a struggle with the enemy and the flight, ending by a 
sudden turn and the killing of a pursuer by a spear thrust. In addition 
there were a great deal of gesture and posture with hands and bodies 
which seemed to be full of meaning to the people about me. This 
woman’s companion went through a series of motions describing berry 
picking and various other occupations of women in the summer and fall. 
During all their movements both of them were extremely graceful and 
kept accurate time to the music. 
On February 12, 1880, I remained over night in the village of Unalak- 
lit, where a number of dances were given in my honor. Soon after dark 
I was invited to the kashim, where a dozen young men were stripped to 
the waist and ranged around the room in a circle. Five or six old men 
stood near the lamp at the rear end of the room beating a drum and 
singing one of the common dance songs; the young men postured and 
leaped with such energy that the perspiration ran down their bodies, 
as it did also from the faces of the drum men. There seemed to bea 
rivalry between the musicians and the dancers to outdo one another, 
and the singers would stop to take breath occasionally, quickly begin- 
ning again while the dancers were still panting, causing laughter at the 
expense of the latter. This continued for some time, until the dancers 
acknowledged themselves defeated and sat down. Then a young man 
came out alone, stripped to the waist, and stood before the entrance 
hole in the middle of the room. On his face was a mask represénting a 
wolf-head. He stood for a few moments appearing to look intently 
into the hole in the floor while he postured slowly back and forth with . 
his arms and body; while he did this two women came up behind him, 
stood close by and began gesturing, imitating in perfect time every 
motion made by him. Then the time of the song suddenly changed, the 
women stepping out quickly, one upon each side a few paces away, 
and all three postured, swaying back and forth to the song. The man 
moved first toward one woman then toward the other with a gliding 
motion and appeared to try to grasp them with one hand, never losing 
the time and keeping the motion uniform with the movements of the 
women. After he had done this he resumed his first position, the women 
stepped back to their former place, and the dance soon ended. This 
was said to represent a wolf hunting reindeer. 
When this dance ended, the man who wore the wolf mask went out, 
but came in again very quickly wearing a mask representing a human 
face; he took the same position as before, beginning with a set of 
postures of the arms and body different from those seen in the first 
dance. He was joined by the two women, one on each side of him, and 
all went through the motion of picking berries, which was done very 
