NELSON] DANCES AND FESTIVALS oat 
slowly with a continual graceful swaying of the body. This dance 
ended the performance. 
At Cape Darby, on the same journey, I passed a night with the vil- 
lagers and was invited into the kashim with my companion to witness 
a dance given for us. We went in and found the entire population of 
the village assembled. A small present of tobacco to the headman 
was our offering as strangers, after which we were given the place of 
honor by the drummers at the rear end of the room. The song ani the 
drum-beating began at once, with a chorus song of meaningless syllables 
like those sung in dances of conventional style. A numberof men and 
women kept the floor, going through a series of ordinary postures 
until they became tired and sat down. These were followed by a man 
and a woman who came forward and went through a new set of motions, 
which I was told they had learned from people on the shore of Bering 
strait. Afterward a woman came out and imitated the gathering of 
eges of sea fowl among the rocks. At certain intervals a song accom- 
panied her movements, which was intended to represent the cries of 
birds startled from their nests. 
FEASTS AND FESTIVALS 
THE FUNCTION OF THE CELEBRATIONS 
Amovg the Eskimo of lower Kuskokwim and Yukon rivers and 
thence northward along the coast to Kotzebue sound, as well as on the 
islands of Bering strait, the festivals form some of the most important 
teatures of their social life. The same may undoubtedly be said of the 
Eskimo elsewhere in Alaska, but these remarks are intended to cover 
the region over which my personal observations extended. 
These festivals serve to enliven the long, depressing evenings of 
Arctic winter, and at intervals render the cold, stormy season a period 
of enjoyment and feasting. They serve also to promote friendly inter- 
course between the people of adjacent villages and districts. Through 
the festivals comes an interchange of products and manufactures of 
different localities, and, above all, they are important in expressing and 
carrying out the religious beliefs and observances of these people. 
Nearly or quite all of the formal festivals of the Eskimo in this 
region are of a more or less religious character. As examples of these 
may be noted the Bladder feast and the Feast to the Dead. 
CALENDAR OF FESTIVALS 
Having been more familiar with the Unalit Eskimo of Norton sound 
than with any others of this region, I subjoin a list of festivals ob- 
served among them, although it is probably not complete. A somewhat 
similar program exists among the other tribes within the limits of the 
region covered by the present paper. While the same festival may 
exist in different localities over a considerable, area, rites vary locally 
. 
