NELSON] “ASKING” AND TRADING FESTIVALS 361 
is accomplished by each person making a small image of the object he 
desires and hanging it on the messenger’s wand, which is taken into 
the kashim where all examine the images. Each then takes the image 
of whatever he wishes to supply, and the messenger tells him from 
whom it comes and what is desired in return. 
THE TRADING FESTIVAL 
Another celebration, known as the Trading festival and somewhat 
allied to the preceding, is held at irregular intervals almost everywhere 
throughout the region. The following description of its observance at 
Andreivsky, on the lower Yuixon, will serve as an illustration of its 
character. The fur trader who made the festival was instructed by 
an old Eskimo and observed all the customary ceremonies. 
Early in the winter the trader sent to several villages in the sur- 
rounding district a messenger, who was instructed to go to two or three 
of the best hunters in each place and tell them that the trader thought 
they had skins of mink, otter, or of other fur-bearing animals, as the 
case mght be. The maker of the feast and the two or three men in 
each village to whom he sent his special invitation were known during 
the festival as nds‘kut’ or “heads.” Each néis‘kuk! replied to the mes- 
senger that he thought the trader had powder, lead, or whatever 
else he most desired. Then the messenger went into the kashim and 
addressed the young men generally, saying that his néis/kuk! thought 
they possessed skins of various kinds. In this way the man went from 
village to village, learning at the same time the date or time in a cer- 
tain moon when all could go to the feast. A message of this kind 
Sent to a village is considered as an invitation to the feast to be held 
at the village of the giver. The messenger having ended his errand, 
returned, telling the néis/kuk’ when the guests would arrive; also 
what each headman among the invited guests wished from him. The 
chief-ndés/kuk’ then prepared for his guests, gathering food in abun- 
dance, together with the various articles desired by the people invited. 
Those who had been invited gathered at a predetermined villa ge and 
in a body approached the place appointed for the festival. 
In the present feast, as soon as the guests came in sight.a messenger 
went to meet them on the ice of the Yukon. He ran out and stopped 
just before the guests, so that they might send any message they wished 
to the feast giver. In this instance an old woman sent word to a little 
girl in the trader’s family that she wished a reindeer skin. When the 
first messenger came back, two others ran out to meet the guests, ery- 
ing out as they went, “Are we not strong men? Are we not strong 
men?” Then, as if in reply, “ Yes, we are strong; yes, we are strong; 
we do not steal,” and much more of the same kind of self. elorification. 
Running up tags to the guests, they stopped and stared at them with- 
out speaking, then turned and ran swiftly back. When they returned, 
two others ran out in the same way. The last four messengers wore 
