NELSON] TRADING FESTIVAL—MORTUARY FEASTS 363 
The skins brought by the young men in this instance were taken by 
the trader, but when the Eskimo give the festival these are distributed 
among the young men of the village who contribute to the general 
supply of articles to be distributed among the guests. 
In the middle of February, 1880, while at the head of Norton sound, 
a party of Malemut were met on their way to a trading festival of this 
kind at Unalaklit. Their sledges were laden with reindeer skins. I 
afterward learned that they took part in the festival, but being dissatis- 
fied with the presents given in return for their skins, they took them 
back and returned home. 
In a rude sketch drawn for me by an Eskimo from the Kaviak pen- 
insula, the figures of a party of men from Cape Prince of Wales are 
portrayed, showing them on their way to a festival of this kind and ° 
being met by the villagers of the place to which they are going. 
FEASTS TO THE DEAD 
MORTUARY FEASTS IN GENERAL 
Every year the [hl/-i-g’i’ at St Michael is held during the latter part 
of November or early in December. It is repeated two days after the 
Bladder feast of autumn and just before the beginning of the salmon 
fishing in spring. It is given for the sole purpose of making offerings 
of food, water, and clothing to the shades of those recently deceased, 
and of offerings to the dead who have not yet been honored by one 
of the great festivals. The makers of this feast are the nearest rela- 
tives of those who have died during the preceding year, joined by all 
others of the village who have not given a great feast to their dead. 
The day before the festival, among the Eskimo of St Michael and on 
the lower Yukon, the nearest male relative goes to the grave of the 
deceased and plants before it, if it be that of a man, a newly made stake 
upon which is placed a small model of a seal spear, and if of a woman, 
a wooden dish. Sometimes the spear model is replaced by the model of 
a kaiak paddle or an umiak oar. Upon these implements are marked 
the totems of the dead. At times, however, the totem of the deceased 
is indicated by a simple wooden image of the totem animal, which is 
placed on top of the stake. This is the notification which brings the 
shade from the land of the dead to the grave, where it waits, ready to 
be called into the kashim by the songs of invitation during the festival. 
At the [hl/-v-gi’ held the year preceding a great festival to the dead, 
those making the festival plant other stakes of invitation bearing the 
same symbols before the graves of those to be honored, and by these 
graves are sung songs of invitation to the shades, informing them of 
the approaching festival. It is said that when one of these festivals 
begins with its opening song of invitation, the shades are in their 
eraves and come thence to the kashim, where they assemble in the fire 
pit, under the floor. At the proper time they ascend from their place 
