370 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ErH. ANN. 18 
The singing continued in mournful tones for some time. When it 
ended aman on one side of the room made a whining ery, which was 
answered by another feast giver from the opposite side; at this signal 
all of them arose, the men ranging themselves along the sides of the 
room while the women filed back and stood behind the drummers, all 
facing toward the center. The women wore fillets of various kinds and 
held a feather wand upright in each hand. Then the song of invitation 
to the shades was repeated by both feast makers and drummers. 
Suddenly the time of the drum beats was changed from slow to fast, 
and two women just behind the drummers stepped forward close to them 
and began a pantomime dance in imitation of walking; the hands were 
used for these motions and moved alternately back and forth, the wands 
being held nearly upright and parallel; at the same time they kept up 
a slight swaying motion of the body, bending the knees slightly in time 
to the drums. The other women feast givers stood in their places, and 
some of them went through the same dance, while others performed 
various other movements, among which was a pantomime of tying up 
packages and packing away articles of various kinds by putting them 
in a pile, then encircling them with a cord and tying it, shown by moving 
the right hand from right to left over the left arm, all done in perfect 
time to the music. 
Then two men stepped forward, one on each side, one of whom began 
to imitate the motion of a man’s feet walking on snowshoes by the 
outstretched hands held palm downward and moved alternately back 
and forth, at the same time stamping heavily with his right foot; the 
other imitated a bear walking and stopping every now and then, as 
though raising itself up on its hind feet and staring about. After 
standing in this way for a few moments with his arms bowed in front 
of him in an absurdly realistic position, he would again begin stamp- 
ing heavily on the floor, giving his body a rolling motion, while he 
moved his hands and arms in imitation of a bear’s gait. This was 
done remarkably well, and great laughter was created, this being the 
object of the dancer. 
Other men among the feast givers then tock part in the dance, each 
pantomiming some occupation of daily life. The most striking of these 
was an imitation by one of traveling a long distance on snowshoes and 
winding in and out among the hills. The hands of the performer were 
in front of him, palms downward, and he moved back and forth with a 
walking motion, inclining obliquely one way and the other to indicate 
the slopes of the hills. Then he stopped and appeared to seize and 
strike something. I could not understand this, but the Eskimo next 
to me said the man was killing an otter in the snow. Another man 
imitated making a hole in the ice with his ice chisel, another paddling 
a kaiak, and so various other pantomimes were executed, every motion 
being made in time to the drum. 
After a time the drummers ceased and rapped sharply on their stools 
