NELSON] GREAT FEAST TO THE DEAD ai 
with the drum handles. The dancers stopped and stamped quickly on 
the floor, first with one foot, then with the other. Each of them raised 
his hands over his head and drew them down over the body as if 
wiping something from it. When their hands reached their hips they 
began slapping their thighs quickly and sat down slowly on the floor. 
Then the men, with bent bodies, filed slowly back to their original 
places and sat down by their companions. After sitting quietly for a 
long time the dancers went home to replace with their old suits the 
new clothing they had worn during the dance. I was told that the 
wiping motion, followed by the stamping and the slapping on the 
thighs, indicated that the feast makers thus cast off all uncleanness 
that might be offensive to the shades, and thus render their offerings 
acceptable. 
In a short time the namesakes of the dead gathered in the place 
made for them in the center of the room and sat down. The feast 
givers then came in, each bearing one or more new wooden buckets 
containing frozen fish. They went first to the lamps burning for the 
shades and dropped on the floor by them fragments of the fish as food 
offerings. Then a bucket of water was given to each of the namesakes, 
and they dipped their hands twice into it and sprinkled it on the floor, 
thus making a libation to the shades to aecompany the food. After 
this each feast maker gave the remainder of the fish to the namesake of 
his dead, After the namesakes had all eaten, the empty dishes were 
removed. The feast givers then brought in between 3,000 and 4,000 
pounds of frozen fish, consisting mainly of loach, whitefish, blackfish, 
and pickerel, which were placed by the door in individual piles. This 
fish was in woven-grass bags and frozen solid, having been kept thus 
since autumn. Each feast giver sat down silently beside his or her 
pile, and in a few moments a man came in and started to cross the 
room to his place, when an old man called out some epithet, to which 
he replied in seeming anger. ‘The first speaker answered, and the two 
kept up a rapid and apparently angry series of retorts for several 
minutes. 
This byplay, which had been prearranged in order to put the guests 
in good humor, caused great laughter. When it was finished the feast 
givers rose and, with wooden mauis and reindeer-horn wedges, sepa- 
rated the masses of frozen fish into fragments, which were distributed 
among the people, the guests from the greatest distance receiving the 
most. The fur trader and myself received about 250 pounds each. 
Fourth day 
Very early in the morning the feast makers came into the kashim and 
refilled their lamps with seal oil, and then brought in food consisting 
of whitefish oil, dried salmon, and seal blubber. After they had made 
their customary offering of small fragments before each of the lamps 
burning for the dead, the food was distributed among the people, and 
