376 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [BTH. ANN. 18 
amount of seal, whale, and fish oil, some back fit of reindeer, several 
boxes of pilot bread, and other food, which was piled up about the room, 
each of the owners sitting by his pile. After they had all told how easily 
they had procured this food, two of them had a mock quarrel similar to 
the performance on previous days. This depreciation of the articles is 
to show their humility and lack of pride in their gifts. If this is not 
done they believe that the shades will become angry and bring sick- 
ness or other evil upon the village, and at the same time it serves to 
assure the people that the givers do not feel proud of their posses- 
sions. 
When the food was ready for distribution, each person made a small 
offering, by his or her lamp, of every kind of food and from each bag 
of oil, dish, or tub, after which the remainder was distributed. 
Among the food was a lot of small, bulbous roots, taken by the women 
from the winter stores of mice on the tundra. After the boxes of pilot 
bread were emptied of all but the fragments, the small boys, numbering 
about thirty, were permitted to scramble for them, which they did with 
great glee and good nature; when the boys had secured all the frag- 
ments, they each cast down a few crumbs at the foot of the lamps, as an 
offering to the shades, and went away. While standing about the room 
the male feast givers then sang a short, lively song, at the end of which 
the people carried home the food that had been distributed. 
When this had all been taken out of the kashim, a shout was heard at 
the smoke hole in the roof, and a man cried out: “ Your bag is only half 
full—that is the reason you have been sick,” and lowered a large grass 
bag filled to its utmost capacity. Another man shouted down, “ Big 
sleeper! You slept all the last two years, and are still asleep; that is 
the reason you have an empty bag.” Another cried: ‘‘ You stole very 
little last year when the people were away from home; that is the reason 
your bag is empty.” 
Accompanied by some such cry, a large bag of things, belonging to 
each feast maker, male and female, was lowered to the floor. The owners 
then came forward, opened their bags, and held up the articles contained 
therein, crying out, often six or eight of them at once, giving an imag- 
inary history of the manner in which they had been obtained, and 
belittling the efforts required to obtain them. The trader who was with 
me was named Charlie Peterson, and article after article was held up 
and its owner would ery out, ‘I stole this from Charlie;” or, “1 took 
this from Charlie;” or, “I took this from Charlie’s man,” which seemed 
to afford considerable amusement, One man held up a rabbit-skin coat, 
in mock admiration, and said: ‘This is counted as fine fur upon this 
side.” Each bag contained several suits of fur clothing, intended for 
the namesakes of the dead. The shouting of the fictitious histories of 
the articles contained in the bags continued for about two hours. Many 
of the accounts were extremely ludicrous, causing much merriment. 
As each feast giver finished taking the things out of the bag he or she 
