NELSON] BLADDER FESTIVAL 387 
scooping up food from them in both hands and casting it toward the 
bladders; at the same time a man sitting in an obscure corner gave a 
vigorous pull to the line passing from his hand through a loop in the 
roof and down to the bladders, which caused them to oscillate violently 
and was supposed to indicate the acceptance of the offering by the 
shades of the animals in the bladders. 
The other three men repeated these rites in every detail, after which 
the drums were beaten and the four men executed a curious dance in 
front of the bladders, which were swung about as before, to indicate 
their pleasure. The dance was begun by a pecking, jerking motion 
from side to side and forward, while the dancers moved slowly along 
in front of the bladders. Then the dance was changed to an oblique 
galloping movement, after which the arms were tossed up and down, 
giving the body a jumping motion; then first one leg, then the other, 
was thrown up and a hop made on the other, followed by quick hops 
sidewise and long jumps forward, all keeping perfect time to the drums. 
This dance was said to be an imitation of the movements of seals aud 
walrus. 
Throughout the performance a half:-grown girl stood beside the four 
dancers swaying her body back and forth with an undulating motion. 
The four men repeated their series of motions or dances several times 
in succession, until they were compelled to stop from exhaustion; when 
they ceased their places were taken by four others, who repeated the 
dance, and they in turn by four others, and these again by two other 
sets, another girl being substituted with each set of dancers. 
One of the men told me that each of these sets of dancers comprised 
only men of the same “kin,” by which, so far as I could ascertain, he 
referred to the gens, since people of the same gens are considered by 
them as being of the same kin. In this case it evidently implied that 
four gentes were represented in the festival, as indicated by the totem 
marks on the four paddles standing before the door. 
When the dance ended, the four dishes of food were carried around 
the hole in the floor, after which their contents were distributed and 
eaten. Ina short time two straw mats were spread on the floor before 
the entrance hole, and two men stripped to the waist sat upon them, 
facing the hole. In the pit under the floor were all the hunters who 
owned the bladders hanging in the kashim, and each had in his hand a 
small wisp of straw or grass like that already described, which were 
handed, in succession, to the men on the mats, the one handing them 
up showing nothing but his hand and arm. As each wisp was passed 
up, the man wiio received it called out the name of its owner, who 
responded by making a short speech, which created great laughter 
among the people seated around the kashim. 
Among other things, the men stated in the speeches that the grass 
they were handing up served as beds for the inuas of the bladders. When 
each speech was ended, the man who had taken the grass handed it 
