388 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
to the man opposite on the other mat, who broke it into halves and bound 
the two ends together. Then taking up the stump of the parsnip-stalk 
torch, to which the spearpoints were attached, he lighted it and passed 
the lighted end over and around the grass, at the same time saying in 
a loud voice, ‘*‘ When they sit down they are sleepy and fall down;” 
he then fell, and, rolling over, laid the grass on the floor. This was 
repeated for every hunter, and symbolized the killing of the seals with 
the spearpoints which were attached to the terch. In the middle of the 
night the lamps were again extinguished and the shaman went on the 
roof, where another speech was made to the bladders through the smoke 
hole. This speech was ended by a blowing noise, such as is made by 
seals and walrus when they come to the surface to breathe. Afterward 
the shaman made a squeaking and grunting noise, such as a pup seal 
utters when trying to find its mother. 
At 4 oclock in the morning everyone arose, and the dances given by 
sets of four men on the previous night were repeated in all their details, 
except that fewer motions were made with the arms and the upper part 
of the body. The woman dancing with each set took the unlighted 
bunch of parsnip stalks and passed it about the dishes of food before 
they were offered to the inuas of the bladders. 
When the dance and the food offerings had been completed, the chief 
shaman—the one first mentioned as leading the ceremonies and who 
directed all the observances—lighted a parsnip-stalk torch and passed 
it about the room, holding it close to the floor. He then circled with it 
about each of the dancers, who removed their fur coats and the torch 
was passed about their bodies and inside and about their fur coats. 
This was said to be done to purify the room and the dancers and to 
remove any evil influence that might bring sickness or bad luck to the 
hunters. Four of the men then sat beneath the bladders for a short 
time, after which they arose and seated themselves close together on 
the sleeping bench behind the spears and bladders, 
A woman then brought in a large wooden bucket of food, and, after 
passing a lighted parsnip-stalk torch about it, made an offering to the 
bladders. She then stood in front of the bladders, facing the middle 
of the room, and so near that the bladdérs brushed her back when 
they were swung back and forth a moment later by a man hauling on 
a cord. The shaman then took a boy about twelve years of age, who 
was stripped to the waist, and laid him across the entrance hole in the 
floor, at the same time kneeling over him and making a low noise like 
the note of the murre. Beneath the floor a man started a song, in 
which the people in the kashim joined. 
Immediately after the song was finished the hunters rushed to the 
bladders and each took those he owned and fastened them about the 
heads of two or three of the pointless spearshatts. A song was then 
sung by the people and the bladders were laid with the spearshaftson the 
floor by the entrance hole, while all of the other spears, the large stake, 
