NELSON] MASKS AND MASKETTES 393 
hole in the ice and, after being opened, are thrust into the water under 
. the ice so that the shade may return to its proper element. The shade 
is supposed to swim far out to sea and there to enter the bodies of 
unborn animals of their kind, thus becoming reincarnated and render- 
ing game more plentiful than it would be otherwise. If the shades are 
pleased with the manner in which they have been treated by the 
hunter who killed the animal they occupied, it is said they will not be 
afraid when they meet him in their new form and will permit him to 
approach and kill them again without trouble. 
Several of the St Michael Eskimo told me that they knew this rein- 
carnation to be true, as a man living at a village on the outer side of 
the island killed a seal a few years ago which had the same mark on its 
bladder that he had put on the bladders at the festival the previous 
year. It should be noted that each hunter puts his totem mark or 
other personal sign in red or black paint upon his bladders so that 
they may be distinguished from those of other hunters. The aromatic 
smoke and red flames of the resinous stalks of the wild parsnip are 
thought to be very pleasing to the shades of the animals whose bladders 
are treated with them, and at the same time the flame drives away any 
uncleanness and unfavorable influence that may be present. 
During the continuance of this festival at St Michael, and at other 
places where it is observed, no man or large boy sleeps away from the 
kashim and the men keep rigidly apart from the women. If a man 
breaks this rule it is said he will have no success as a seal hunter. On 
this account the men avoid as much as possible going into their own or 
any other house, for fear of becoming unclean. They bathe twice a day, 
morning and evening, in the kashim, but their food and water are 
brought to them as usual by the women. 
No females who have reached puberty are permitted near or under 
the bladders while they hang in the kashim, as they are said to be 
unclean and might offend the shades. Young, immature girls, how- 
ever, may go about them as freely as the boys. 
During the continuance of this festival it is a necessary observance 
that the kashim shall never be left entirely vacant. An old man at St 
Michael told me that during one of these festivals at Pastolik the men 
forgot this and went to an adjacent kashim for a short time. Suddenly 
one of them remembered that their kashim had been left vacant and 
hurried back in time to hear the shades in the bladders talking to one 
another. One end of the line to which they were hung had become 
untied and the bladders were said tu have moved near the doorway 
ready to leave, the shades being angry at their neglect. 
MASKS AND MASKETTES 
Masks were found in use among the Eskimo from Kotzebue sound 
to the mouth of the Kuskokwim, but their use attains the greatest 
development in the country along the lower Yukon and thence south- 
