NELSON] EFFECT OF CHRISTIANITY A421 
the upper thigh, and are made of tame reindeer skin mottled white 
and brown. They have an ornamental strip extending from the lower 
border on each side and curving upward around the back of the gar- 
ment, reaching within about 25 inches of the upper border in the rear. 
Extending part way down the front of the leg, on each side, is an 
ornamental band of white deerskin having a seam along the border 
on one side with a row of small spaced bunches of red worsted. The 
ornamental band, which extends from the lower edge of the trousers 
around to the rear, and the short bands in front, are bordered by a 
strip of wolverine fur. About the waist is a band containing a draw- 
string for binding the garment around the hips. 
Figure 2, plate cv1, from one of the Diomede islands, is a belt made 
from the jaws of crabs, worn by women during certain festivals. 
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY 
EFFECT OF CHRISTIAN CONTACT 
During the time of my residence in Alaska the Eskimo of the main- 
land were still firm believers in their ancient religion; but slight 
modification could be found in their customs, even immediately about 
St Michael or at Mission (Ikogmut) on the lower Yukon, where the resi- 
dence of Russian priests during thirty-five or forty years had exerted 
greater influence against the ancient beliefs than at any other point. 
Services have been conducted irregularly in the small Greek Catholic 
churches at the places named, as well as at one or two points farther 
southward, but the influence on the Eskimo has been very slight. So 
far as could be observed, the sole effect of the priestly efforts have 
been to cause the Eskimo to become more secretive than formerly about 
practicing their religious rites when in the vicinity of white men. 
By gifts of small metal crosses, which the people wore as ornaments, 
and by other means, they were occasionally induced to attend church 
service. I venture to say that during my residence there not a half 
dozen full-blood Eskimo could be found in all that region who really 
understood and believed in the white man’s religion, and not one could 
be found who did not believe implicitly in the power of the shamans 
and in the religious rites handed down by the elders. 
In some districts, notably between lower Kuskokwim and Jower 
Yukon rivers, the ancient rites and beliefs were still practiced in their 
aboriginal purity. Elsewhere the principal modification was in the 
gradual but persistent weakening of the old ideas produced by inter- 
course with the fur traders. This effect was more apparent than real, 
for the Russians and Americaus alike had ridiculed or treated with | 
contempt the old customs, until it had become almost impossible to 
prevail upon the people to talk of their beliefs and traditions until, by 
long acquaintance, their confidence had been gained. Curiously 
enough, the great mask festival (A-gai/-yu-nik) of the Eskimo south of 
