424 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT (ETH. ANN. 18 
When the Corwin was lying at the head of Kotzebue sound a Male- 
mut begged to be permitted to stay all night on board, because if he 
went on shore at dusk he would have to paddle by the grave of a man 
who had died several weeks before. 
Among the lower Yukon people it is said that when a person dies he 
can not see or hear anything at first, but when his body is placed in 
the grave box his shade becomes clairvoyant and can see all that goes 
on about him; then other dead people come and point out the road 
leading to the land of theshades. In this connection reference is made 
to the tale which gives an account of the return of a girl from the land 
of the dead and covering the beliefs held on this subject among the 
lower Yukon Eskimo. 
When the shade of a recently deceased person becomes conscious, it 
rises in form and clothing exactly as in life, and travels along the path 
that leads away from the grave. The road has many others branching 
off on one side or the other to villages where the shades of different 
animals are living, each kind by itself. In these villages the shades of 
animals occupy houses like those of human beings on earth. Finally 
the shade arrives at a village, where it is claimed by relatives who have 
died before, and is taken to a house where it lives an aimless existence, 
depending on offerings of food, water, and clothing nade by relatives 
during the festivals to the dead. 
During this journey from the grave the shade has brought with it the 
tools placed by its grave with the offerings of food and water. Upon 
these supplies the shade subsists during its journey to the other world. 
On the Yukon a man told me that on the road to the village of the 
dead the shade is offered water in a bucket, and if it attempts to drink 
from the large receptacle without using the dipper, the other shades 
clap the bucket over his head so that he is unable to drink. Ifa shade 
disobeys the instructions of the shades in other ways they cause his 
trousers to slip down so that he can not walk, and they otherwise annoy 
him. 
The first child born in a village after a person dies is given the dead 
one’s name, and must represent that person in subsequent festivals 
which are given in his honor. This is the case if a child is born in the 
village between the time of the death and the next festival to the dead. 
If there be no child born, then one of the persons who helped prepare 
the grave box for the deceased is given his name and abaudons his own 
for that purpose. 
When the festival to the dead is given in which the relatives of the 
dead person wish to make offerings to the shade, the latter is invited to 
attend by means of songs of invitation and by putting up sticks with 
the totem marks of the deceased upon them. The shade becomes noti- 
fied in this manner and returns to its grave box at the time appointed. 
Songs of invitation and greeting call the shade from the grave box to 
the fire pit under the floor of the kashim, where, in company with others, 
