432 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT (ETH. ANN. 18 
At tne village of Sfugunugumut, in the same district, another shaman 
attempted to change the weather for my benefit as follows: He put on 
a gut-skin shirt and was wrapped closely in a large straw mat while 
squatting in a sitting posture on the floor of the kashim. Four men 
stood about him, and after he had uttered a long series of curious cries 
they went through various lifting motions in unison as if raising some- 
thing from him. Then followed several ventriloquial voices, after which 
the old man was unwrapped and assured us of good weather in two 
days. 
At a village just north of Cape Vancouver another shaman essayed to 
conjure the weather for me. He knelt in front of the entrance, inside of 
the kashim, and held both hands beneath his gut-skin shirt, rattling 
it about while he uttered various cries and noises. A voice was then 
made to reply to him from the passageway, after which he assured us 
of good weather. . 
At Chalitmut, near the mouth of Kuskokwim river, I arrived late 
one winter afternoon and found a grass mat hanging over the outer 
entrance to the kashim. Inside were two shamans at work on the form 
of a withered old man, who lay with closed eyes on the deerskin in the 
middle of the floor, evidently too feeble to move. Upon two sides of 
the room stood a couple of men beating slowly upon drums. The sha- 
mans, dressed in gut-skin shirts, were walking about the patient with 
a strutting gait, each holding one hand before him inside the shirt and 
the other behind him in the same way, rattling the shirt with both 
hands. The motions and appearance of the two men were absurdly 
like those of two game-cocks preparing for battle. During this time 
they continued uttering cries like those used by the other shamans 
meutioned when doctoring the weather. Suddenly they dropped upon 
their knees, one at the old man’s head and the other at his feet, both 
facing him and uttering a series of shrill cries and hisses. Leaping to 
their feet after this they repeated the cries, and two assistants came 
forward and went through lifting motions exactly as the men had done 
to procure good weather. When they had done this the assistants 
each placed his arms and palms together in front of him and then 
separated his hands by drawing one back toward the body and push- 
ing the other away from him with a sliding motion. With this the 
performance ended and the old man was carried out. 
In another village, near the one last mentioned, I found aman standing 
on the roof of a kashim, the door of which was closed by astraw mat and 
guarded by an old woman who tried to prevent my entrance. Passing 
her I entered and surprised two shamans performing their incantations 
over a sick child. The people of the village were seated around the 
room and the child was lying naked in his mother’s lap in the middle 
of the room. The shamans also were entirely naked and were circling 
about when I entered, but stopped immediately and the woman hurriea 
out with the child. 
