Eskimo String Figures 



159 b 



Drop the right little finger loop, pass it from the proximal side in between 

 the radial and ulnar left thumb strings, and with its palm from the distal side 

 take off the left index loop and return. At this stage the Indian point natives 

 say: 



liumitaroyuyoq kumitaroq 

 cayanyoaqpak naqaya 



nayomaciyo 

 tawa-ten yatama pdrnjiuvaina 

 anama hiyuyaym kumitaqna 



Kumitaroq, he says, Kumitaroq, 

 Why did you eat your brother's food? 



? ? I was very hungry. 

 My mother went behind him and hanged 

 iaim. 



Drop the left little finger loop; "the man" is hanging. 



Fig. 209 



CXXXIX. The Swan 



This figure is known from Barrow to Coronation gulf under the same name 

 quyyuk or quyyuk, "the whistling swan," but only among the Mackenzie natives 

 could I discover a chant with it. The Hudson bay and Cumberland sound 

 Eskimos know it also as swan, as I learnt from Boas' collection. 



Proceed as in "a man hanging" up to the stage illustrated by fig. 208. 



At this point pass the right thumb under the radial right index string from 

 the proximal side and with its back take up the two strings that run from the 

 right palmar string to loop round the upper transverse string. 



Inserting the left thumb into the right thumb loops, complete the move- 

 ment of katilluik. 



A portion of the lower transverse string is intercepted between two loops. 

 Raise the two distal horizontal strings on the back of the figure with the right 

 index from below on the distal side, then pass the right index. into the right 

 thumb loop from the distal side, take up with its palm the lower transverse 

 string at this place and draw it out to the distal side of all the strings. 



