6$ 
SARYTSCHEW’s TRAVELS. 
Then c&me another mask, with wide extended mouth, and a 
shepherd’s crook, singing as follows : 
O what knavery ! 
O what roguery! 
Thou, O Ammech ! 
Hast made the world. 
A third mask, having lost a left eye, sung the following ; 
In the midst of Alaksa, 
Is Agmagaluk’s jurt; 
? Tis that which we sing. 
These men were followed by female masks, who seated 
themselves by the man with the sea-dog’s face, before whom a 
few other women danced with dishevelled hair, carrying beards 
of sea-lions in their hands, occasionally pointing to the mask 
seated in the middle. They sung the following verse: 
The hellish island Sakchadok 
Contains the arrows we must not forget * 
Yet why should we remember 
That which brings no good ? 
And thus ended the piece. I had also an opportunity of 
seeing the dances of some of the Andrejanow islanders (who 
were spectators of the above performance), which differed much 
from the others. The men took off their upper garments, 
dancing in succession one after the other in shirts and trowsers ; 
having on their heads caps, embroidered with long narrow points, 
projecting forwards, curved towards the top, and decorated with 
goat’s hair. A sea-hound’s skin, two sea-lions’ bladders, and a 
cloth, were thrown before the dancers. When the Aleutians 
began to sing, the dancer took in each hand a bladder, which 
he held so as for them to hang down to his elbows, and then 
began to dance, nodding and tossing his head to the sound of the 
drum ; after which, throwing down the bladders, he took up the 
the skin, and swung it aloft several times, as if to exhibit it to the 
company ; then threw it down, and seizing the cloth, danced with 
it as before, holding its extremities in his hands ; and finally, 
taking a stick, imitated the action of rowing a baidar. They 
say this dance is expressly invented for the purpose of represent¬ 
ing in a ridiculous point of view the vauntings of their compa¬ 
nions, concerning their catching marine animals; the bladders, 
the seal’s-skin, and cloth being emblematical of the spoil which 
the hunter triumphantly exhibits to view. The women array 
themselves for. the dance in an upper garment, resembling the 
parka of the men which they confine with a girdle, tying round 
their heads a binder, like that of the native Aleutians, and car^ 
rying on their backs an arrow with an inflated bladder. The lady 
thus equipped, approaches the circle of men, who are all seated. 
