The Dance Festivals of the Alaskan EskimoHawkes, Ernest William
Religion
The Dance Festivals of the Alaskan Eskimo
Hawkes, Ernest William
Eskimos -- Alaska; Indian dance -- North America
At sunrise the morning after the full moon each hunter takes his load
of bladders, and filing out of the kasgi starts for the hole in the
ice on a dead run. Arriving there, he tears off the bladders one by
one, and thrusts them under the water. This signifies the return of
the inua to the sea.
As the bladders float or sink success is prophesied for the hunter by
the shaman in attendance.
In the meantime the old men build a fire of driftwood on the ice in
front of the kasgi. The small bundle of parsnip stalks which stood in
front of the bladders is brought out and thrown on the fire, and as
the stalks kindle to the flame, each hunter utters a shout, takes a
short run, and leaps through in turn. This performance purifies the
hunter of any matter offensive to the inua, and concludes the
ceremony.
During the Bladder Feast all intercourse between the married men and
their wives is tabooed. They are required to sleep in the kasgi with
the bachelors. Neither is any girl who has attained puberty
(Wingiktoak) allowed near the bladders. She is unclean (Wahok).
THE FEASTS TO THE DEAD
The Eskimo idea of the life after death and the rationale for their
most important ritual, the Feast to the Dead, is nowhere better
illustrated than in a quaint tale current along the Yukon, in which
the heroine, prematurely buried during a trancelike sleep, visited the
Land of the Dead. She was rudely awakened from her deathlike slumber
by the spirit of her grandmother shaking her and exclaiming, "Wake up.
Do not sleep the hours away. You are dead!" Arising from her grave
box, the maiden was conducted by her guide to the world beneath, where
the dead had their dwellings in large villages grouped according to
the localities from which they came. Even the animal shades were not
forgotten, but inhabited separate communities in human shape.[19]
After some travel the girl found the village allotted to her tribe,
and was reclaimed by her departed relatives. She was recognized by the
totem marks on her clothing, which in ancient times the Eskimo always
wore. She found the inmates of this region leading a pleasant but
somewhat monotonous life, free from hardships and from the sleet and
cold of their earthly existence. They returned to the upper world
during the feasts to the dead, when they received the spiritual
essence of the food and clothing offered to their namesakes[20] by
relatives. According to the generosity or stinginess of the feast
givers there was a feast or a famine in spirit land, and those who
were so unfortunate as to have no namesake, either through their own
carelessness[21] or the neglect of the community,[22] went hungry and
naked. This was the worst calamity that could befall an Eskimo, hence
the necessity of providing a namesake and of regularly feeding and
clothing the same, in the interest of the beloved dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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